“This house is 200 square feet and five rooms smaller than the house we moved from,” Keith Newman said.
When Keith and his wife Karen Newman moved from Escondido to Oceanside, they needed to downsize. That meant replacing a bigger couch with a smaller one.
“We found the couch that we were really excited about,” Karen said.
The couch was made of leather and just the right size, so the Newman’s bought the couch from Jerome’s Furniture in San Marcos. Eleven months after they brought it home, the couple said something wasn’t right.
“The cushions were collapsing and we couldn’t figure out what the heck was wrong,” Keith said.
Keith said he called the store and Jerome’s said they would send someone out. A Jerome’s representative came out and said they would need to replace the couch cushion. The Newman’s said the cushion was ordered but never arrived.
“Altogether, I had 26 phone conversations and three personal visits to the store,” Keith said.
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Months later, a store representative came out again to look at the couch.
“We can’t just replace this one, we’re going to have to replace them all,” Keith said, “They are all bad.”
Keith and Karen were fine with that, they said they just wanted a comfortable couch. That quickly changed though when Keith said Jerome’s called and told him the warranty had expired. The couple said they were told they would have to pay $550 if they wanted the new cushions.
“He said there’s nothing I can do, this is way out of warranty,” Keith said, “And I said, when we called, it wasn’t out of warranty.”
“They just walked away and left us,” Karen said.
Karen and Keith called NBC 7 Responds. Within three days, the Newmans were offered a replacement couch. A spokesperson for Jerome’s told NBC 7 Responds the store had overlooked the fact that when the Newmans originated their cushion complaint calls, they were still under warranty.
In an email, Jerome’s spokesperson told NBC 7 Responds, “thanks to NBC 7, we became aware of a clerical error on our part in not covering this repair under warranty when it was first reported. We gladly exchanged Mr. Newman's couch and appreciate the ability to make this right.”
