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Help with DFS

cronemeister
Posts: 24 Forumite
Hi.
This evening myself and my partner went into our local DFS store to look at some new sofa's. We found something that we both absolutely loved, and whilst we were not pressured into buying anything or signing anything we agreed to a purchase which we were quite happy with. We opted for the buy now pay later option interest free for a year and signed all of the relevant paperwork. We left the store at approx 6pm and went round a few other furniture stores looking at lamps etc. To cut a long story short we found something that we both loved even more in Barker and Stonehouse. We went back to the DFS store at roughly 7.30pm and asked if we could cancel our order. Spoke to the salesman that we originally saw and he said that its been ordered, which I find hard to believe given the time of night. He said usually we couldn't cancel but would speak to his area manager before he left tonight and call me back....which he hasn't done.
Can anyone please give me any advice on whether I am now obliged to fulfil the agreement I signed, or is there some unwritten law somewhere or something similar that would allow me to cancel it.
I will be ringing the store first thing in the morning, but I find it hard to believe that an order has been put through and production started on something within a matter of an hour and a half...and at that time of night !
This evening myself and my partner went into our local DFS store to look at some new sofa's. We found something that we both absolutely loved, and whilst we were not pressured into buying anything or signing anything we agreed to a purchase which we were quite happy with. We opted for the buy now pay later option interest free for a year and signed all of the relevant paperwork. We left the store at approx 6pm and went round a few other furniture stores looking at lamps etc. To cut a long story short we found something that we both loved even more in Barker and Stonehouse. We went back to the DFS store at roughly 7.30pm and asked if we could cancel our order. Spoke to the salesman that we originally saw and he said that its been ordered, which I find hard to believe given the time of night. He said usually we couldn't cancel but would speak to his area manager before he left tonight and call me back....which he hasn't done.
Can anyone please give me any advice on whether I am now obliged to fulfil the agreement I signed, or is there some unwritten law somewhere or something similar that would allow me to cancel it.
I will be ringing the store first thing in the morning, but I find it hard to believe that an order has been put through and production started on something within a matter of an hour and a half...and at that time of night !
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Comments
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cronemeister wrote: »Hi.
This evening myself and my partner went into our local DFS store to look at some new sofa's. We found something that we both absolutely loved, and whilst we were not pressured into buying anything or signing anything we agreed to a purchase which we were quite happy with. We opted for the buy now pay later option interest free for a year and signed all of the relevant paperwork. We left the store at approx 6pm and went round a few other furniture stores looking at lamps etc. To cut a long story short we found something that we both loved even more in Barker and Stonehouse. We went back to the DFS store at roughly 7.30pm and asked if we could cancel our order. Spoke to the salesman that we originally saw and he said that its been ordered, which I find hard to believe given the time of night. He said usually we couldn't cancel but would speak to his area manager before he left tonight and call me back....which he hasn't done.
Can anyone please give me any advice on whether I am now obliged to fulfil the agreement I signed, or is there some unwritten law somewhere or something similar that would allow me to cancel it.
I will be ringing the store first thing in the morning, but I find it hard to believe that an order has been put through and production started on something within a matter of an hour and a half...and at that time of night !
You have no right to cancel - whether they have ordered or not.
You could tell them and take a letter in first thing stating you withdraw from the contract and have no intention of paying for it. They could then sue for breach of contract but quantifying any sort of losses for 12 hours is unlikely and they will probably let it drop. Also contact the finance company asap stating you are cancelling the agreement.
Ultimately you are liable to the contract but very little will happen if you cancel the finance then tell DFS to stick it as no court will award against you for 12 hours.0 -
Thanks for your prompt reply. I'm just looking at the paperwork here, the finance is provided by HFC Bank. I find it hard to believe that any finance agreement could have been arranged at that time in the day......I would have thought the departments within financial institutions that provide the decisions would close at 5pm. The other thing that I've just remembered is that I didn't have any bank details or id or anything like that with me, but I know my sort code and acc no etc which I gave him. He asked that I call first thing in the morning with my card number and expiry date for id purposes etc, if I don't provide this information will this make any difference to my contract ?0
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cronemeister wrote: »Thanks for your prompt reply. I'm just looking at the paperwork here, the finance is provided by HFC Bank. I find it hard to believe that any finance agreement could have been arranged at that time in the day......I would have thought the departments within financial institutions that provide the decisions would close at 5pm. The other thing that I've just remembered is that I didn't have any bank details or id or anything like that with me, but I know my sort code and acc no etc which I gave him. He asked that I call first thing in the morning with my card number and expiry date for id purposes etc, if I don't provide this information will this make any difference to my contract ?
