HELP PLS? Wardrobe delivered damaged...

C2009

Hi everyone

I was wondering if anyone can help me?

We bought a wardrobe and chest of draws from HOMEBASE. When we had nearly finished putting the wardrobe together (ie hanging the first door) we noticed it had scatches on it. On checking the second door was the same. It has taken us so long to put it together and we had to move the bed etc to even have to even have the room to put it together (plus I have a bad back and depression/apparently a personality disorder and someone had to babysit our toddler for us). My husband suggested asking them for money off instead of new parts because of the trouble it would cause us storing the doors, waiting for the new parts, moving the bed back then out again, finding a baby sitter....
He knows I'm a bit of a perfectionist but i reluctantly agreed because I knew I wouldn't be able to manage going through all of that work again

It was Saturday. He rang Homebase, who told him to ring Argos, who told him to ring Homebase until he explained he all ready had. He explained the scratches and was offered £30 off straight away instead of replacement doors (I guess thats about how much a second delivery would cost them!). We said no to £30 because there is no way we would have bought the furniture marked if it only had £30 off. He was told a manager would call him back the next day (Monday) or Tuesday.

They didn't call back. Husband rang them several times from work but had to hang up after waiting in a que so long.

Today he got hold of someone. They have offered to refund £50 and said usually they'd only refund 10%. (The £50 is slightly more than 10%).

Would you accept this? Do you think this is a fair amount? I've googled to try to look for other people having similar situations with Homebase/Argos to see if they managed to get a better deal but I haven't been able to find anything.

Thanks (sorry this is so long). I'd be very greteful for any advice, I think we deserve more knocked off because I wouldn't have bought it like it is, but it's our fault not theres that we'd find it so difficult to remove those doors, dispose of them, have more delivered and have to put the long handles on (that was difficult!) and hang them again. It's not there fault I get upset quite easily, but as I said, we wouldn't have bought them for £50 less had we known they'd be scratched.

Claire

Elle7

I guess it comes down to that if you returned the whole set, the company would send them back and wouldn't lose any money themselves.
Whereas having to refund you does leave them out of pocket.
How bad are the marks? You'll have to decide if they are bad enough to warrant removing everything and sending it back, or waiting for new doors. If they aren't, accept the £50. If they are dreadful, make arrangements to send it back.

You don't say how much it cost, but if £50 is 10% then around £500? For that much I'd send the whole lot back and buy better quality furniture from elsewhere. You might even find that they will install it for you, to save you the hassle.

C2009

Hi thanks for your reply. It was about £500 but not a huge fitted wardrobe or a really cheap one. We can't really afford to spend more, my office closed and I lost my job while I was on maternity leave! But we had canvas wardrobes for the last 8 years and couldn't keep our toddler out of them so decided we really had to do something.

Elle7

C2009 wrote: »

Hi thanks for your reply. It was about £500 but not a huge fitted wardrobe or a really cheap one. We can't really afford to spend more, my office closed and I lost my job while I was on maternity leave! But we had canvas wardrobes for the last 8 years and couldn't keep our toddler out of them so decided we really had to do something.

Noo I didn't mean that to read like I was suggesting you spend more!! Just that for £500 you'd get much better quality furniture then what they've given you...even for £450 you'd get much better, so their offer really isn't good enough. I wouldn't take it, personally.

I know places like M&S fit the furniture for you, if they've got anything you like? That'd save you all the hassle again.

arcon5

The options are really quite simple:

- accept the money back and move on. Whether £50 is acceptable or not completely depends on how visible/severe the damage is. By all means try negotiate upwards, other other options:

- reject it under the sales of goods act and get a full refund. They should pay to have it collected. (Your able to reject goods within 'reasonable' time so depends how long you have had it..

- ask them if they have a replacement panel. If not or they refuse refer to above options

Lip_Stick

I bought a wardrobe from Argos (is it the same parent company?). A door had something wrong with it. They said they'd have to deliver a new wardrobe but I told them it was put together practically and they said I could just exchange the door when the full wardrobe came. It saved the delivery guys lugging a complete wardrobe up.

The same happened with a sofa I bought and one of the backs not being up to scratch (forgive the pun). They bought the full sofa but I was allowed to just exchange the one bit that was wrong with it.