Return furniture bought on-line

LMS123

My daughter bought a chest of drawers on-line. They arrived ready-assembled. The delivery guys removed the packaging. She checked for damage and all seemed ok and the delivery guys took the packaging away with them. All good so far.
The next day , my daughter noticed a fault with one of the drawers. It's quite noticeable in certain lights. She rang the company customer service and was asked if she wanted to return the faulty drawer or the whole unit. She replied she wanted to get a replacement drawer. She emailed a photo of the faulty drawer, as requested.
She then got an email explaining that she had 3 options;
a) a refund of £45
b) a voucher for £55 or
c) a replacement of the whole set of drawers.

They will not accept the faulty drawer alone, she has to send back the whole unit, bubble-wrapped in a cardboard box! A courier would collect it from her house. This is stipulated in the returns policy.
The delivery guys took the original packaging away. She can't get a cardboard box large enough to fit the whole unit in. The unit is 3 feet wide and 4 feet tall!
Is this a reasonable procedure for the company to ask a customer to follow i.e. having to package up a whole chest of drawers? How is she expected to do that?
Does she have any consumer rights regarding this?

This is from the Office of Fair Trading

Guidance for the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999
Section 2.1.4

"Terms requiring that the goods are accepted as satisfactory on delivery, or imposing unreasonable conditions on their return.
Consumers have a right to a reasonable opportunity to examine goods and reject them if faulty. In the case of complex goods, a reasonable opportunity to examine means a chance to try the goods out. Consumers cannot legally be deprived of this right by being required to sign 'satisfaction' notes on delivery, or by being required to return goods in a way that may not be possible – for example, in disposable packaging that they are likely to discard after opening."

Would this apply in this case i.e. that it is unreasonable to expect someone to safely package up a set of drawers?

unholyangel

I had something similar recently. We ended up compromising - they sent out an entire new unit, I swapped over the piece that was damaged for the undamaged one in the new delivery, repackaged the new unit and then they collected that.

Perhaps ask them if thats a possibility? Either that or tell them they'll have to provide a cardboard box if theyre insisting the goods be returned in one since your daughter wasnt given one to start with.

deaston

The courier was appointed by the seller, who then took away the packaging. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask the seller to first send the necessary packaging and then allow their courier to come and collect the unit.

But is it worth reiterating your desire to just swap the single drawer?

LMS123

My daughter eventually found cardboard, bubble wrap and tape and too an hour to package the whole lot and send it off.
Today, a month later, a new unit is arriving. She managed to get time off work at very short notice to await the delivery . It will be examined with a fine toothcomb before acceptance. Fingers crossed!