Kitchen refurb - what rights do I have?

Dalglish

I’ve paid a deposit on a new fitted kitchen with a BACS payment after the retailer supplied their bank details. The supplier is recognised in the media as high end but I’ve noticed online reviews have varied from good to bad and I’m now getting anxious.
I’m informed the retailer will not accept credit card settlement of the outstanding balance so first question is, if I purchase on a credit card,
goods such as a kitchen sink from the retailer and pay the outstanding amount by BACS, will I be covered by section 75 based on the kitchen sink purchase (I am guessing the retailer my guess what I’m up to by buying a sink at this stage).
If I decided not to proceed and asked for my deposit back, Which? magazine says a retailer would be obliged to refund the deposit if the retailer was being unreasonable. Communication and scale drawings have been less than good so I wonder would this be a route?
Any thoughts welcomed and yes, I’m normally diligent in paying by CC but on this occasion have been a little foolish not doing so thus far.
Many thanks

DoaM

If the CC payment is just for the sink then S75 would only cover you for the sink, not the remainder of the contract. If the CC payment is for the value of the sink as a part of the whole contract then S75 would apply.

tl;dr ... it depends on how the contract/invoice is structured.

Gavin83

Ultimately it makes little difference if you're covered by S75 or not, your rights are the same. You can cancel the order but it's unlikely you'll get a full refund, they're entitled to deduct any costs they've incurred due to your cancellation. Given that this is nothing more than buyers remorse it seems entirely fair that the company shouldn't be out of pocket.

photome

Not sure what you can do re protection but if the kitchen company begins with W then I would be very wary of continuing, there used to be so many Facebook groups about complaints but W got them all shut down

Dalglish

Kitchen company doesn’t begin with W. Sad to hear that but wondered if I paid part of the outstanding balance by CC and the remainder by BACS, assuming the retailer agreed to it, would that provide S75 cover?

DoaM

As long as you can pay a portion of the total invoice on CC then you'd have S75 protection. It doesn't even need to be a large amount ... £10 will do ... S75 still covers you for the total invoice.

(When I've done this before - a recent car purchase - I paid £100 on CC and the balance by debit card. I didn't need to go as high as £100 but that's the threshold for total item value whence S75 becomes applicable, so paying that amount on CC would prevent the CC company from trying to wriggle out of S75 liability).

Gavin83

Dalglish wrote: »

Sad to hear that but wondered if I paid part of the outstanding balance by CC and the remainder by BACS, assuming the retailer agreed to it, would that provide S75 cover?

Yes it would do.

However S75 isn't the get out clause that I'm getting the impression you think it is, it just provides another avenue for you to pursue if you need to. The same consumer rights still apply whether you pursue the company or the credit card provider but you still have the same obligations too. Essentially if you can't recover the money from the supplier because you don't have the right to you won't get it from the CC company either.

In your case it doesn't appear the supplier has done anything wrong, it just seems to be a change of mind on your part. It's likely you'll be able to cancel the contract but you'll almost certainly incur some costs, regardless of if you go to the company directly or down the S75 route.

Have you actually asked the company about cancelling the contract?

zoob

Buying a kitchen sink at this stage would probably mean a second and separate contract being formed for the sink purchased, so paying by credit card would only cover the contract for sink

DoaM

Gavin83 wrote: »

Yes it would do.

However S75 isn't the get out clause that I'm getting the impression you think it is, it just provides another avenue for you to pursue if you need to. The same consumer rights still apply whether you pursue the company or the credit card provider but you still have the same obligations too. Essentially if you can't recover the money from the supplier because you don't have the right to you won't get it from the CC company either.

In your case it doesn't appear the supplier has done anything wrong, it just seems to be a change of mind on your part. It's likely you'll be able to cancel the contract but you'll almost certainly incur some costs, regardless of if you go to the company directly or down the S75 route.

Have you actually asked the company about cancelling the contract?

Agree with most of this. For the bit in bold, I think the OP is asking about S75 on the basis of having protection should they still proceed (and subsequently have problems) - not on the basis of S75 to recover a deposit.

Dalglish wrote: »

The supplier is recognised in the media as high end but I’ve noticed online reviews have varied from good to bad and I’m now getting anxious.

Dalglish

Yes that’s correct I’m reflecting on S75 in the context of proceeding with the full purchase not just the deposit. Since my OP, the retailer has further heightened my anxiety by failing to account for elements of the installation such as location of services in relation to the base units. In other words I’m feeling less optimistic of an acceptable installation. I’m meeting the retailer this weekend and proposing I pay part CC and part BACS but do you think most retailers would recognise this as a way to cover myself and refuse to do so? The terms state CC can not be used to settle the outstanding balance but I’ll pursue it anyway. How would you approach this latter point?

DoaM

A retailer shouldn't care ... what matters is whether they have payment services to accept CC payments. In my example in post #6 I openly told the dealership that I was doing this to provide S75 protection in case of any unfortunate event such as the company folding, however unlikely that may seem.