Furnishing. A few guidelines.
If you are furnishing a property in Spain just be a bit careful. Here are a few tips.
1. Make sure the company you use is situated within 70km of your property. If something goes wrong with the delivery or subsequently, companies will be unwilling to drive from one Costa to another to sort it. This advice is based on FACT not fiction. I have had dealings with many clients who bought their furniture and electrical from companies based in the Costa Del sol (Malaga/Fuengerola) area who had items missing from their deliveries or that had things that were damaged or became faulty within a short period of time. In all these cases, the companies in question were un-willing to sort out the problems due to the distance involved. If the clients had bought locally this would have been easy to visit the store and get it sorted.
2. Use a respected and established company, there are many fly by night operators who used to be post-men, or Landlords etc etc and now are trying to sell furniture which they know nothing about, or even care about. If you cant come over and visit the actual store, check the following.
They should have a land line phone number (begins with a 9) rather than just a mobile. Ring the number a couple of times at different times and ask to speak to your contact .
3. A website with company name and address, contact numbers, map etc.
4. A CIF number (this is a business identity number).
5. If you do decide to go ahead with a company don’t pay anymore than 30% deposit initially. This will be sufficient for any established company to place the order.
6. Just be careful generally, don’t do anything you wouldn’t do in the UK.