Lucy Devine
A customer was left totally shocked when Argos sent her what she described as a 'frankensofa' with each half in a different colour because they were 'out of stock' of specific parts.
Sara Hudgell, 26, from Swansea, couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the mismatched furniture, after originally ordering the £500 charcoal Harry Right Corner Fabric Sofa from the retailer last week.
To her and husband Greg's surprise, one half of the sofa was charcoal, while the other was beige.
Sara initially thought it was a mix up with the delivery, but was even more horrified when the delivery driver said it wasn't a mistake, and she would need to speak to Argos directly.
Sara claims Argos told her she could keep it, return it, or pay to upgrade to another model. She was also offered an 'insulting' £30 compensation.
Sara said: "The last sofa we had was just a small one we got off Facebook Marketplace just to tide us over.
"We're doing the house up and we finally got round to ordering the new sofa last Monday for delivery on Saturday.
"We've been looking for a corner sofa and chose the grey one for the colour scheme we are going for and that was in our budget.
"We ordered it on Monday and it was due to arrive on Saturday. They came about midday to deliver it. It was wrapped in cardboard and polythene so we couldn't see the colour of the sofa before they brought it into the house.
"I was upstairs with the baby. Greg unwrapped one part of the sofa and saw it was the wrong colour and shouted up to me, then he unwrapped the other half and saw it was the right colour.
"We phoned the delivery guy back and said 'we think you have made a mistake and the other half of our sofa is in your van'.
"He said it would have to go through Argos - even though it was just 20 minutes since he left.
"You couldn't make it up, it's just a complete shambles."
Argos has said Sara's experience did 'not meet their usual high standards' and said they have provided a full refund for the sofa and arranged for the sofa to be collected.
Sara added: "It's just ridiculous. We were told we had the wrong half because the grey was out of stock and they couldn't provide the other half of the sofa we wanted.
"Apparently it was a warehouse error - and someone thought it was a good idea to send out two different-coloured sofas. It's just ridiculous.
"They could collect it and we would get a refund, but the refund wouldn't be issued until five working days after it's collected.
"They said they could collect it and exchange [for another sofa] and we pay the difference, and 'in the meantime he's £30 for your troubles'."
An Argos spokesperson said: "We're in touch with Sara and Greg to apologise for their experiences, which do not meet our usual high standards.
"We have provided a full refund for the sofa as well as an additional gesture of goodwill. We're also arranging for the mismatched sofa, which was delivered in error, to be collected."