1) Banks do open until 8pm/10pm/24 hours for these purposes, it could also be automated. It is almost certainly a proper agreement. However contact HFC and state you do not wish to go ahead with the finance and they should cancel it and not make any payment to DFS.
2) No it makes no difference.
Ensure the finance is cancelled then your only worry is DFS suing you, part of any compensation is they minimise losses, thus ensure you have proof you told them less than 2 hours or tomorrow morning and they wont be able to get anything back as to suggest any real losses for 12 or so hours max is ludicrous.0 -
Thanks for your speedy reply once again.
I've tried ringing HFC but their offices are closed, I suspect companies must have a specific number to contact out of normal office hours.
Surely DFS would then end up with a sofa from their supplier, and no payment for it, so they could sue me for the full cost of the sofa ??
One other thing that I meant to ask was what would happen if the finance agreement was refused due to bad credit. This won't happen but what if?....would they not check that someone is able to get the credit first before ordering ?0 -
cronemeister wrote: »Thanks for your speedy reply once again.
I've tried ringing HFC but their offices are closed, I suspect companies must have a specific number to contact out of normal office hours.
Surely DFS would then end up with a sofa from their supplier, and no payment for it, so they could sue me for the full cost of the sofa ??
DFS have an obligation to minimise their losses, so if you tell them tomorrow, how could they possibly claim it was reasonable not to cancel it etc and minimise losses, apart from that if its never delivered it can be sold to someone else on seperate terms.
Make sure you dont get caught up in a credit agreement, tell DFS to cancel the order and stuff them, if they try to sue you they will never be able to show reasonable losses to get damages.0 -
Thanks again...I added another question on the bottom, but you must have been replying to me as I was editing my post.
Can you advise on my last question/point.
Your speedy response is well appreciated....my other half is well in a flap in case she can't have the other sofa's we saw in Barker and Stonehouse !0 -
cronemeister wrote: »Thanks again...I added another question on the bottom, but you must have been replying to me as I was editing my post.
Can you advise on my last question/point.
Your speedy response is well appreciated....my other half is well in a flap in case she can't have the other sofa's we saw in Barker and Stonehouse !
A credit check and agreement will have already been set up. Frankly the credit check shouldnt be a concern as its easy to cancel the finance anyway.0 -
Just thought I would provide an update on this.
Basically, I have spoken to the salesman whom I dealt with last night earlier today, he said that he had phoned the suppliers first thing this morning and they couldn't cancel the order so there was nothing they could do. I asked him what would happen in the instance that someone taking up an interest free credit offer had their application for credit refused. He said it rarely happens as they use two finance firms, so I asked him in the unlikely event that it did what would happen....he quickly backtracked and waffled for a bit and told me he didn't have an answer for my question and got a sales manager from another office to ring me....who basically told me the same thing.
I have been in to the store this evening with a letter I typed advising them of my intentions to refuse delivery and cancel the credit agreement. I've spoken to the finance company 3 times today and they cannot find a trace of anything on any of their systems. Having returned home I received a call from DFS asking for my bank card number and expiry date for id purposes so that they could put the finance application through so I promptly refused to give them this and told them why. We have since been in to order our new suite from a different shop tonight, and coincidentally the person that we dealt with used to work for DFS...and offered us quite a good deal of information as to the inner workings which I won't go into on here. So in a nutshell we're fine. I'm still looking forward to the call I'm due to receive from the manager of my local store tomorrow ! Happy days!0 -
Surely if they do make the sofa and DFS are left with it they could put it in their next sale...:rotfl:0
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