Asked to pay for replacement of faulty items!!

LLM

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone can tell me where I stand on this.

Ordered a table and 4 chairs from Debenhams online, waited 4 weeks for delivery and received them on Friday, got round to constructing them yesterday evening.

One of the chairs is broken, don't know the technical name for it, but its the wooden part that holds the seat pad bit, it's completely broken, and another chair, when we've screwed the seat pad, the wood in it appears to have crumbled and will not accept the screw.

Phoned Debenhams this morning to tell them and arrange a replacement of 2 of the 4 chairs to be told that if I want some more chairs now, I will have to pay for them, then wait for another 4 weeks delivery and they will give me a refund when they have collected the other chairs (looking at 1 week for them just to be collected from my house!!) told them I am not happy to pay for a replacement OR wait 4 weeks for some new ones.

Was later told that the chairs are actually out of stock on their website but they could check the local stores for me so they are ringing Birmingham for me to see if they have them in stock, if they are though, I will be expected to arrange collection of them still.

Really annoyed and would have expected better from a big company like Debenhams.

What are my rights and where do I stand? Are they obliged to offer a like for like replacement in the event of them not being able to provide an exact replacement?

Thanks in advance!

vax2002

I think you should have inspected them before you started screwing all, the bits together

LLM

And if I had inspected them first? They'd still have been broken!

Thank you for your 'helpful' reply!!!