Argos Fridge Damaged! help needed...

Madfish

Today we received a brand new fridge freezer from Argos, it was £339.00 delivered plus £10 to remove our old unit. The delivery drivers left it in the kitchen with all the packagig on and asked my wife to sign for it. She asked them if there would be any problems should it be scratched and they said they said if so we would need to contact Argos. Of course as soon as it was unwrapped it looks like it has fell off the lorry and is dented and damaged internally. Argos arranged a new unit for next Thursday (we paid extra for 3 day delivery!). However this afternoon they contacted us and said 'choose another' as we no longer have any more in stock, the problem is the nearest one to the same size colour and cubic size is over £100 more. Argos will not price match and will only collect and refund. Thats fine I told them but I want my old one back as it was working fine but not big enough, well thats tough they told me its gone and I cannot have it back. This means I now have no fridge freezer when they come to pick up the faulty one.

None of this is my fault. I will be loosing food that will become inedible all due to Argos. If the drivers had bothered to wait the few minutes it took to unpack they could have took it back straight away. As it is I am now stuck with a huge damaged fridge with all the packaging and my old one scrapped. Surely Argos must supply a similar spec model at the same price if they cannot return my old one. Any advice, is it worth calling Trading Standards?

cattie

No, they don't have to supply you with an alternate at the same price you paid. As long as they have offered you a refund then they are in the right.

Before signing for goods, the onus is always on the buyer to check that the item is undamaged before signing, it will be in the terms & conditions of delivery somewhere. Very few of us do check or even get the opportunity, but the majority of companies will collect & refund with a damaged item regardless.

Unfortunately, your old fridge freezer will be in the graveyard by now so Argos won't be able to bring it back to you.

Your best option is to shop around & find a company that has the size & price you want & can deliver quickly.

I do have sympathy for you as I was in a similar situation last mid December (Not Argos though) & was left with no fridge freezer until Mid January, when I had to cough up over £100 more to secure a similar model but different brand from John Lewis.

ThumbRemote

If you are rejecting the goods, this is described in the Sale of Goods Act as rescission of contract. In this case you must be put back into the same position you were before the contract was taken out.

So it all boils down to whether you had one contract with Argos, to supply a new fridge and remove the old one, or two separate contracts. Personally I'd argue it was one contract as you would never have got them to remove the old fridge otherwise.

Given that you need a fridge pretty quickly, and Argos aren't going to bring your old one back, you're in a position of claiming against them for your losses. In this case you can probably claim against them for the extra amount it costs to buy an equivalent fridge from elsewhere, due to their breach of contract. Maybe pointing this out will encourage them to do a deal, or maybe you'll have to claim against them in the small claims court.

ThumbRemote

cattie wrote: »

Before signing for goods, the onus is always on the buyer to check that the item is undamaged before signing, it will be in the terms & conditions of delivery somewhere. Very few of us do check or even get the opportunity, but the majority of companies will collect & refund with a damaged item regardless.

This is quite incorrect. The sale of goods act gives you a reasonable time to inspect the goods - you do not sign away your rights when you sign to say it's received.

Madfish

Thanks for the advice. The adviser I spoke too was very nonchalant about the whole thing. However as Trading Standards were not available to call I looked up another fridge although not my first choice and managed to get through to a helpful person. We will be getting a new one on July 18th but at least we are getting one and its's slightly cheaper. As per the discussion though, my contract states I would purchase a Freezer for £339 and they would remove my existing one, had the drivers waited for us to unwrap it (Argos customer service were a bit perturbed by this!) we would not have accepted it and kept our existing one so i'm sure if we wanted to push it further the law would be on our side. Thanks for all the replies!

look4abargain

Glad it is all working out ok now. Lesson to be learned here is always check goods before signing. I know it annoys the delivery drivers but it can save an awful lot of hassle in the long run.

shaun_from_Africa

Even if you did inspect the goods before signing for them, (which as already pointed out is a totally unenforceable term in the T&C's), this will only allow you to do a physical inspection on the appliance.
You will still have no way of knowing if it is functioning as it should.

look4abargain

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Even if you did inspect the goods before signing for them, (which as already pointed out is a totally unenforceable term in the T&C's), this will only allow you to do a physical inspection on the appliance.
You will still have no way of knowing if it is functioning as it should.

Yes this isn't perfect and you may find the goods still faulty at a later date, this is why we have consumer protections. However a quick look over the item before signing would have prevented the troubles outlined in the OP as it was a cosmetic problem.