Non delivery / collection - what are my rights ?

BBDom

To cut a long story short, ordered a heated towel rail online, was told it would be delivered on the 21st Sept (the site advertises free 24 hour delivery), took the day off work and obviously nothing turned up .....

Waited in the next day and still nothing, contacted the company in the afternoon who apologised and admitted they had messed it up, rescheduled for the 23rd and it turned up this time.

Towel rail not of good quality, dubious about their claim of it being a "brand name" as no warranty card or instructions (or even a manufacturers logo on the box) plus damage to the towel rail. Asked company for an exchange.

Company agreed to send a new one out for the 27th. Took the day off work (again !) to swap them over. No show from the courier.

Called company again on the 28th - nothing had been sent out so we requested a full refund - were told the damaged rail would be picked up on the 30th Sept

So on to today. I've taken another day off work, waited in all day and still nothing has been collected - the courier might turn up in the next couple of hours so keeping fingers crossed but what if they don't ?

This will be 4 days I've taken to wait in for couriers, two of which were down to the supplier messing up and not booking collections/deliveries.

If this towel rail isn't collected today, what are my rights ? Can I start a claim against the company for lost earnings for their mistakes ?

Cheers

dmg24

No, you cannot claim for lost earnings. Could you not have arranged for the item to be delivered to a neighbour/ relative/ someone not at work?

BBDom

Unfortunately not as our neighbours are not always in/available. Nearest relatives are miles away. Ironically the item was actually delivered to my next door neighbour as I had to go out - I called the company to ask where it was and was told it was on its way - noticed the neighbours car was in the driveway, left a note for the courier in case they came so this time it worked out ok (it was delivered at around 5pm !)

I am self employed so can rearrange my time to suit (up to a point) but this has really screwed things up taking this much time off to wait for couriers which have never been booked.

Now I can (just about) accept the day taken off to receive the goods and a day taken to wait in for the courier to collect the faulty goods but surely if the company who sold the goods has promised a collection/delivery date but messed it up at their end through their own incompetence then there could be redress ?

BBDom

Oh and just heard back from the company about todays collection - it has been booked but the couriers have until 6pm to collect.

Fingers crossed its not been another totally wasted day.

dmg24

No, there is no provision for consequential loss.

Would it not have been more cost effective just to go to a shop, in your free time, to buy the item?

BBDom

dmg24 wrote: »

No, there is no provision for consequential loss.

Would it not have been more cost effective just to go to a shop, in your free time, to buy the item?

In hindsight, yes. The money we saved buying it online has far been outstripped by the wasted time dealing with this company.

The main reason we bought it though is that it had a 12 year warranty and was made by a well known boiler company. It had a very good BTU rating - in excess of anything we could purchase locally and was available in a size that would make the most of our bathroom refit.

However ..........

The towel rail turned up with zero paperwork inside for any manufacturers warranty or contact details.

The towel rail was badly finished with the chrome appearing jagged around the welds.

There was a dent in the back of the rail which may or may not have happened in transit - not much of a dent (I missed it) but the wife noticed it.

Machining marks could be seen through the chrome in places.

Contacting the advertised "manfuacturer" for details of the warranty resulted in an interesting conversation with them with the bottom line being that they have never supplied this product ......

Googling the towel rails model / dimensions / barcode etc came up with absolutely nothing other than the place I purchased it from.

Poor and rude customer service when my wife rang up to try and get an exchange.

She also asked for details of the warranty / T&Cs of installation etc - she received an email with a word document attached which (and I'm not kidding you) had a copy and pasted logo from the above manufacturer (who have never supplied the product), the suppliers logo and wording saying "Here is your 12 year warranty" :rotfl:

So zero confidence in the company / product / support.

Still trying to find somewhere local which can supply - tall skinny towel radiators with high BTU outputs are a bit thin on the ground :rotfl:

BBDom

Another update ........

CityLink have just been over (yaaaay). I stood by the door watching as he got another radiator off the back of his van .....

Now we've requested this old radiator goes back and we receive a full refund - we rejected a replacement and were told we'd receive a refund. The wife has just been on the phone to the supplier and was told it was sorted by the Managing Director.

I rejected the delivery as the box/packaging for the radiator was badly damaged (photographs were taken to prove).

The courier refused to take the other radiator as he could "only swap them over" - I have no argument with the courier - they are only doing what they were asked to do so I let him take todays delivery back.

I still have this flaming original radiator !!!!

The wife has spoken with the supplier again and they want to arrange yet another collection

This is getting silly now - I am tempted to get in the car, drive the 4-5 hours up to where they are based and deliver the radiator back personally. If they are not available to take the delivery at the time I get there I will put it through their flaming window :rotfl:

BBDom

Hopefully been sorted now, they are collecting tomorrow and a full refund is being sorted.

On another note, the radiator I rejected last week has just turned up again with a City Link driver - same radiator with the same damage on the box.