Comet delivery ruined my floor

neilmcl

alared wrote: »

Oh yeah, I too would have stood there like a prune and watched them scrape a FF all over my wooden floor.

Yeah,yeah,yeah :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I might be an idiot for letting them do it but until the delivery was completed and signed off full responsibilty has to lie with the delivery co. :rolleyes:

KeithP

neilmcl wrote: »

...until the delivery was completed and signed off full responsibilty has to lie with the delivery co. :rolleyes:

Absolutely right, Neilmcl.

The converse is unfortunately also true.
To (almost) use your words...
Once a delivery has been completed and signed off,
the responsibilty of the delivery company has to end.

:beer:

neilmcl

Look, I made a mistake in not noticing the damage and signing the delivery sheet, I've already held my hands up to that one. All that does is allow comet to automatically deny liability, it doesn't, however mean they're not liable.

Signing the sheet does not negate the fact that the Comet delivery team DID cause the damage in question, and importantly I can prove that they did, so I should be able to get some legal recourse, surely?

smcaul

kiddy_guy wrote: »

They are trained to lift, not push.

Trust me , I know...;)

Yeah, and they always lift when they have the opportunity to push don't they!!! Jeez, get real, like almost every human being if they can find a way to do it with a smaller amount of effort then they will!!! Nice flat floor + nice rollers on bottom of FF = nice easy delivery. Simple'z!!!

cleo1299

neilmcl wrote: »

Look, I made a mistake in not noticing the damage and signing the delivery sheet, I've already held my hands up to that one. All that does is allow comet to automatically deny liability, it doesn't, however mean they're not liable.

Signing the sheet does not negate the fact that the Comet delivery team DID cause the damage in question, and importantly I can prove that they did, so I should be able to get some legal recourse, surely?

Can you prove that they did?

There was a gap between when the delivery men left and when you reported the damage to Comet -- not long, but obviously long enough for the damage to have been caused by someone else. And you did sign the sheet saying there was no damage, yet now you say there was extensive damage which you somehow didn't notice.

Most people who live with wooden floors are very, very conscious of how easily they can be damaged and how much they cost to repair. Most owners of wooden floors would stop the delivery men from damaging the floor in the first place and certainly would be watching the floor carefully to see if any damage was being caused.

So if I was Comet I would probably think "Either this guy has caused the damage himself by trying to move the freezer around after our delivery men left, or there really wasn't any damage that wasn't there before and he is just trying to get a new wooden floor and the reason he signed the sheet is because he couldn't very well accuse the delivery men to their face of having caused damage which was already there."

You might be lucky and persuade Comet to repair your floors as a "goodwill" gesture. You sure wouldn't persuade me.

neilmcl

I can prove that damage has been done to the flooring by an appliance been moved from the front of the house to the kitchen at the rear. I can prove that this damage exactly corresponds to the fridge freezer in question. Given that it was a two man job to physically lift the fridge into the kitchen and over the worktops, something I couldn't do myself, it would be unreasonable to believe I would then move the fridge freezer back out of the kitchen, which I physically couldn't, and move it back to the front of the house and repeat the whole process.

cleo1299 wrote: »

Most people who live with wooden floors are very, very conscious of how easily they can be damaged and how much they cost to repair. Most owners of wooden floors would stop the delivery men from damaging the floor in the first place and certainly would be watching the floor carefully to see if any damage was being caused.

Most people getting a fridge freezer delivered would be near the Kitchen making way for it to be moved into place and expecting the delivery team to have a good sense to know what they are doing.

kiddy_guy

smcaul wrote: »

Yeah, and they always lift when they have the opportunity to push don't they!!! Jeez, get real, like almost every human being if they can find a way to do it with a smaller amount of effort then they will!!! Nice flat floor + nice rollers on bottom of FF = nice easy delivery. Simple'z!!!

I said they're trained to lift. I didn't say it always happens.

If they'd followed procedure the OP wouldn't have any marks on their floor !

Neil - I'll drop you a PM.

slummymummyof3

Provide them with measurements showing how far apart the scrapes are from each other and demonstrate how it corresponds to the distance of the feet on the appliance. I would take photos and have a tape measure showing the measurements.

neilmcl

slummymummyof3 wrote: »

Provide them with measurements showing how far apart the scrapes are from each other and demonstrate how it corresponds to the distance of the feet on the appliance. I would take photos and have a tape measure showing the measurements.

That's exactly what I intend to do. It's a shame that in the first instance the depot manager had chosen not to investigate this properly because I'm sure if he had someone to come out it would be obvious that something has gone wrong during this delivery.

ihatecaptcha

neilmcl wrote: »

These are supposed to be the "professionals", it's not my responsibility to tell them how they should do their job and I wasn't to know any damage would ensue.

They do mention it on their website though, on a page of advice about delivery (sorry -- not allowed to post the URL):

On the day, you should ensure that:

• There is a clear path through your home,
• Your floors are covered to prevent scuffing.
• Any delicate objects are put in a safe place.

To be honest I probably wouldnt have got round to reading that bit either, but the fact that they've mentioned it, plus the unfortunate fact that you've signed the sheet, makes it pretty unlikely that Comet will cave in and agree to repair your floor out of fear of litigation. They might do so for the sake of customer relations, but probably not.

The fact that I didn't notice that they had caused damage to my flooring doesn't in itself excuse this negligence.

Very likely to mean they're not legally liable though.