Am I entitled to discount for very poor service?

hippey

Do you have any paperwork for the order? it could be argued that this has been an unreasonable amount of time for this door to be fitted therefore could give rise to claim for breach of contract. But you need to have basis for this, maybe taking time to wait in for repairs to the door perhaps making lots of calls to get the situation fixed .

In the first instance I would discuss this with the vendor, then put it in writing. Apart from that it would have to be a court job.

Paul_the_Painter

Seems they've been fairly slack so far, why not wait until they've got the lock sorted, then see if they even bother to ask for the £900? If they do ask for the cash, send a cheque for say £800 in full and final settlement in regard to the unreasonable wait for the correct lock. Can't see them trying anything other than a couple of letters, £100 is not enough to bother going to court over.

barvid

While I certainly agree the service has been shocking, from what you say, you won't find a handy bit of legislation that gives you a *right* to a discount. You'll have to negotiate one with them and see what you can agree.

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

Any locksmiths in the house?

The MIL recently had the door bar replaced on her double glazed door whilst I was there.. They had to hold the handle up in order to turn the key... The locksmith advised this was as a result of poor fitment / adjustment and by doing that there was just additional stress being placed on the mechanism..

One new door bar later and everything is slick as new (no more holding up the handle whilst turning the key) - The door bar did need replacing as I sure the shattered shards of metal fall out whilst we tried to fix outselves :-)

miss_independent

OP, I'm beginning to think we got our door from the same company as you!

We had, a) a door fitted that we didn't order (i.e the complete wrong style - completely different from what we ordered and picked in the brochure!)
b) the door frame was initially very loose and you could easily knock it down as it shook. It was re-fitted and still shakes badly.
c) Many, MANY problems with the lock - like you we have to use the keys all the time, the handle is very stiff when you lift it and several times we have had to get the fitters back out to "fix" it meaning someone in the family had to take time off work on more than one occasion as otherwise we would have had to leave our front door open as we couldn't get it shut. We too had requested one that locks without keys like you.

The outcome of it all is as follows - we are stuck with the door and the locks. They denied we ordered a different door. They said we couldn't have asked for a lock which you don't need keys for as they don't use them. It was only after getting a surveyor out that they re-fitted the door (but same door and same lock!). We think it was a case of the salesman promising everything to get the job but then not being able to deliver or losing the paperwork he filled out with us and relying upon his memory (which was wrong!). So, to sum it up, unfortunately I doubt that you are entitled to a discount. It would be a goodwill gesture if you were offered one. Hope you manage to get it sorted and sorry for the unhelpful replies from some MSErs!

bigpat

Thanks everyone for valuable input. Consensus seems to be I don't have a right to anything here, but I could well get something if I ask. They're friendly, polite, apologetic and all the rest of it, so maybe they'll be very open to the idea that you have to offer compensation if only to protect your local reputation. While that's not exactly a veiled threat, I certainly wont be recommending them to anyone, unless they can offer me some financial incentive to accept that this case was not, shall we say, characteristic of how they normally do business.

bigpat

Hi miss_independent. Your case does sound similar, though I have to admit, WORSE. Our door at least is nice and tight-fitting, looks very well, no draughts, reduced road noise from outside, everything we were promised. Except for the lock. Yours sounds like a shocking case. Had you paid upfront, or were you able to keep some money back?