King size problem - The Futon Company

HuwWynJones

My partner and I bought a top-of-the-range bed frame from The Futon Company. Unfortunately, when I was assembling it the footboard fell apart – clearly a serious and potentially dangerous fault with its manufacture. As you can imagine I took photographs of the faulty parts and contacted the company. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing via e-mail it was agreed by The Futon Company that a refund would be appropriate.

Now the fun begins – returning a king size bed frame! I’ve disassembled the big pieces and bagged them up for collection - six very large bags worth. However, getting them collected is another matter entirely.

Both my partner and I work Monday to Friday so we’re simply not at home for the usual ‘between 8am and 6pm’ courier routine. I’ve offered to place the bags at the bottom of my driveway for them to be picked up when we’re at work – but The Futon Company rejected this saying that I am responsible for the (faulty) bed frame “until it arrives back at their warehouse”!!

I’ve offered them, with over 48 hours notice on both occasions, two consecutive Saturday afternoon pick-up appointments – one-hour slots - but they’ve spurned both. It’s not helping the situation that they insist on using a courier based around 4 hours away. I get the feeling they want me to take time off work to wait around for the courier – which I don’t think is fair considering the problem is down to faulty manufacture.

So, what are my rights in this situation?

This has been going on for around 30 days already. The Futon Company are refusing the process my refund until they get their (faulty) bed frame back. Is that legal?

In the meantime, I have six huge sacks cluttering up a bedroom in my house. Can I charge for storage? Do I actually have to store it in the house?

There is only downside for me in the present situation – no bed, no refund, no space in the house. Help!

mattyprice4004

While it’s poor that the product was faulty, I don’t feel you’re being entirely as flexible as you could be.
Of course you can’t leave it outside or at the end or the drive to collect for obvious reasons, and likewise they’re under no obligation to refund until they have it back which is also reasonable. 

Some courier companies don’t collect on Saturdays - was the product delivered on a weekday or at the weekend? 

I’m sure you could ask a friend / relative to wait in for collection if needed, that’s what I did when I had a similar situation. 

Sandtree

How did you have it delivered? Did they allow you to specify a 1hr slot on a Saturday for that?

HuwWynJones

Thanks Sandtree and Mattyprice4004 for your responses.

Delivery was during a lock-down period so I'm not sure that's relevant. Interestingly it was a 2hr slot not the 3 hour-with-caveats they are offering me now.

Also they want to use a different courier company to collect than the one that delivered, so they don't seem to be tied to one company. It took me less than 10 minutes on Google to find a courier firm with a local depot which would pick-up by appointment (with 24 hour notice) on a Saturday. From what I could see on-line I doubt there are many courier firms which don't offer a full weekend service at the moment.

As a consumer I've already been inconvenienced by the faulty goods, is it really reasonable to expect someone to take time off work (and loose money) to wait around for a courier which may or may not arrive?

PS - I got another 'booking' offer via text while writing my first post. Once again a weekday when we're both at work (like normal people)!

neilmcl

HuwWynJones said:

Thanks Sandtree and Mattyprice4004 for your responses.

Delivery was during a lock-down period so I'm not sure that's relevant. Interestingly it was a 2hr slot not the 3 hour-with-caveats they are offering me now.

Also they want to use a different courier company to collect than the one that delivered, so they don't seem to be tied to one company. It took me less than 10 minutes on Google to find a courier firm with a local depot which would pick-up by appointment (with 24 hour notice) on a Saturday. From what I could see on-line I doubt there are many courier firms which don't offer a full weekend service at the moment.

As a consumer I've already been inconvenienced by the faulty goods, is it really reasonable to expect someone to take time off work (and loose money) to wait around for a courier which may or may not arrive?

PS - I got another 'booking' offer via text while writing my first post. Once again a weekday when we're both at work (like normal people)!

That's not unusual at all, particularly for large items.

MattMattMattUK

HuwWynJones said:

Once again a weekday when we're both at work (like normal people)!

Statistically at the moment "normal people" who work a 9-5 ish job are still 80% working from home. 

Is there no way you can work from home for one a day so the collection can happen?

HuwWynJones

MattMattMattUK said:

Is there no way you can work from home for one a day so the collection can happen?

Unfortunately not. I told them this right at the beginning but still they persist with offers of weekday collection!
 This is why I'm so annoyed they ignored both Saturdays I offered them.

MattMattMattUK

HuwWynJones said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Is there no way you can work from home for one a day so the collection can happen?

Unfortunately not. I told them this right at the beginning but still they persist with offers of weekday collection!
 This is why I'm so annoyed they ignored both Saturdays I offered them.

They do have a right to ignore/refuse the Saturday collection, especially as they made the delivery on a weekday. They will have contracts with multiple couriers, but if none of them offer a Saturday service, or do not offer a Saturday service for large items, or not for collections, I am pretty sure that they are not required to contract a random courier who does. I use couriers for work, of the four I just checked whilst they all offer a Saturday delivery service, only two offer collections on a Saturday, only one for oversized/heavy collections and neither offer the service for collection and repacking (eg. you have said everything is in bags, to most couriers that is unacceptable and would need to be re-boxed on collection)

I suspect that you have two choices, the first being to find a way to facilitate a weekday collection, ask work to work form home for a day, take a day of annual leave, ask a relative or friend to wait at yours for the collection, the second choice is to not be refunded. Neither is ideal, but the first is probably preferred. 

TELLIT01

It does seem that the OP is being deliberately obstructive regarding getting the item collected.  The dismantled bed is far more of a problem for them than for the supplier, so I think they will just have to accept that they will have to take a day off work to get this resolved.  It is frankly ridiculous to suggest that they could just dump it in their front garden for collection.

born_again

When did you get it delivered & when was it reported as faulty?

Given you discovered the fault building it up, what sort of bags did it arrive in? As most beds come in very large cardboard boxes.

HuwWynJones

Boxes were huge so we cut up and recycled them as soon as we unpacked the components. Bed frame (with storage drawers) was built over a couple of evenings so by the time the fault became apparent boxes were well gone.

The courier in question does do Saturday collections, but didn't respond (via e-mail or text) to the times/dates I offered.