Excess rooflight -help!

bumblebumble

Hello everyone,

I hope I have found the right place to ask this question, and I hope you can help.

We are in the middle of building a small one storey extension on the back of our house. We chose an expensive and lovely roof lantern to put on top to let lots of light in. When the rooflight arrived on site it turned out that it's far too big for the extension and would look frankly silly. (Size is 2m by 1.5 m and about .8m high) Measurements had not been correctly made. (The architect who specified it is a family member -there is a lesson in there somewhere!)

The company I bought it from cannot give me more than £400 refund on it because it's a 'bespoke colour' apparently (we spent an eye watering £5000 on it in the first place.).

So my question to you is: where or how might I sell this thing and get a bit more of my money back. Ebay has been suggested, but I'm not sure if that is the place to get at least a couple of thousand pounds for it. Or am I being naive to think I'll sell it for anything like that much?

Many thanks in advance.

TEDDYRUKSPIN

Yep. Ebay - fleebay. Newspaper. Own company intranet.

That is a low amount of refund. How you phoned your local trading standards?

bumblebumble

Thanks. Trading standards is a good idea. I shall give them a call.

Innys

I doubt Trading Standards will be able to help much.

Most lanterns, by their very nature are bespoke. Assuming the manufacturers followed the instructions issued by you or your architect (who was acting as your agent), you can't expect a refund if the lantern is too big.

Look at it from the manufacturers point of view.

The chances of them reselling your bespoke lantern to someone else are probably less than zero. The the only option they have is to use the lantern for spares and even then, there are probably not many parts in a lantern which can be used on another one. I'm happy to be proved wrong, however.

macman

TEDDYRUKSPIN wrote: »

Yep. Ebay - fleebay. Newspaper. Own company intranet.

That is a low amount of refund. How you phoned your local trading standards?

On what possible basis would TS be interested? The supplier is not obliged to offer you any refund whatsoever, whether the item is bespoke or not. If they do, it is discretionary and can be as low as they wish-they can offer you 50p if they are so inclined.
There is no right of refund or exchange just because you bought the wrong item, or changed your mind.
If you want to recover your expenditure, then your recourse is with the person who wrongly specified it.
All I can otherwise suggest is that you ask the supplier if they are willing to take it back into stock in the hope of reselling it, if they can do so then you can offer them a commission on the sale. Between 10 and 20% would seem about right.

Owain_Moneysaver

Having spent £5000 I'd live with it looking 'silly'.

Just think of how lovely and light the extension will be! It's a feature!!

danemi1

do you have any pictures of it???

Innys

I have had two lanterns recently installed. The largest one is around 2m x 1m x 0.5m. I don't think either of them look silly. In fact, I reckon they look the business, especially when are below them in the kitchen.

The light flooding through them is amazing and it's great to be able to look up from a room and see the sky. Just my opinion.

muskoka

sounds gorgeous. bet it would look lovely - post a pic

bumblebumble

Thanks for your comments. It doesn't sound like I have much chance of arguing the case with the company then.

Yes I agree, roof lanterns are brilliant in the right setting. It wasn't until it arrived on site that we found out the actual height of the thing. We had been assuming a different height, and with the height being nearly a metre (plus upstand and roof thickness) it would've overlapped the first floor window. Stupid us. The height also meant that it wouldn't fit round the back of the house to fit on the extension anyway, so it was never fitted (it would need a crane to take it over the roof). I have a drawing of what it would've looked like; (a bit like an alien spaceship has landed on our small 1950's terraced house), but I don't know how to put pictures on here yet.

We have got our builder to put in a flat piece of glass (at a tenth of the price) so we still have the same amount of light coming in. Just stuck with a very expensive glass pyramid sitting in the company-that-we-bought-it-from's warehouse while I think what on earth to do with it.

shirlgirl2004

£5k seems very expensive. I assume it is wood but even so I think £3k might be nearer the mark. We need one for our extension but TBH I would be looking at it being much cheaper. Why would I buy someone else's choice of colour & size when I can buy my exact choice for £3k or there abouts?