Cancelled an order, threatened with court action

Royale_Knight

Hi
New to the forum and am hoping someone can help me with an unpleasant situation

I recently ordered some vinyl tiles and their fitment after a house appointment with a shop estimator and paid a 30% deposit to him with an agreement that the rest of the money be paid the day before the fitters came.

Two days before the fitters were due i rang the tile company up and said i couldn't make it to the shop the next day to pay because i would have noone here to look after my husband (he has dementia). The woman i spoke to said i could pay by credit card but this was not an option as i do not have one. I offered to pay the fitters when they were due but she flatly refused this so i said i want to cancel the order. She then said this was not possible because 4 days were needed to cancel the fitters, to which i said it states 2 days on the invoice the shop estimator gave me. I then put the phone down as i could tell she was very hard nosed and would not compromise on the situation.

Now yesterday, about a week after the phonecall i got a letter from the tile company threatening court action if i didn't pay the rest of the money (around £500). I appreciate fitters may had to be cancelled but i did hand over a deposit initally and gave notice, albeit slighlty under 2 days (40 hours to be precise).

Who is in the right. If it went to a small claims who is likely to win?

TIA

wealdroam

Royale_Knight wrote: »

Hi
New to the forum and am hoping someone can help me with an unpleasant situation

I recently ordered some vinyl tiles and their fitment after a house appointment with a shop estimator and paid a 30% deposit to him with an agreement that the rest of the money be paid the day before the fitters came.

Two days before the fitters were due i rang the tile company up and said i couldn't make it to the shop the next day to pay because i would have noone here to look after my husband (he has dementia). The woman i spoke to said i could pay by credit card but this was not an option as i do not have one. I offered to pay the fitters when they were due but she flatly refused this so i said i want to cancel the order. She then said this was not possible because 4 days were needed to cancel the fitters, to which i said it states 2 days on the invoice the shop estimator gave me. I then put the phone down as i could tell she was very hard nosed and would not compromise on the situation.

Now yesterday, about a week after the phonecall i got a letter from the tile company threatening court action if i didn't pay the rest of the money (around £500). I appreciate fitters may had to be cancelled but i did hand over a deposit initally and gave notice, albeit slighlty under 2 days (40 hours to be precise).

Who is in the right. If it went to a small claims who is likely to win?

TIA

We need some timescale here.

What date did you place the order?

What date did you cancel?

Do you not have a debit card you could've used over the phone?

Could you not have gone to the shop to pay the balance at anytime between placing the order and phoning them two days before installation?

Frankly, I feel that as you have broken the agreement you made, you may find it difficult to avoid the payment they are asking for.

Less than two days is very short notice.

oldoakey

It seems to me like you have broken the contract you made when you agreed the price and terms and gave the company a deposit.

The company concerned may have lost out due to the goods being ordered in for the job as well as the fitters cancellation., so in my mind you would not win the case - especially if the retailer has it in their terms that deposits are non refundable, as we have in ours.

Why not just simply ask for the job to be re arranged and allow them to complete the works, you will then have your new floor and they will have the profit as expected.

spacey2012

Totally wrong.
The shop is not entitled to charge for work it has not done.
In fact the very opposite, the shop is only entitled to keep a portion of the deposit it can justify as a loss.

wealdroam

spacey2012 wrote: »

Totally wrong.
The shop is not entitled to charge for work it has not done.
In fact the very opposite, the shop is only entitled to keep a portion of the deposit it can justify as a loss.

Well I will not be quite so arrogant, but if the seller has already agreed to employ subcontract fitters to carry out the work in question and that expense is not recoverable from them under the terms of that agreement, then the OP is liable for that expense, even if the deposit does not fully cover it.

Yes there are some 'if's in there, but nothing that was said earlier is 'totally wrong'.

spacey2012

Who pays floorlayers for work they have not done, it is a ten a penny trade.

Royale_Knight

Thanks to all so far for taking time out to reply

Just to clear a few things up, the order was placed on Wednesday 3rd July, fitment was arranged by phone on the following Tuesday (9th)morning for Thursday morning 11th July. I cancelled on the same Tuesday afternoon (9th) .

Also i was given an invoice when the order was placed (3rd) which states my order and payment amounts. On the back of it is The Terms Of Sale, last of which is

"At least 48 hours notice is required for any cancellation of fitters appointment. We reserve the right to charge for abortive time"

This invoice has not been signed by me, it states it only requires a signature when the work has been carried out to my satisfaction. So basically what i am saying is without a signature i have not agreed to their terms of sale so how can the 2 day notice term stand up in court?

I dont want to pay £500 for work that has not been carried out.

artbaron

I doubt small claims would judge in favour of further payment but I'm reasonably sure you wouldn't get your deposit back if you made a counter claim. I don't understand why you cancelled in the first place, it sounds like you just changed your mind about the work and used the payment as an excuse. It's not reasonable to expect the fitters to find another job to fit into that slot with only a day and a half's notice so on that grounds the shop can retain your deposit.

That said, any firm that requires full payment before the job is done is a likely to be a cowboy outfit, so maybe you're better off now than you would otherwise have been.

EDITed for the above post: You entered into an agreement with them when you gave them the deposit. An agreement doesn't require a signature. Quite what the terms of that agreement were is another matter but in the absence of specifics it would likely be deemed to be whatever was reasonable for the circumstance. Which brings us back to you losing your deposit but not being liable for work not done and products not received.

spacey2012

Any terms or policies do not exclude your legal rights.

They can only keep what they can justify as a loss.
Upfront payments are highly unusual in trades and any shop or trades person worth anything would only ask for full payment upon satisfaction of the customer.
The fact they demanded payment upfront does not install any confidence of the shop.
had they have agreed to make a reasonable adjustment given you are caring for a disabled person and collected payment on the date, they would have been no problem.

I would reply demanding return of the Deposit in full and stating you are more than happy to meet them in any court where you will counter claim it back.

The reason they would not let you pay the fitters is because they are most likely a couple of fly by night subcontractors they don't trust themselves to cash handle, plus they would know the shop had been paid and want their share.
Nobody pays people for work they have not done in the flooring "trade" people are out of work and take what they can.
I would say if they do issue a claim it will be the best thing for you, as you are likely to get the deposit back in a counter claim.
Any shop owner foolish enough to turn up at court stating they had paid fitters for work they might do in two days time, better take a tooth brush and a pair of pyjamas.

arcon5

spacey2012 wrote: »

Totally wrong.
The shop is not entitled to charge for work it has not done.
In fact the very opposite, the shop is only entitled to keep a portion of the deposit it can justify as a loss.

And their losses may include the wages of the fitters who due to ops short notice didn't have any other work and still had to be paid.

They shouldn't be charging for the tiles though, since they can resell them.

bris

spacey2012 wrote: »

Totally wrong.
The shop is not entitled to charge for work it has not done.
In fact the very opposite, the shop is only entitled to keep a portion of the deposit it can justify as a loss.

You couldn't be more wrong if you tried, the contract has been broken the op will have to pay, learn about contracts before posting such rubbish again.