Rooms To Go - New furniture damaged, unsatisfactory response from RTG

We purchased a patio set from the Rooms to Go at the Millenia location in Orlando on January 21, 2024. Our order # is 3037****.

The items we purchased were a Pleasant Bay loveseat, club chair and wedge frame along with the cushions to go with them. Additionally, we purchased a 3 year Fortegra service contract to cover damage to all the cushions. Our total purchase was almost $7000.

The RTG crew brough out our furniture about a week later and set it up. They did a great job getting everything in place.

At no time in this process were we given instructions about the care and/or proper use of the teak furniture.

Around the 1st of March, we discovered that the undersides of the cushions that were in contact with the teak had been stained. Almost, if not all, of the cushions were affected. Its very apparent that the oils from the teak had stained the cushions.

I contacted Fortegra immediately to file a claim under our service contract. Our claim number with Fortegra was #207****.

We email back and forth, they requested pictures of the damage, which I provided. On March 12, Fortegra denied our claim stating;

Thank you for submitting your pictures. We have further reviewed your claim, unfortunately, dye transfer or other stains are not covered under your service contract. This policy only covers specific stains.

If you have further questions, please review your contract for more details, specifically the "What is Not Covered" section. Based on the contract, we are unable to approve this claim. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I then contacted Rooms to Go at their email address tellus@***.com and opened a service ticket with them. (Ticket #366382) I detailed with them the issue with the cushions.

They sent a service representative to my house on the 22nd of March. He examined the cushions, took pictures, and agreed with our estimation that the teak had stained the cushions. He indicated that he would submit a recommendation that the cushions be replaced.

After about a week, I contacted RTG at their email and asked for an update to our claim. After several emails back and forth, they have denied the claim, referring us back to Fortegra.

Their response as follows;

Thank you for your response. As we understand your concerns, we are unable to set an exchange on the cushions as we stated previously this is not covered under our one-year Rooms To Go service contract. We can only suggest contacting Fortegra to dispute the decision of your claim results or we may place the paid part order for the cushions. We are truly sorry for any frustrations this may have caused.

Please do not hesitate to contact us back should you have any further questions.

This furniture is less than 90 days old. The damage to the cushions was not caused by mishandling or misuse. This is a manufacturer defect.

We are not asking for anything unreasonable, just to make it right. I should not be required to pay for a resolution to this problem.

Please contact ASAP with a response.