Dry Cleaners lost my duvet

pdarc

Hello:

My mother is a tad upset with a dry cleaners and we wanted some advice on the best way to approach the situation?

She put in a duvet for cleaning last week and got a duvet back earlier this week. When she got home she realised they gave her back a really old and grubby duvet which doesn't belong to her.
She called them the and they said to come into the shop and to show them. She did so the next day and they pretty much were useless about the matter and didn't want to help.
She has since gone back and asked for the business owners name but they refused to provide any details about their company and the person at the shop refused to give their name.
I looked at companies house and can't find their business name. The receipt/ticket they provided (which we still have) doesn't show a VAT number. We did some research and found out that dry cleaners can belong to the Textile Services Association. But after calling this organisation we found that they were not part of that.
We don't know what to do.
Our duvet was almost new, having only been used for 4 months, but to be honest she is upset at the terrible handling of the situation rather than the money.
Is there anything we can do to make them take action, to makes things right and to teach these people that you can't just expect to treat consumers like this?
Thanks,
Pascal

halibut2209

Send a Letter Before Action giving them 14 days to pay for a replacement. Then if they don't, sue them.

Though your mother was silly for not checking in the shop

ValHaller

halibut2209 wrote: »

Send a Letter Before Action giving them 14 days to pay for a replacement.

Difficulty is that the shop are not providing enough details to sue them.

arcon5

It's not ideal to only list a trading name when issuing a county county claim, but in this instance it may be the only way - at least until the courts are involved and the sole traders name revealed. Op should then be able to add the name to the claim (for a fee).

somethingcorporate

How much is the duvet worth?

We had a dilemma about whether to dry clean our duvet, it was about £12 in the local dry cleaners. We went to Tesco and bought a new one for the same cost.

earthstorm

pdarc wrote: »

I looked at companies house and can't find their business name. The receipt/ticket they provided (which we still have) doesn't show a VAT number. We did some research and found out that dry cleaners can belong to the Textile Services Association.

Companies House will only list them if they are a Limited Company

They dont need to be VAT registered unless they reach a threshold of More than £79,000 a year

the Textile Services Association is a voluntary association so they are not obliged to join

you could check http://www.dnb.co.uk/dandb-duns-number to see if the have any details on them

hollydays

Speak to trading standards. Go and ask one of the neighbouring shops.have you actually asked to speak to the manager. It's too small an amount to sue, a waste of court time,you need to have strong words with them-when the shop is full of customers.

earthstorm

hollydays wrote: »

Speak to trading standards. Go and ask one of the neighbouring shops.have you actually asked to speak to the manager

If its a small independent shop then mostly likely not have a manager.

Most likely the store owner and 2 or 3 part time staff

hollydays

Yes, well I mean the owner.

earthstorm

hollydays wrote: »

It's too small an amount to sue,

true, even using the small claims process from moneyclaim.gov.uk would cost you £25 for the first step (you claim this back from who you sue) if this fails you can get a CCJ against them ( another £35, but you can claim back) but they ( who you sue) must admit they owe the money

Zandoni

Take it back on a Saturday morning and tell other customers when they come in. If they threaten you with the police say 'good I can show them too' They will soon want to get rid of you