Bad Experience With Hilker Shakespeare Leather Sofa Bought From Castilla Parkmalll

[kalimantan 6]

da vinci is not a good option after all the drama in china

tell us about the drama in china ...i am not aware ...

[NSK 0]

Dear Kalimantan ,

Hilker top management came to inspect the sofa himself but denied any manufacturing default and insisted the peeling of the dye is of normal wear and tear. But Spring Spore confirmed the design need improvement as it could potentially caused injury to user.

I hv brought this problem to Chairman of Hilker Germany but he is dead confidence that the sofa is safe for use, on the basis that no one else except me complained. I asked for Safety Certificate but he could not produce one . He also

supported his point by saying that many other sofa makers uses the same headrest machanism. However I tested a few and non other similar sofa produced by other makers have the steel structure for headrest mechanism so inadequately protected that he steel structure can hit the users.

Anyway, my feedback, although help Hilker to improve their design and reduce the risk of injury to users, was not taken positively as no word of appreciation came forward. In fact after awhile they ignored my emails.

As for the wear and tear , No such sofa that i previously owned had deteriorated to such conditions within a year of normal use. I do not doubt that it is not real leather. Just that the leather is not of good quality, although in Hilker 's website they assured customers that all sofa are made of 1st class materials. Please go to www.hilker1888.com , where the chairman proudly vouched personal the high quality of their product.

As to the partial refund, actually I hv returned the sofa. It is more like I having to take 50% loss for their ill designed product and learher with dye coating that easily came off. However Castilla treated this as " Gift Certiificate ". How can this be a gift fm Castilla when it was my money which they aught to refund me for selling me a product that can cause injury ? They even added salt to the wound for restricting me fm using the "gift certificate " to buy fm buy any promotional items. I saw a sofa at Castilla Studio that cost $6000+ and willing to pay additional $4000 more on top of the voucher. But they say if I use the "certificate" , I will still pay $ 6000+. So there is zero value from the "gift certificate". So it is obvious that they want to earn back maximum from me and effectively reduce the net refund they gave me.

I found out that real gift voucher with serial number can be used to buy their promotional/discounted items. For refund via their "gift" certificate, there is no serial number and all their outlets cannot accept "gift certificate " for discounted items!!

This is the policy of the parent company Furniture & Furnishings Pte Ltd, which owns Castilla Design Modern Premium, Castilla Studio, Natural Living, Novena, Furniture and Furnishings(at Suntec city). They are all likely to have same "gift " certificate refund policy since under the same group.

I felt so discriminated having to pay more than any other walk in customers who are all entitled to discount.

Eventually I paid full price for their promotion items just to use up the "refund". Can't wait to get it done with and never will walk into any of the outlets own by Furniture and Furniahings.

[kalimantan 6]

wow --first i didn't know that " ... parent company Furniture & Furnishings Pte Ltd, which owns Castilla Design Modern Premium, Castilla Studio, Natural Living, Novena, Furniture and Furnishings(at Suntec city"

I previously bought a sofa from Castilla Design Modern Premium a few years ago and up till now, nothing happen to my sofa.

Could it be a Furniture & Furnishings Pte Ltd bought over Castilla Design Modern Premium ?

I think another forum member, Dave Yap knows which sofa i bought, i can't remember the thread ..maybe when he sees this topic, he can re-paste the thread of sofa that i bought.

For the next sofa (if ever i need to buy) - probably go for branded ones, or best PM DaveYap - he can give excellent advice.

[Gloria Hilker 0]

Wow so sorry to hear you had a issue. Are you sure it was not a knock off? 

[cocohut 0]

Now Harvey Norman sells Hilker sofas