Over the years I've spent a considerable amount of money on Dwell furniture, particularly their sofa's, made from leatherette. Last year I bought a 3 seater which was perfectly fine, up until a couple of months ago when the leatherette started cracking along the creases. Being just a few weeks over a year old, I contacted Dwell straight away, wherein their customer service rep informed me as I had not reported any fault within the first 30 days, then it wasn't a manufacturing fault. I contested this and as a result, was offered the services of a supposedly 'independent' assessor called HomeServe for a fee of £25. I happily paid it as I am certain a sofa should last longer than 12 months, and they attended several weeks later. The first thing they asked me on arrival was what had I cleaned the sofa with? I told them nothing since the sofa hadn't needed cleaning, had no stains, and wasn't dirty. It was used in the evenings only for a couple of hours after work as I have a much bigger sofa for lounging on. Also, being a bit of a clean freak my flat is largely a show flat, with nothing out of place, including dirt. Little did I know that this would translate as the cracks being my fault for not maintaining the plastic leatherette or nourishing it. I hadn't been aware that plastic needed nourishing in any way, like real leather, but there you go. I also wasn't aware that you needed to clean furniture that didn't need cleaning in order to stop it from deteriorating over the first 12 months. I heard nothing from Dwell in connection with their findings until a few weeks later when I chased for a response and was fed back the report. In the report, the advisor who attended stated: "I have inspected the issues and found that they are not manufacturing-related and have explained my findings in full to the customer. They do not accept my explanation". This was a complete untruth. I had asked him his opinion, which he gave, and I didn't express an opinion either way. Furthermore, not really understanding, or bothering to read the results of the report properly, the customer service rep said in her response: "As this has been deemed as an invalid claim due to the incorrect cleaning products being used, this is not something we will be able to assist with further I am afraid and we must respectfully advise you will need to seek advice elsewhere." I'm frustrated. If you buy a sofa and mistreat it then there's every chance you will cause damage. However, if you buy a sofa and you don't clean it because it doesn't actually need cleaning, one would hope it would last longer than 12 months. For this damage to be occurring after 12 months of light usage, to me, means poor quality goods that are not actually fit for purpose. Shame on Dwell for trying to brush this under the carpet, or blame me for their substandard product. Obviously, they have lost a customer and I won't be buying from them again. And, if you are in the market for a new sofa people, think twice before you spend your hard-earned cash. You really should be getting more than 12 months' use out of it, otherwise, it's just money down the drain!