Benson's for Beds - Cancellation

ryansmith87

Need some advice on a refund for a Bensons for Beds order.

Visited our local store on Sunday and ordered a new mattress. Upon ordering we asked if we could see delivery dates, but they said that their systems for delivery had gone down and they would have to get someone to call the next day to confirm earliest deliver date.

They informed us that delivery takes 1 to 2 weeks. ‘Great’ we though, we’ve got time off around the bank holiday, either side so that works fine, and we need to new mattress quickly.

After receiving the call yesterday, the earliest delivery date is actually almost 4 weeks away, on September 11th (a Friday).
First of all, surely this is unfair as we were told 1 – 2 weeks and now it’s at least 4.

We are now going to look elsewhere as we think that is unfair service. We have called both the store and the customer service helpline and they have said that there is a 20% charge for cancellation. When making the order on Sunday we were not told about this (despite asking about refunds/cancellations), and we were also not provided a copy of the Terms and Conditions of sale.

Surely they cannot enforce this as they didn’t provide us with the relevant information, and actually provided us with false information regarding the delivery times.

As it stands now, because we are away the weekend of the first delivery date (from the Friday morning), we are now going to be potentially looking at 6 weeks at least until we can get our new mattress if we are denied a cancellation.

Any help and advice appreciated.

bris

The contract was made in store so there is no automatic right to cancel, neither do they have to show you terms of sale.


What you have to concentrate on is what you were verbally told and whether or not it was definite enough to form part of the contract. This would be the delivery times was it an estimate or a guarantee? You asked about refund/cancellations, what were you told? These things are verbal and harder to prove than the order you have in front of you.

macman

Unless you stressed that delivery within 2 weeks was critical to you and a condition of your acceptance of the contract, I don't really think you have any grounds for cancellation-and the retailer can legitimately charge you whatever cancellation fee they specify in their T&C's. It's up to you to check the cancellation terms before you place the order, they are no obliged to tell you anything.
Essentially you are claiming that the product was mis-sold, which is going to be very difficult to make a case for.

BlueEyedGirl

You must have signed a paper in store to confirm you accepted the terms and conditions of the sale. I purchased a bed last week from Benson's the 2nd in less than a year and on both occasions I signed two documents confirming terms and conditions of sale and delivery. No doubt the 20% cancellation charge is written in that. I can't look since the paperwork is at someone else's house right now.

They should have given you an A4 Folder with your paperwork in. Does it not mention the delivery date given on it, even if approx.

http://www.bensonsforbeds.co.uk/terms-and-conditions

ryansmith87

BlueEyedGirl wrote: »

You must have signed a paper in store to confirm you accepted the terms and conditions of the sale. I purchased a bed last week from Benson's the 2nd in less than a year and on both occasions I signed two documents confirming terms and conditions of sale and delivery. No doubt the 20% cancellation charge is written in that. I can't look since the paperwork is at someone else's house right now.

They should have given you an A4 Folder with your paperwork in. Does it not mention the delivery date given on it, even if approx.

We were only provided the invoice that we signed. It states at the bottom that the Terms and Conditions should be attached to the invoice, which they never were.

We didn't receive anything except the signed invoice (that only outlines the pricing and the product details) and the receipt from the card machine.

2 members of staff both told us it would be 1-2 weeks delivery (we went back later to place the order, and asked both times). We also asked about the 40 day money back satisfaction guarantee, and were told that this was only on certain mattresses(not a problem), but if we did have an issue then to call the customer service line and they would likely be able to sort whatever issue we had.

unholyangel

macman wrote: »

Unless you stressed that delivery within 2 weeks was critical to you and a condition of your acceptance of the contract, I don't really think you have any grounds for cancellation-and the retailer can legitimately charge you whatever cancellation fee they specify in their T&C's. It's up to you to check the cancellation terms before you place the order, they are no obliged to tell you anything.
Essentially you are claiming that the product was mis-sold, which is going to be very difficult to make a case for.

Sorry but the highlighted part is wrong.

1) They cannot just charge what they want for a cancellation charge. It needs to be a genuine pre-estimate of their loss. If its not (or if it could be too high in some cases) then its open to being challenged as a unfair penalty - which is unenforceable in law. Theres also no entitlement to any amount they could reasonably save.

2) Its a fundamental requirement of contractual fairness that a consumer should have an opportunity to read and understand terms before being bound by them. Retailers cannot simply say "tough luck, you should have asked". If they wish to bind you to terms, they need to make you aware of them.

ryansmith87

They have now agreed to a full refund

macman

The OP did have the opportunity to check the T&C's, but they failed to ask for them...

unholyangel

macman wrote: »

The OP did have the opportunity to check the T&C's, but they failed to ask for them...

What you're suggesting is - quite frankly - ridiculous. If they wish to bind you to a term, they need to include it - and get you to agree to it.

macman

No, they do not need to get you to agree to any terms at all-are you suggesting that each time a retailer makes a sale, they should have to read the customer the entire T&C's and make them agree each clause? It's up to the customer to ask for the T&C's before they conclude the contract. The retailer clearly should have supplied a copy of the T&C's without prompting in this case, but that doesn't make the contract invalid.

unholyangel

Who said anything about making the contract invalid? It just means that those terms don't form part of the contract.

And no I'm not suggesting that at all. What I'm suggesting is that if a retailer wants to rely on a term that he has to make sure the customer has a chance to read and understand those terms before being bound by them. He cannot retrospectively change the agreement by adding terms that the consumer had no knowledge of at the time of entering into the contract.

The particular example the EU use (which is who gave us the unfair terms in consumer contract regulations) is:

Sample story

Monika rented an apartment, on a 3-year lease. But it was only when she moved in that she found out she had to use a cleaning service that charged €100 every month, on top of the rent. Sure enough there was a clause in the contract referring to a document about cleaning services. But Monika had never been given this document.

Monika searched on the Internet and found that "hidden" terms like this are unfair. She told the owner of the apartment that this additional obligation wasn't fair because she hadn't been informed of it before signing the lease - and she eventually managed to avoid that fixed cost.

As you can see, it was not Monika's fault for not asking for the terms and conditions - it was the suppliers for not giving them.