Compensation for delivery driver scratching wooden floorboards

anthonyd923

Hi guys,

First post and sadly it's a negative one.

Yesterday we had a fridge freezer delivered by AO.com. As they were bringing it through the hallway, they dragged it all along our wooden floorboards. These are a long standing feature of the house and they have severely damaged them. The floorboards were one of the features that sold the house to us. They are damaged beyond repair.

Does anyone know where we stand in terms of compensation? The delivery driver called AO.com and informed them of the damage as soon as it happened.

Has anyone had something similar happen? Do we need to do anything in terms of documenting the damage?

Help would be a huge relief. My girlfriend is 38 weeks pregnant and this has caused her huge distress.

Aylesbury_Duck

anthonyd923 wrote: »

Hi guys,

First post and sadly it's a negative one.

Yesterday we had a fridge freezer delivered by AO.com. As they were bringing it through the hallway, they dragged it all along our wooden floorboards. These are a long standing feature of the house and they have severely damaged them. The floorboards were one of the features that sold the house to us. They are damaged beyond repair.

Does anyone know where we stand in terms of compensation? The delivery driver called AO.com and informed them of the damage as soon as it happened.

Has anyone had something similar happen? Do we need to do anything in terms of documenting the damage?

Help would be a huge relief. My girlfriend is 38 weeks pregnant and this has caused her huge distress.

Firstly, formally get in touch with AO and tell them about it and ask them what the process is from now. Take photographs of the damage. Do you happen to have any recent photos of the flooring as it was before it was damaged, even if you have to go back to estate agent photos from when you bought it? Rather than compensation, I would expect that you will be claiming from AO's insurance and any information you can provide them will help assess what can be done. They will assess whether or not they are beyond repair but I'm sure they have a decent insurance policy that will sort it all out.

Tell your girlfriend not to worry about it. In the context of 38 weeks' pregnancy and the joy (and stress) of what's to come, scratched flooring is absolutely trivial. You'll be laughing about it in a few weeks' time.

societys_child

Tries hard not to take the last sentence of the op out of context . . .

Grenage

Nothing is beyond repair.

rach_k

Kids will no doubt do irreparable damage to various areas of your home so please tell your girlfriend not to worry. It's just a floor. Assuming nobody is in danger of falling through it, it's not a big deal no matter how beautiful they were before!

Get lots of photos and see what AO say. No point worrying about it until you have to - they may well sort it easily so you'd have wasted your energy on any stress.

If they're proper wooden floorboards, you could ask a local floor refurb company to come and give you their opinion/a quote for some peace of mind before AO get back to you. Our Victorian floorboards are in a pretty banged up state (OH hates them, I love them - we have kids so I like that everything is already bashed!) but we had a guy come round and he said they could be made to look like new (no thanks!)... and I'm talking horrendous scratches, dents, old mismatched filler, dodgy nails etc so I doubt yours is completely ruined.

LEJC

if they are original floorboards scratch marks can be sanded out reasonably easily and if its engineered wood boards then they can be replaced....I doubt that any appliance dragged along the floor would cause damage beyond repair.

are you able to post a photo here and maybe someone could advise?

sanders and waxing or even staining is certainly an option if the flooring is original.

It happens and to be honest its not something that can't be repaired....if you have got original boards then it's my guess that this isnt the first time that an appliance has been dragged and bumped across them in their lifetime.

Le_Kirk

If you can get AO.com to accept liability and agree to pay for the replacement of your damaged boards, try a reclaim centre, they usually have loads of joists and floorboards of various ages.

fezster

anthonyd923 wrote: »

they dragged it all along our wooden floorboards

They can be sanded then sealed (possibly stained). Colour match may be the difficult part to the rest of your flooring.

Icecannon

its a scratched floor, you need to first speak with the correct department at ao if they don't help,ask for their insurance, if that doesn't do it sue them.

As for your stressed gf, might sound harsh but she really needs to get over it, as surely there was more to the house than a nice hall floor, it can and will be fixed. The 38 weeks pregnant should make this less of an issue not more, I know my mind would be focused elsewhere.

DriversWife

As a driver's wife I would like to confirm that any claim that is made to AO gets charged to the delivery crew. I know first hand how annoying it is to have people assume AO have insurance and will pay out no questions asked. There is a process if a complaint is received, and if you do receive payment as compensation from a real complaint - please note that the money paid to you has been taken out of that crew's wages. I say wages, but actually they are self-employed and do not receive sick pay or holiday pay.

I would like people to consider this before they make their fraudulent allegations, as there are plenty that do. This is not a victimless act. You are not taking money from a huge corporation, but from a family's wage. (This is not specifically aimed at Aylesbury Duck - but perhaps next time you have a delivery and do not want to damage the flooring you could lay down something over it for protection!).

Warwick_Hunt

DriversWife wrote: »

As a driver's wife I would like to confirm that any claim that is made to AO gets charged to the delivery crew. I know first hand how annoying it is to have people assume AO have insurance and will pay out no questions asked. There is a process if a complaint is received, and if you do receive payment as compensation from a real complaint - please note that the money paid to you has been taken out of that crew's wages. I say wages, but actually they are self-employed and do not receive sick pay or holiday pay.

I would like people to consider this before they make their fraudulent allegations, as there are plenty that do. This is not a victimless act. You are not taking money from a huge corporation, but from a family's wage. (This is not specifically aimed at Aylesbury Duck - but perhaps next time you have a delivery and do not want to damage the flooring you could lay down something over it for protection!).

Holy thread resurrection, you joined up just for that?