Financial Inconvenience

veryconfused20

Hi all, 

Granted I am writing this to vent more than anything because I am so frustrated with the situation I've been put in. Maybe once the anger has worn off, so will the vendetta, but I will ask whether I have any rights surrounding this regardless.

The situation: bought a house, completed a couple of weeks ago, have to move in this week but gave ourselves the grace period to have contractors in to do work that you wouldn't want to live amongst particularly with pets. Organised over two months ago to have a media wall built and installed tomorrow and Tuesday. Have been contacted today to say they're having to change to Wednesday/Thursday because of sickness (which is massively inconvenient as we were meant to be moving all of our big furniture in and moving in ourselves on these days, van booked, etc). Carpet fitters for the lounge purposely paid to come back on Friday after having already fitted the rest of the house, all to accommodate this wall. 

It has transpired that in order to construct the wall, we must have the TV we want to mount else they refuse to do it. This was never outlined to us, is not in the advisory notes that we received with confirmation nor is in their terms and conditions. We had no intention to purchase said TV for a couple of months until our cash flow had settled. So have had one of three options:
1) Cancel the wall at the last minute, meaning losing our deposit. Have the carpet fitted to be ripped up at a later date and have to be refitted. 
2) Postpone the wall and cancel the carpet fitter, meaning being liable to pay for the service. Live with a concrete floor for the next two months.
3) Buy the TV immediately via a credit source and have to pay the interest on a couple of months before we can save the money to pay it off in full.

It would have caused more situational disruption to delay the wall and so we picked option 3. We told them the size of the TV we wanted the wall to accommodate when we placed the order, they didn't ask if we already had it. We assumed (as professionals at this sort of thing) that they would have dimensions that they would work off of if we told them the exact TV. But apparently not.

Like I say, this is both a frustrated rant and a query as to whether we can claim anything from them for the inconvenience it was inevitably going to cause one way or another as a result of not making the terms of their service clear.

Apologies and thank you 🙈

Aylesbury_Duck

How much is two months' interest on the amount you've borrowed?

Flight3287462

Are they suggesting the TV they mount is meant to say in situ forever more?

I would be paying them a visit and hammering this out or alternatively just buy the mounting bracket  now, surely that should do?

I have found from experience that when houses and furnishings etc are concerned then you should expect the odd snarl up and wee bit slack needs to be built in.  Having said that was the date written in to the contract, you might have them on breach of contract if things get really messy.

IvanOpinion

Let me tell you our situation last year.  We were to get a kitchen fitted in March 2020, they managed to rip the kitchen out and lift the flooring - we had no electrics and no water in the kitchen.  Fortunately we had a small sink in the utility room along with a kettle, toaster, and microwave - and a house full of the contents of our kitchen and utility room.  It was September before we had a semi-operational kitchen and November before it was finally completed.

I have heard the 'short staffed due to coronavirus' excuse from every tradesman that came into our house - in one case the decorators turned up but forgot that the person they had just fed the 'short staffed due to coronavirus' excuse was a good friend of mine that had recommended them to me (his full decorating crew was fit-and-well and doing a great job in my house).

So, I would suggest going with your option 2.  The couple of months will fly in.  You just need to push the carpet fitting out - I had to do that a couple of times with the new wooden floor that was meant to be in our kitchen - and there was no issue, no double charging etc..

In a couple of months time you will be down the pub with your mates making jokes about it.

veryconfused20

Aylesbury_Duck said:

How much is two months' interest on the amount you've borrowed?

It's a 24% odd APR, I'd need to work out over the two months what that'd cost. 

veryconfused20

Hunyani_Flight_825 said:

Are they suggesting the TV they mount is meant to say in situ forever more?

I would be paying them a visit and hammering this out or alternatively just buy the mounting bracket  now, surely that should do?

I have found from experience that when houses and furnishings etc are concerned then you should expect the odd snarl up and wee bit slack needs to be built in.  Having said that was the date written in to the contract, you might have them on breach of contract if things get really messy.

Allegedly they can't construct it based purely on dimensions 🤔 reportedly, they've done this twice previously (ie. without the TV) and the TV turned out not to fit. Not exactly confidence filling!

veryconfused20

IvanOpinion said:

Let me tell you our situation last year.  We were to get a kitchen fitted in March 2020, they managed to rip the kitchen out and lift the flooring - we had no electrics and no water in the kitchen.  Fortunately we had a small sink in the utility room along with a kettle, toaster, and microwave - and a house full of the contents of our kitchen and utility room.  It was September before we had a semi-operational kitchen and November before it was finally completed.

I have heard the 'short staffed due to coronavirus' excuse from every tradesman that came into our house - in one case the decorators turned up but forgot that the person they had just fed the 'short staffed due to coronavirus' excuse was a good friend of mine that had recommended them to me (his full decorating crew was fit-and-well and doing a great job in my house).

So, I would suggest going with your option 2.  The couple of months will fly in.  You just need to push the carpet fitting out - I had to do that a couple of times with the new wooden floor that was meant to be in our kitchen - and there was no issue, no double charging etc..

In a couple of months time you will be down the pub with your mates making jokes about it.

Sorry to hear that, that must have been a nightmare! I spoke to the carpet company and they said we would have to pay again for another call out because they'd adjusted their schedule especially to accommodate this fitting after we practically begged them. 

Lomast

Mefia walls are built to fit around a particular tv,
I don't see how you expect them to make a wall without having purchased the tv.

comeandgo

Lomast said:

Mefia walls are built to fit around a particular tv,
I don't see how you expect them to make a wall without having purchased the tv.

I’m at a loss too. How can everything be fitted and completed without the item being in place.

visidigi

A media wall still has to allow for the removal of the TV.

If it were me I would...make a template out of cardboard.

Put the port locations on the back of the cardboard.

Tell them 'that is' the TV'

Or ask them what the footprint of the wall is to get the carpet fitter to leave the gap.

I mean...every manual tells them the size, location of the mounts etc.

Sounds like they're making excuses....

veryconfused20

comeandgo said:

Lomast said:

Mefia walls are built to fit around a particular tv,
I don't see how you expect them to make a wall without having purchased the tv.

I’m at a loss too. How can everything be fitted and completed without the item being in place.

How has the kitchen fitter managed to leave enough space for the appliances without having them there? The principle isn't different. They're not going to physically be building the wall around the TV as the TV is the last thing to be mounted - they need the dimensions, which we can provide.

Regardless, it's missing the point. If they needed the TV, this should have been specified as a requirement. They should not threaten to not carry out the work that has been arranged because of a miscommunication on their part.

Edit: We actually never asked them to mount the TV, we specified we would do that ourselves due to getting a new TV. This didn't previously raise any issues about this until days beforehand.