Harveys Furniture nonsense - please help!

Eek_Bears

Hi All

I'm reposting this from the Praise and Vents forum as although I got a few replies they were all along the lines "me too, Harveys never again" and I didn't get any advice (Although I did get it off my chest!)

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Ordered a Toulouse table from Harveys. When it arrived there were lots of horrible gouges in the table top. We complained to Harveys and they sent an 'independent' engineer round to have a look and see if he could repair. This guy coloured the marks in with a flipping felt tip pen!!! He said he sees loads of furniture from the Toulouse range (he said 5 per day) so obviously loads of people not happy with this furniture. The table in the shop looked great, the one delivered sucks.

The 'independent' engineer produced a report for Harveys that said the table was fine, he put in some blurry pictures taken on his mobile and then had the cheek to attach my signature to the bottom saying I was happy with the repair! :mad:

I'm obviously not happy with the felt tip pen repair but I am being ignored by Harveys customer service team. Apart from repeatedly citing the Consumer Goods Act and being ignored WHAT CAN I D0?

(Don't say buy a table cloth.... )

bod1467

Buy a table cloth.

Seriously - send them a letter before action (recorded delivery) rejecting the repair and requesting they offer a remedy under the Sale Of Goods Act. (You can request a refund if that is what you want, but they are not obliged to offer a refund - they can offer a repair or replacement). Give them a time frame to comply (e.g. 14 days) whereupon you will raise a Small Claims Court action to recover all monies paid (including court fees).

I doubt it would get that far, but getting it all in writing and showing determination will likely get them to buck up their ideas.

Eek_Bears

Thanks bod1647 for the advice and this is something I will definitely consider.
I bought the table with a credit card so I’ve tried contacting my card provider. They offered to phone Harveys and try and get them to at least respond to my complaint.
The credit card company also said I need to get an “independent report” before they can do anything. Is that right?
I don’t see the point in getting a report as
a) it won’t be able to make a comparison to the one in the shop and therefore wouldn’t be able to back up an argument about being “as described”. It will probably just say something to the effect that there are a large number of gouges in the table and it looks pretty crap
b) What if Harveys finally respond and say “yep, you’re right, that table sucks, here’s a refund / replacement”. Then I’ll have paid for a report and presumably not be able to claim that cost back?
Surely it is for Harveys to show that they have complied with the Sale of Goods Act? My interpretation of “as described” is that they are obliged to have told us at the time of purchase that these gouges could be there? If they didn’t do this and the table in the shop didn’t have them then the table is not as described.
I have asked Harveys to explain how they have complied with the Sale of Goods Act in this case and, guess what, complete lack of response. :mad:

Flyboy152

Eek_Bears wrote: »

Hi All

I'm reposting this from the Praise and Vents forum as although I got a few replies they were all along the lines "me too, Harveys never again" and I didn't get any advice (Although I did get it off my chest!)

---

Ordered a Toulouse table from Harveys. When it arrived there were lots of horrible gouges in the table top. We complained to Harveys and they sent an 'independent' engineer round to have a look and see if he could repair. This guy coloured the marks in with a flipping felt tip pen!!! He said he sees loads of furniture from the Toulouse range (he said 5 per day) so obviously loads of people not happy with this furniture. The table in the shop looked great, the one delivered sucks.

The 'independent' engineer produced a report for Harveys that said the table was fine, he put in some blurry pictures taken on his mobile and then had the cheek to attach my signature to the bottom saying I was happy with the repair! :mad:

I'm obviously not happy with the felt tip pen repair but I am being ignored by Harveys customer service team. Apart from repeatedly citing the Consumer Goods Act and being ignored WHAT CAN I D0?

(Don't say buy a table cloth.... )

Are you saying that he copied and pasted your signature to his invoice/work order, as proof that you agreed with its contents?

Flyboy152

Eek_Bears wrote: »

Thanks bod1647 for the advice and this is something I will definitely consider.
I bought the table with a credit card so I’ve tried contacting my card provider. They offered to phone Harveys and try and get them to at least respond to my complaint.
The credit card company also said I need to get an “independent report” before they can do anything. Is that right?
I don’t see the point in getting a report as
a) it won’t be able to make a comparison to the one in the shop and therefore wouldn’t be able to back up an argument about being “as described”. It will probably just say something to the effect that there are a large number of gouges in the table and it looks pretty crap
b) What if Harveys finally respond and say “yep, you’re right, that table sucks, here’s a refund / replacement”. Then I’ll have paid for a report and presumably not be able to claim that cost back?
Surely it is for Harveys to show that they have complied with the Sale of Goods Act? My interpretation of “as described” is that they are obliged to have told us at the time of purchase that these gouges could be there? If they didn’t do this and the table in the shop didn’t have them then the table is not as described.
I have asked Harveys to explain how they have complied with the Sale of Goods Act in this case and, guess what, complete lack of response. :mad:

If the buyer insists that you get an independent report, they will be liable for the costs, if it goes against them.

Eek_Bears

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Are you saying that he copied and pasted your signature to his invoice/work order, as proof that you agreed with its contents?

Yep, that's pretty much what happened. The repair guy (from a company called Servico) asked me to sign a mobile device to say he'd been. Then at some point after leaving my house he wrote up his report and stuck my signature on the bottom under a statement saying that I acknowledged the problem was resolved!

Eek_Bears

Flyboy152 wrote: »

If the buyer insists that you get an independent report, they will be liable for the costs, if it goes against them.

And what if its the credit card company who are asking?

PS: Thanks for the replies btw!

bazster

If you get an independent report then you'd best go straight for the Small Claims channel (after going through the necessary preliminaries), that way you can add the cost of the report to the amount you are claiming.

Don't give up on the credit card company yet though. In my experience some credit card companies repeatedly refuse Section 75 claims in the hope that you'll just go away, but they pay up eventually if you persist. You can also threaten the credit card company with legal action, since they are jointly liable with the retailer, and that might prompt them to behave. Do write to them though, doing everything by 'phone is useless.

Flyboy152

Eek_Bears wrote: »

Yep, that's pretty much what happened. The repair guy (from a company called Servico) asked me to sign a mobile device to say he'd been. Then at some point after leaving my house he wrote up his report and stuck my signature on the bottom under a statement saying that I acknowledged the problem was resolved!

Then there might be a strong case for an allegation of fraud against the engineer.

Flyboy152

Eek_Bears wrote: »

And what if its the credit card company who are asking?

PS: Thanks for the replies btw!

Then the retailer and credit card company is still liable. Under section seventy-five of the Consumer Credit Act, both the card issuer and retailer act with joint responsibility.