DFS - can we cancel?

gmac2304

We ordered a sofa from DFS before lockdown, which was finally due to get delivered today.  I have an email & text message from them confirming this date.  Not long after I booked delivery last week, I received a text message from DFS saying 'Reminder, your DFS Furniture is ready.  Click now to book delivery online'.  I thought this was an overlap from the original text message, so ignored it.  Received another one yesterday, so logged onto my account where it said 'awaiting delivery of your order'.  A quick call to DFS confirms that our delivery has been delayed, as they won't receive our sofa 'til this Friday.  Not much use to us when we sold our old sofa yesterday...  
Several calls to DFS yesterday led to promises of call-backs from their distribution centre, none of which materialised.  Spoke to our local store this morning, who have checked with their delivery guy if they have any loan furniture to tide us over, but he won't be back in-store until 5pm tonight, so the likelihood of us receiving anything today is slim.  What are our rights, can we cancel if they don't come up with a suitable alternative for us in the meantime?

Spank

Why cancel now? Surly it will take far longer to get a new sofa from somewhere else.
Delays happen for many reasons you should not have sold your old one until you had the new one in place.

Aylesbury_Duck

As Spank says, why cancel now?  Just seems a knee-jerk response.  You will have to wait a few days.  If you cancel, you'll be waiting much longer.  Can't you survive without a sofa for three days?

pinkshoes

3 days without a sofa?? I'm sure you'll survive... 

So you'd specified delivery today, but when they asked you to log in and confirm the date you wanted, you didn't do that? That's probably why you cannot get a delivery today.

But to answer your question, no you do not have any rights to cancel. Or at least not yet anyway...

gmac2304

Maybe didn't make it clear - new sofa now not being delivered until a week on Thursday, 23rd.  I'm working f/time from home, kids are on holiday & we have nothing to sit on.  Maybe not a big deal for some, but for us it is...

pinkshoes said:

So you'd specified delivery today, but when they asked you to log in and confirm the date you wanted, you didn't do that? That's probably why you cannot get a delivery today.

I have an email/text message confirming delivery was booked for today - DFS changed the date & failed to tell us until yesterday.

Spank said:

Delays happen for many reasons you should not have sold your old one until you had the new one in place.

We didn't sell our old one until the day before our new one was due to be delivered - unfortunately, we don't have room to store 2 sofas.

pulliptears

gmac2304 said:

Maybe didn't make it clear - new sofa now not being delivered until a week on Thursday, 23rd.  I'm working f/time from home, kids are on holiday & we have nothing to sit on.  Maybe not a big deal for some, but for us it is...

Ok, lets say you cancel.

How long do you think it will take to source a new sofa and wait for the delivery of that one?  To rephrase what you've been told above, 'You're cutting off your nose to spite your face".

Kids are quite hardy little things, they can sit on the floor or, depending on age on their beds usually.  As for you, fortunately this time of year there is a glut of cheap deckchairs and the like.  It's less than ten days.  In the scheme of things its nothing.

gmac2304

pulliptears said:

gmac2304 said:

Maybe didn't make it clear - new sofa now not being delivered until a week on Thursday, 23rd.  I'm working f/time from home, kids are on holiday & we have nothing to sit on.  Maybe not a big deal for some, but for us it is...

Ok, lets say you cancel.

How long do you think it will take to source a new sofa and wait for the delivery of that one?  To rephrase what you've been told above, 'You're cutting off your nose to spite your face".

Kids are quite hardy little things, they can sit on the floor or, depending on age on their beds usually.  As for you, fortunately this time of year there is a glut of cheap deckchairs and the like.  It's less than ten days.  In the scheme of things its nothing.

Pretty sure I asked 'Can I cancel?' - not 'Should I cancel?' 

gmac2304

pulliptears said:

gmac2304 said:

Maybe didn't make it clear - new sofa now not being delivered until a week on Thursday, 23rd.  I'm working f/time from home, kids are on holiday & we have nothing to sit on.  Maybe not a big deal for some, but for us it is...

How long do you think it will take to source a new sofa and wait for the delivery of that one?  To rephrase what you've been told above, 'You're cutting off your nose to spite your face".

And Harvey's / SCS are right next door to where DFS is - both of which have sofas available for immediate delivery at the moment, so in answer to your question 'Not that long'...

bris

Can you cancel? We don't know as we cant see your contract. 
In the circumstances as it stands if it's a distance sale then yes you can cancel, that's if it was all done online and you never visited the store. i won't mention bespoke or custom maid etc just assume it's a stock item.

If you did visit the store then no you can't cancel, at least not yet. You will need to send them a "time is of the essence letter" giving them a reasonable date to deliver or you will hold them in breach of contract and cancel the sale.

You could make the letter date for the now expected delivery slot and hold them in breach after that.

Doing this and getting your money back are two different things, I would assume delivery delays are in the contract so it would take the small claims court to see whats fair or not.

mr_stripey

Can you cancel? Probably not. But there are a few factors mostly which have been addressed above.
Can you afford to and buy a new one for "immediate" delivery and then wait to hopefully get your money back from DFS? If so, then that might be an option but you could end up out of pocket!

pulliptears

gmac2304 said:

pulliptears said:

gmac2304 said:

Maybe didn't make it clear - new sofa now not being delivered until a week on Thursday, 23rd.  I'm working f/time from home, kids are on holiday & we have nothing to sit on.  Maybe not a big deal for some, but for us it is...

Ok, lets say you cancel.

How long do you think it will take to source a new sofa and wait for the delivery of that one?  To rephrase what you've been told above, 'You're cutting off your nose to spite your face".

Kids are quite hardy little things, they can sit on the floor or, depending on age on their beds usually.  As for you, fortunately this time of year there is a glut of cheap deckchairs and the like.  It's less than ten days.  In the scheme of things its nothing.

Pretty sure I asked 'Can I cancel?' - not 'Should I cancel?' 

Enjoy your floor.

Oh and good luck with Harveys, they went into Administration last month.