Supplier failed to deliver - going to cost me £10k + in lost sales

macman

I can't believe that you ordered a 'time-critical' piece of equipment costing £7K+, without so much as an email to confirm the required delivery date. And then paid the full amount upfront by BACS, giving you no protection whatsoever. 

born_again

macman said:

I can't believe that you ordered a 'time-critical' piece of equipment costing £7K+, without so much as an email to confirm the required delivery date. And then paid the full amount upfront by BACS, giving you no protection whatsoever. 

Especially knowing it can take 6 to 8 weeks, when ordering end of April & wanting it for End June. At a time when many companies are still suffering knock on effects on supply chains due to Covid.

LigPatin

macman said:

I can't believe that you ordered a 'time-critical' piece of equipment costing £7K+, without so much as an email to confirm the required delivery date. And then paid the full amount upfront by BACS, giving you no protection whatsoever. 

born_again said:

macman said:

I can't believe that you ordered a 'time-critical' piece of equipment costing £7K+, without so much as an email to confirm the required delivery date. And then paid the full amount upfront by BACS, giving you no protection whatsoever. 

Especially knowing it can take 6 to 8 weeks, when ordering end of April & wanting it for End June. At a time when many companies are still suffering knock on effects on supply chains due to Covid.

Helpful. Thank you for your comment, maybe you'd care to read my post again where I clearly state:
I called the company before placing my order, they spoke to the supplier who confirmed stock and placed one on hold for me. 
I placed the order online and paid by credit card, they said after 4/5 weeks they wanted to cancel and change to BACS. 
And the whole order was £7k, not just one piece of equipment. 

LigPatin

visidigi said:

This is a business to business transaction therefore your rights are very different. Consequential loss, or the lack of it will be according to the business terms and conditions forming your order.

Trading standards wont be of help for the late supply of goods on a B2B transaction. 

Id be cautious of paying by BACS instead of online, different levels of safety in the payment etc.

You need to get legal advice. 

molerat said:

This is not a consumer rights issue and nothing to do with trading standards.  Your remedy is governed by the terms of the contract you engaged in, what does that state about failure to supply the equipment by a certain date ?  Your only remedy would be through the courts and then likely in accordance with the terms of that contract.

Thank you, this is very helpful - I'll speak with a solicitor. 

JHW1942 said:

Aren't you being a bit premature in saying the supplier is going to cost you tens of thousands of pounds?  The event isn't for another month - is there no alternative means of renting or buying the equipment you need between now and then?  It's not as if they promised delivery today and the event is tomorrow.

Anyway, as others have said, it's down to the terms of the contract you have with them and whether there's anything in there about their liability for consequential loss.

They have caused a 5 week delay on a piece of equipment that can only be bought with 6-8 weeks notice, meaning I will miss over a months trade plus the event. Tens of thousands is a conservative estimate based on the size of the event and a months average takings. 

LigPatin

sheramber said:

7 weeks today is 15th July.
If  opening the last week in June gives you  a month before the festival  then it cannot be until the end of July so you would have at least 2 weeks beforehand.
Not ideal for what you wanted to do but you would be expected to mitigate any losses for any claim.
What prevents you opening if you have 2 weeks in hand?
£10k  is a lot of ice cream sales in a week. 
A festival may not be so busy this year if people are reluctant to mix in a crowd despite (and assuming)  lockdown  being finished

You are assuming that it will magically appear on my doorstep in exactly 7 weeks - it needs to be delivered to a freight forwarder who then takes a week to ship it to my shop (not in UK) and then it needs to be installed and the ice cream made to fill it. This means it's more like 9-10 weeks before it is ready to go. 
£10k is a lot of icecream sales in one week - it's not a lot of sales for a shop over the course of 1 month + the year's biggest event however. 
Covid isn't a factor here for reasons I won't go into. 

unforeseen

So your shop isn't even in the UK? That is probably going to add another level of problems. That now brings into play the problems that Brexit is still causing in the import/export market. 

steampowered

The most we can really say is that you might have a legal claim against the supplier for breach of contract.

The fact that you paid for the order indicates that you had a legally binding contract. 

In B2B transactions, if no delivery time was agreed, a "reasonable" delivery time would be implied into the contract. As it sounds like you did not get the delivery date in writing, you have difficulty proving what would be reasonable ... though if the supplier did not order the freezer from the manufacturer until you chased them 4 weeks later that isn't reasonable.

However, it is impossible to say whether you have a claim with any certainty without seeing the full T&Cs you agreed to, the full order confirmation and the full background of events. You could post that sort of thing on other forums which are more legally minded than this forum (you don't have a lot of discussion about court rules on MSE!) or show to the solicitor you are speaking.

In the meantime you should be "mitigating your loss" by trying to buy a freezer from elsewhere.

sheramber

Are you sure the company is not in financial trouble.
Did not order when you asked.
Asked to cancel credit card payment and pay by BACS.  So you lose the protection a credit card payment gave you.
My alarm bells would be ringing.