Dunelm (Soft Furnishings) Limited - unpaid County Court judgement debt

GraceCourt

I appreciate that I will eventually get my money, but I thought I ought to pass on a word of warning about buying on-line from Dunelm (Soft Furnishings) Limited and about the arrogant disregard that the company's staff seem to have for their legal obligations.

This company failed to deliver goods to us in May, which meant they were in breach of the sale contract. Despite the fact that the goods ordered were in stock at every one of their branches that we checked, the ridiculous system that they use for delivery meant that the goods weren't even despatched until well over two weeks after they were ordered, despite a number of lengthy telephone conversations with Customer Services staff in which we tried, unsuccessfully, to have despatch brought forward.

Anyway... on to the real point of my post. As a consequence of the issues described above, we tried to negotiate a reasonable settlement with the company, but all that was offered was a 20% discount off our next order (notwithstanding, of course, that we would never order goods from them again!). We had already made it clear that, in the absence of an agreed settlement, we would commence County Court proceedings to recover our costs, but they still refused.

Long story short, we did commence proceedings, and obtained judgement for a total of over £650 including Court fees... they had already paid £150, so that left just over £500 owing. But despite having received regular contact from us through the course of the dispute, including all of the details of the Court judgement, they refused to pay any more, because they claimed they knew nothing at all about any proceedings!

I pointed out that their correspondence was being sent from their Manchester offices, but their registered office - where all legal documents, including the Court summons, were served - is in Leicester... maybe it was time for staff in the two offices to talk to each other? But, no joy...

A few weeks ago I contacted them again, pointing out that the only course of action remaining was for us to enforce the judgement debt by applying to the Court again, this time for a warrant to enable the bailiffs to collect the unpaid judgement debt... no response! So, the application was duly made, the warrant was issued by Leicester County Court, I wrote to advise Dunelm of this, and... yes, the Manchester office responded stating that they hadn't received any notification from the Court!

I did respond, pointing out that they wouldn't receive any paperwork from the Court about the warrant - just a visit by bailiffs from Leicester County Court to collect the debt - now over £600! - or to seize assets or stock if they didn't pay up, but now Dunelm doesn't even respond to my correspondence any more - all I get are automated confirmations of my messages (three at a time, because I am now sending to multiple e-mail recipients to make absolutely sure they can't claim non-receipt!), but now I receive no substantive responses at all.

Maybe their Customer Services ought to be renamed "Customer Disservices"? But seriously, if this is typical of the company's response to complaints, I pity the majority of complainants, i.e. those who would probably not have the confidence to take them to Court.

It's the old story - it seems that it's cheaper for Dunelm to (eventually) pay the people who sue them and get County Court judgements, than to actually provide a decent service in the first place, or to do something about complaints before any disputes are escalated to the County Court.

So, if you know anyone who works in Reception at the Leicester offices of Dunelm (Soft Furnishings) Limited, I'm afraid you ought to tell them that they are about to get a nasty shock when the bailiffs arrive, some time real soon... :shocked:

tomtontom

If they have not received any paperwork they may apply to have the court order set aside. What address did you send the papers to, Fosse Park or Syston? Have you tried calling them at Leicester?

GraceCourt

tomtontom wrote: »

If they have not received any paperwork they may apply to have the court order set aside.

It's extremely unlikely that any application for "set aside" by the judgment debtor could now succeed, as judgement was given a number of weeks ago, and the debtor has ignored all of my correspondence requesting settlement of the debt. District Judges are allowing very little latitude to applicants who fail to comply with Rule 13.3(2) CPR 1998:
In considering whether to set aside or vary a judgment entered under Part 12, the matters to which the court must have regard include whether the person seeking to set aside the judgment made an application to do so promptly.

tomtontom wrote: »

What address did you send the papers to, Fosse Park or Syston? Have you tried calling them at Leicester?

The Notice of Claim was served, as usual, by the issuing Court and not by me as the claimant, in compliance with Rule 6.9(2) CPR 1998 and Section 1139(1) Companies Act 2006 at the judgment debtor's registered office at Watermead Business Park, Syston, Leicester, LE7 1AD. Given the correspondence between the parties prior to the commencement of proceedings, and subsequent to the issue of the claim by Northampton County Court (which included the claim number and details of the Court), nothing whatsoever could have been gained by a telephone discussion, which - unless recorded - would have had no evidential value whatsoever.

Frankly, I'm amazed that the company has allowed the debt to increase by ignoring correspondence and apparently hoping that it would all go away - for example, the Court fee for the warrant added yet another £100 to the debt to be collected by the bailiffs from Leicester County Court.