No delivery on time sensitive goods.

wangtastic

Hi there,
I've order some goods from a company to build a PC for a customer, I paid for them to be shipped royal mail first class recorded a week and a half ago and they were dispatched same day.
Unfortunately they have not turned up and the company did not reply to any of my mails/calls and royal mail cannot find the item.

Due to the time sensitive nature of these goods I therefore re-ordered with another company and the parts are being delivered today.

Am I able to ask that the original company to refund me as I no longer want the goods? obviously I can't return them as I don't have them.
Their website says to wait 18days before making a claim...

thanks

arcon5

18 days seems fair to me. If they are claiming to have sent the item first class recorded then I would be concerned. The size of the computer would exceed to allowance and would need to go standard parcel which is non-trackable. Even then I wouldn't expect any firm to use royalmail for items this heavy.

Assuming everything is legit, it all depends on your contract with them -- as you are acting in a business capacity they are able to contract out certain rights -- including rights to cancel. What company is it?

wangtastic

sorry I should have clarified a bit better,
it's not a whole PC it's just a couple of components, infact the total order amounted to £10.57 and at the time the parts weren't time sensitive, however now these are the last parts I need to finish off the build.
The company is watercooling UK.

The contract seems to be the same as a consumer at least from what I can tell.

arcon5

As a consumer you have a right to cancel the order upto 7 days after receiving the item and they have to refund within 28 days of cancellation (including shipping). May be worth firing an email off to them cancelling the order, they may not even notice..

wangtastic

Many thanks for your replies you've been quite helpful, I shall see what I can do

paddyrg

For future reference, if you have time-sensitive requirements, use Special Delivery as it is handled separately from the regular mail flow - recorded is handled in the regular mail flow.

halibut2209

Doesn't the fact that this is a business transaction alter things?

The_Pedant

A B2B transaction (as Halibut mentioned by the fact to stated it's "for a customer") would be covered by the terms agreed between you & the company you ordered from. Therefore you may be bound by the terms & conditions that you agreed with (either indirectly on the website or on any paperwork you may receive). Unfortunately that means your options for returning the goods may be limited. Of course, if they are happy to declare them lost and issue a refund that is all well and good. If there is no other cancellation clause in their T&Cs then you may have to wait those 18 days.

arcon5

The_Pedant wrote: »

A B2B transaction (as Halibut mentioned by the fact to stated it's "for a customer") would be covered by the terms agreed between you & the company you ordered from. Therefore you may be bound by the terms & conditions that you agreed with (either indirectly on the website or on any paperwork you may receive). Unfortunately that means your options for returning the goods may be limited. Of course, if they are happy to declare them lost and issue a refund that is all well and good. If there is no other cancellation clause in their T&Cs then you may have to wait those 18 days.

What's written on the paperwork is irrelevant... its the pre-contractual information that counts, not whats imposed afterwards (unless provisions have been made to do so and do not put one party at a significant disadvantage).


I still think op should chance cancelling claiming to be a consumer. If he enter a 'company name' or delivered to a business address he may have trouble convincing them of this -- if they don't agree to refund that is.

HAD29

I think the OP would have problems trying to claim he was acting as a consumer in this transaction, if this is his core line of work. He would be deemed to be acting with equal bargaining power in the purchase of PC components and as such, be aware of the industry custom, precedence and practice in respect of delivery.

In so far as the Ts & Cs that cover the transaction, in terms of a website, the fact that you cannot continue with a purchase unless opting for their Ts & Cs is just the seller's way of avoiding a battle of the forms situation and making sure the buyer is under the seller's Ts & Cs. So long as the buyer had opportunity to read them before the contract was created, then those, and some implied terms (UCTA, SGA) are the Ts & Cs that apply . The Seller therefore cannot unilaterally change the terms of the contract with a subsequent bit of paper.

DSR doesn't apply to B2B, therefore any cooling off period would have to be a specific contidions within the Ts & Cs. For £10 I would take the hit, chalk it up to experience and in any dealings with companies when negotiation delivery terms, just remember to get the phrase "Time is of the essence" included.