Allure furnishing: Sent damaged furniture

Chris842

Hi,

Using rakuten.co.uk, I bought some furniture from Allure Furnishing. (rakuten is an online marketplace. They dont sell stuff themselves, but merchants like Allure do). It was a set of three: Wardrobe, chest of drawers, and a bedside cabinet. It was delivered on November 3rd, a thursday.

The following monday, November 7th, I emailed asking for an exchange of the drawers. I had already put up the bedside cabinet and just seen the state of the drawers. Chunks of wood missing, scratches everywhere, the condition was dreadful. The wardrobe also contained a damaged drawer runner and I asked for a replacement of this too.

I emailed both their sales and customerservices address, because their website made it unclear which one to use.

November 9th, they replied asking for photos of the damage, from sales address. I replied with the photos the same day.

November 19th, they asked for photos again. This time from the customerservices address. I again replied with the photos on the same day.

All my emails have been ignored, including a follow up I sent on December 1st.

Last night I posted a 1* review on facebook. Funnily enough, they replied to that really quickly. They said I havent sent the photos. (I've double checked, and I did). Also said "some customers damage items when trying to assemble and we don't accept liability for this". Its here: https://www.facebook.com/allurefurnishings/reviews/

I'm now unsure how to proceed. Send a letter of action and then small claims court? I'm not sure what the letter of action needs to say?

Shall I try and get my bank to do a chargeback?

One of their terms states something along the lines of: "When signing for delivery, you must mark the goods as damaged if they are damaged. Failure to do so will void any claim". Another says damage has to be reported within 24 hours. They haven't yet brought these up though.

There was a rip in the box but my partner was told to sign before even seeing the boxes (guy then went back to his van to get them). I've since been advised that this breaks the "unfair contract terms regulations" anyway.


Not sure if this will add a complication: The set cost £130. In my rakuten account, I had about £90 worth of loyalty points. So I paid for it with these points, and about £40 from my bank.

If I were to go to the small claims court, what should I be asking for? £130 or £40? Or something in the middle since the bedside cabinet was okay?

Thanks for any help. I appreciate it.

hollydays

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5356717

daytona0

Have you spoken to rakuten.co.uk about all of this? They may be able to help if you bought it on their site...

You can try a chargeback but I think that it might actually take money from Rakuten as they process the payment (bought a few items off them and it comes up on my bank statement as such). If rakuten dispute it then you may not have any legal ground to claim the money because you don't have the beef with rakuten.

Also, I'd imagine that their loyalty points couldn't be converted to cash in which case you'd be eligible for just £40 back onto your card (and hopefully the rest in loyalty points!)

Assuming, of course, that the seller agrees! If they don't then you may have to go down the small claims court route and dispute everything.

All in all it sounds like a right nightmare! Can't really blame rakuten as they are just like ebay really, but still not a good situation to be in.