Section 75 claim with DFS?

spherewood

I bought a sofa through DFS at the beginning of March. It was delivered early July - I was not there for the delivery as I was at work, so my sister was there for the delivery.

I returned home and the sofas were awful - bad cushion covers that didn't fit, the footstool had wonky feet etc - so I phoned DFS straight away and told them I wasn't happy. They sent a rep out and he arranged for replacement cushions to be sent. I had him out once again whilst we were waiting for them to arrive as the frames had started creaking and that the fabric was stretching already. He managed to fix the creaking frame, said the new cushion covers would sort out the stretching problem and then left.

The cushion covers arrived and were snagged and still didn't fit - so they sent the rep out again. I told him I want a refund and for them to take them away as this has dragged on for two months now - I have paid a lot of money for sub-standard sofas.

He said that he would get back to me, then the general manager of the store phoned and said that they don't do refunds, only repairs. I have said that the repair wasn't suitable and the items are still not up to scratch. He has said he will come out today to view them but we will not get a refund.

I paid the £135 deposit on my credit card, will I be able to claim under section 75 of Consumer Credit Act 1974 if they refuse to resolve the situation?

SuperHan

Yes you can

spherewood

Excellent! I've been so worried about it. Will the credit company take the sofas or do we have to dispose of them? This may seem a silly question but I assume if they reimburse me they will become their property?

InsideInsurance

spherewood wrote: »

Excellent! I've been so worried about it. Will the credit company take the sofas or do we have to dispose of them? This may seem a silly question but I assume if they reimburse me they will become their property?

That will all be part of the negotiations.

IF they reimburse you in full then yes the sofas would become their property but a bank isnt going to want a set of sofa's and so will probably discuss with you what happens to them once its agreed that there is a liability.

spherewood

Do you know under what circumstances they wouldn't? Should I have gone straight to them instead of allowing DFS the opportunity to repair the faulty sofas?

InsideInsurance

spherewood wrote: »

Do you know under what circumstances they wouldn't? Should I have gone straight to them instead of allowing DFS the opportunity to repair the faulty sofas?

They are jointly liable so you have the identical rights against either party and so its your choice which you go against.

On the basis DFS have their own sofa engineers, access to materials etc then generally its best to deal with them. Banks are much more likely to ask you to get engineer reports or get quotes for things to be fixed etc as they dont have armies of people that can cover cars, sofas, computers and everything else someone can buy on credit.

Banks will defend their rights as much as the merchants will, the advantage is if the merchant has gone bust you still have another option and also they are not as emotive about matters which can be an issue for a small business.

meer53

spherewood wrote: »

I bought a sofa through DFS at the beginning of March. It was delivered early July - I was not there for the delivery as I was at work, so my sister was there for the delivery.

I returned home and the sofas were awful - bad cushion covers that didn't fit, the footstool had wonky feet etc - so I phoned DFS straight away and told them I wasn't happy. They sent a rep out and he arranged for replacement cushions to be sent. I had him out once again whilst we were waiting for them to arrive as the frames had started creaking and that the fabric was stretching already. He managed to fix the creaking frame, said the new cushion covers would sort out the stretching problem and then left.

The cushion covers arrived and were snagged and still didn't fit - so they sent the rep out again. I told him I want a refund and for them to take them away as this has dragged on for two months now - I have paid a lot of money for sub-standard sofas.

He said that he would get back to me, then the general manager of the store phoned and said that they don't do refunds, only repairs. I have said that the repair wasn't suitable and the items are still not up to scratch. He has said he will come out today to view them but we will not get a refund.

I paid the £135 deposit on my credit card, will I be able to claim under section 75 of Consumer Credit Act 1974 if they refuse to resolve the situation?

You need to wait to see what DFS offer as a resolution before going to your CC issuer. They will expect you to allow DFS to try to resolve the issue before they become involved.

This could take quite a while so thinking about disposing of the sofas is a bit premature really.

frugal_mike

meer53 wrote: »

You need to wait to see what DFS offer as a resolution before going to your CC issuer. They will expect you to allow DFS to try to resolve the issue before they become involved.

They might try and make the OP think they have to deal with DFS first, but they don't have the right to insist on that. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act makes the credit provider jointly and severally liable for the contract. You don't have to approach the retailer at all if you don't want to, although as pointed out it probably makes sense to.

But since OP appears to have exhausted options with DFS then going to the credit card provider makes sense now.

I would also question tge legality of DFS saying they only offer repairs, not refunds. If the goods are not accepted then they can't refuse a refund if they are in breach of contract. As this appears to be a dispute that started immediately after delivery and was never resolved then I would argue they aren't accepted yet.

InsideInsurance

frugal_mike wrote: »

I would also question tge legality of DFS saying they only offer repairs, not refunds. If the goods are not accepted then they can't refuse a refund if they are in breach of contract. As this appears to be a dispute that started immediately after delivery and was never resolved then I would argue they aren't accepted yet.

If the OP had stood their ground initially and insisted on rejecting the goods then they would certainly have had the rights to a refund.

I could be wrong but I thought that case law indicated that by allowing a merchant to attempt repair on an item was deemed as acceptance of the goods and thus meaning the repair, replace, refund decision does become the retailers choice

frugal_mike

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I could be wrong but I thought that case law indicated that by allowing a merchant to attempt repair on an item was deemed as acceptance of the goods and thus meaning the repair, replace, refund decision does become the retailers choice

Well I don't know about case law, but under Section 35 (6) of the Sale of Goods Act:

The buyer is not by virtue of this section deemed to have accepted the goods merely because—

(a)he asks for, or agrees to, their repair by or under an arrangement with the seller, or

(b)the goods are delivered to another under a sub-sale or other disposition.

InsideInsurance

frugal_mike wrote: »

Well I don't know about case law, but under Section 35 (6) of the Sale of Goods Act:

Statute that flies in the face of it would over rule case law. Only when you get into the interpretation of statute does case law come back into the picture