Unhappy furniture owner wants compensation after chair cuts off his toe

WARNING: Graphic content. Five months after suffering his horrific injury, Mark Bulman hasn’t received any compensation. The product’s still on sale.

MARK Bulman’s kitchen chair chopped off his toe.

That was more than five months ago. He reported what happened to the retailer, Fantastic Furniture. It was apologetic, but has not withdrawn the Worx chair from sale.

Mr Bulman, of Fairfield West, was coming to the aid of his crying toddler Nate when he bumped into the $39 seat and tripped. His toe got trapped in the inner side one of the legs and, as he fell, the sharp metal edge sliced it off.

“You wouldn’t think a chair was a danger but the bottom was very sharp,” Mr Bulman said yesterday.

The aftermath ... the chair that chopped off Mark Bulman’s toe. Picture: Supplied

His foot aches every night and he can’t run properly.

“I’m still not used to having no toe,” Mr Bulman said. “You expect to feel something and you can’t; but there’s a phantom feeling.”

Mr Bulman is seeking compensation from Sydney-based Fantastic Holdings, a sharemarket-listed company with sales of nearly $500 million last financial year. Both he and his lawyers said a precise compensation figure is yet to be determined.

“I’m missing a toe out of this,” Mr Bulman said. “In a way I know that’s not much. But it’s my toe.”

Shine Lawyers’ Fairfield branch manager James Saba said he believed the chairs were not “fit for purpose” in accordance with the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

“We are concerned about other families who may have this chair in their home, or businesses who are using these chairs,” Mr Saba said.

“If you are using these chairs, consider covering the trapping point in the legs of the chair to ensure this doesn’t happen to you or any of your loved ones.”

The missing toe (pixilated image).

Mark with the offending chair.

The ACL is enforced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Last night a spokeswoman said: “The ACCC is currently looking into the matter and will assess the product for possible hazards, manufacturing faults or design defects.”

A NSW Fair Trading spokeswoman also said it would investigate.

The official Australian Standard for fixed-height chairs says: “There shall be no sharp projections or other features that constitute a risk to users or other persons moving in the vicinity of the chair.”

However, adherence was voluntary, said Australasian Furnishing Research and Development Institute CEO Bob Panitzki.

Only items such as children’s cots had mandatory requirements, he said, while office chairs were often certified by organisations such as AFRDI at the request of employers.

“It was a really unfortunate accident,” said Fantastic Holdings compliance manager Judith Robinson. “It’s with our insurance company. That’s the process. It’s getting handled.”

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Originally published as Unhappy furniture owner wants compensation after chair cuts off his toe