Homeowner furious at furniture company who left sofa wedged on the stairs

A homeowner has been left furious after a furniture company allegedly abandoned a jammed sofa on their stairs.

Luke Ansell from Bournemouth forked out £2,000 for his new couch. He claimed that the delivery men assured him that they made tight deliveries "all the time", but failed to get the new piece of furniture up the narrow staircase – and allegedly gave up.

Photos of Luke's new property showed the damage left behind, with huge holes in the plasterwork and damage to the woodwork.

Many compared the mishap to the iconic episode of Friends, whichsawthe characters failing to "pivot" the furniture on the staircase.

Luke says he refused to sign the delivery forms after they recommended cutting off his bannisters and then insisted that they had to leave so they could get home to the company's offices in Birmingham on time.

He says the company later rejected his account of events when he complained, with the delivery men allegedly denying they ever tried to get it up a staircase - despite Luke having photos of them at the scene.

Newlywed Luke, who runs a pet grooming service 'For The Love Of Dog' with his wife Elouise, said that the service was "shocking".

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

SWNS

"Honestly it was unbelievable, the sofa was over £2,000 and they caused about that much damage delivering it," he said. "They got here and I showed them where I wanted it upstairs. I said that it looked quite tight, but they assured me that they do tight deliveries all the time.

"I just said 'oh well you're the experts' - they are a delivery company after all so I just left them to it."

Despite struggling to get it over the bannister, they eventually got it in. "Then it got jammed, they couldn't get it up or down. They said 'look we've got to get back to Birmingham' and tried to leave. They asked me to sign for the delivery - but I refused."

After a back-and-forth, they allegedly suggested cutting away the bannister to get it out.

"It's a brand new house that we had just bought for half a million, and now we have to have the work done to repair it," Luke said. "Then they just left it there and went back to Birmingham. The drivers also said they didn't even try to get it up the stairs, but I have actual doorbell footage of them after they delivered it to my house."

SWNS

The company based in Birmingham told the BBC it was carrying out an "interval investigation".

The BBC says the firm emailed Luke disputing his version of what happened - claiming the sofa had been "left in a safe place on the landing".

It offered to replace the damaged sofa as a "goodwill gesture".

Credit: SWNS, who reached out to the furniture company for comment.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.