Product Discontinued mid-project

helenwink

Hi,
2 months ago i bought several packs of wooden flooring from Homebase, which was subsequently laid.
I have been online to buy an additional 18 packs to complete the project but it says there are only a few packs left dotted across stores around the country.
I called their customer services to be told that the product was now discontinued. They 'cannot' get the remaining packs delivered to my local store and i cannot order online.
I said i am left with half a completed room and was told 'nothing we can do'.
The product has not been and is still not being advertised as discontinued.
I emailed their complaints dept and asked for resolution but they just said that there was nothing they could do.
This is going to leave me £100's out of pocket as i will have to re-purchase and lay new flooring in the area i have just done!
Do I have any rights??

visidigi

No, you have no rights - they cannot have known if you had needed more than you had bought. You really should have bought enough to be able to finish the project before starting.

They haven't done anything at all wrong here...

unholyangel

I'm guessing if some of its been laid but the rest hasn't.....there are separate rooms involved? Perhaps theres a way around it?

Or is it open plan and you left the floor unfinished (going from one room to another) while doing other work?

Were the packs you bought on sale/reduced in price at all?

You may be able to source it elsewhere. Or perhaps the manufacturer will have more stock remaining they'd be willing to sell.

helenwink

I appreciate your reply but it's not what i wanted to hear :-(
I know you are right about purchasing it all at once but I couldn't afford it. I asked a person in customer services if they had plans to discontinue the product and they said no. Do they really have no obligation to inform costumers that something is end of line?
I called the supplier direct to see if i could get it from them but they said it was a Homebase exclusive product and that they discontinued it 'some time ago'.
Seems odd that the do not need to publicise that fact?

visidigi

helenwink wrote: »

I appreciate your reply but it's not what i wanted to hear :-(
I know you are right about purchasing it all at once but I couldn't afford it. I asked a person in customer services if they had plans to discontinue the product and they said no. Do they really have no obligation to inform costumers that something is end of line?
I called the supplier direct to see if i could get it from them but they said it was a Homebase exclusive product and that they discontinued it 'some time ago'.
Seems odd that the do not need to publicise that fact?

No there is no need to publicise it.

Think of it this way... I need three packs for a room, I go to homebase and buy three, leaving 50 packs behind.

Why would I need to be informed its discontinued?

Unfortunately the fact you couldn't afford the outright installation isn't a reasoning for them to resolve your situation for you.

Hopefully its not too expensive a lesson on this occasion...

DCFC79

No you have no rights in this instance.

Nilrem

Unfortunately the likes of the store/CS staff are unlikely to know if something is going to be discontinued until the store gets told they can't order any more, or the message comes down from head office that they can reduce it to clear

It's one of the problems with buying virtually anything for a decorating project, especially if you're doing it near the end of one of their 'seasons'

We've nearly had it happen to us with wallpaper and tiles in the past, fortunately it was only one last pack/roll we needed and we had about 4 stores within reasonable driving distance.

Do you know what stores have it still in stock and how many? (you might find someone able to pick some up for you and ship them if you're lucky).

marliepanda

What do you expect Homebase to do?

It could happen with anything, if I buy a ring expecting to buy a matching necklace later, can I complain when the necklace sells out?

With something like that just save up and buy the lot, as there's no benefit to buying early, just a half floored room.

hollydays

It's the same as when you buy wallpaper-you should buy it all at once because a different batch may be a different shade. Bad luck though.

cookie365

The original poster's problem could have been very simply avoided, merely by requiring every retailer in the country to get permission from anyone who has ever bought a product before they are allowed to stop selling it

mattyprice4004

So you're saying you think every retailer should warn a customer about every product that may be reaching the end of it's sale life?
Uh oh.

In other news, I hear Tesco are going to discontinue a 120g packet of ham soon. Hope they told everyone buying a pack!