Data protection issue

1931modela

Hi, I hope i can get some advice on a problem i have. Sorry for the length of post.

I recently ordered and paid for by credit card carpet from Carpetright, i was asked to pay the fitter for the install, no mention was made at the time of order that they had no influence over the fitter. They allocated fitter, i just assumed (wrongly) that there was some sort of comeback to store if there was an issue.

The fitter broght the carpet with him on day of install even though Carpetright had charged me for delivery and also a charge for Fitting Service Administration.

Carpet was fitted and fitters were paid, after they left i found damage to 2 walls on the corners low down where it appeared something had been dragged across them (like carpet)

we know it was not like this before hand as house had just been fully decorated.

Called the store and advised them, fitter called to say he wanted to see damage and we arranged a date, he came, looked at damage and said he did not beleive he did it and would not repair.

Asked for store manager to come out and inspect which he did, he says it does looks like they have dragged something across corners to cause this damage.

The crux of this post is, Carpetright will not give me the name and address of fitter so i can take out a claim against him, i am being paseed from piller to post but still cannot get this info which they claim is covered by data protection act.

Store will not intervene apart from calling fitter but say they can do nothing more, do i have any claim against store given that i paid them for carpet and fitting service admin charge etc

Ergates

In terms of data protection - they are right, they shouldn't give out the fitters details.  Whilst you have good cause to want the name and address, it's not Carpetright's duty to provide that, therefore their responsibility to protect the data overrides your need for it.

I suspect that Carpetrights rather hands off approach to fitting (making sure the money for the fitter never goes through their hands) is deliberate so they can duck issues such as this.

Do you have an estimate of how much it would cost to correct the damage?

1931modela

Ergates said:

In terms of data protection - they are right, they shouldn't give out the fitters details.  Whilst you have good cause to want the name and address, it's not Carpetright's duty to provide that, therefore their responsibility to protect the data overrides your need for it.

I suspect that Carpetrights rather hands off approach to fitting (making sure the money for the fitter never goes through their hands) is deliberate so they can duck issues such as this.

Do you have an estimate of how much it would cost to correct the damage?

Yes i do have an estimate from decorator who did original decorating 5 weeks ago. It looks like my perservering with chasing Carpetright may be about to pay off as they have now agreed to liase with the fitter on a suitable outcome for us.

Bradden

Is a business covered under theb GDPR? I thought it was only perosnal information protected not businesses... hence why you can still cold call a business but not a sole trader.

Ergates

Bradden said:

Is a business covered under theb GDPR? I thought it was only perosnal information protected not businesses... hence why you can still cold call a business but not a sole trader.

The carpet fitter is a person though.  If they had a business address, then maybe - but that is very unlikely.

user1977

Ergates said:

In terms of data protection - they are right, they shouldn't give out the fitters details.  Whilst you have good cause to want the name and address, it's not Carpetright's duty to provide that, therefore their responsibility to protect the data overrides your need for it.

I suspect that Carpetrights rather hands off approach to fitting (making sure the money for the fitter never goes through their hands) is deliberate so they can duck issues such as this.

I would interpret this as Carpetright at least acting as agents for the carpetfitter - and if an agent refuses to disclose who their principal is, they become liable in their own right. So suing (or threatening to sue) Carpetright might make them change their mind.

MattMattMattUK

Ergates said:

Bradden said:

Is a business covered under theb GDPR? I thought it was only perosnal information protected not businesses... hence why you can still cold call a business but not a sole trader.

The carpet fitter is a person though.  If they had a business address, then maybe - but that is very unlikely.

It does not matter if they have a separate business address or not, if they are operating as a sole trader then their business address is not covered under GDPR as it is their trading address, it is protected if they are an employee and working on behalf of a company (although they could be a small Ltd operating from their home, in which case the registered office would be be fine).

Sandtree

How did you pay the fitter? What form of evidence of payment did they give you?

Ergates

user1977 said:

Ergates said:

In terms of data protection - they are right, they shouldn't give out the fitters details.  Whilst you have good cause to want the name and address, it's not Carpetright's duty to provide that, therefore their responsibility to protect the data overrides your need for it.

I suspect that Carpetrights rather hands off approach to fitting (making sure the money for the fitter never goes through their hands) is deliberate so they can duck issues such as this.

I would interpret this as Carpetright at least acting as agents for the carpetfitter - and if an agent refuses to disclose who their principal is, they become liable in their own right. So suing (or threatening to sue) Carpetright might make them change their mind.

I think that Carpetright have taken specific measures to ensure they're *not* acting as the agents.  For instance making customers pay them directly.  They're being very careful to only act as an introducing service (or whatever the correct name for that is) - putting you in touch with someone who can do the work for you.   At best you could claim back their "Fitter Service Administration" back.

One avenue that might work though is the delivery.   If the OP paid Carpetright for delivery, and the fitter delivered it then, arguably, the fitter was acting as an agent for Carpetright for the delivery.  Bit of a stretch mind.

Ergates

MattMattMattUK said:

Ergates said:

Bradden said:

Is a business covered under theb GDPR? I thought it was only perosnal information protected not businesses... hence why you can still cold call a business but not a sole trader.

The carpet fitter is a person though.  If they had a business address, then maybe - but that is very unlikely.

It does not matter if they have a separate business address or not, if they are operating as a sole trader then their business address is not covered under GDPR as it is their trading address, it is protected if they are an employee and working on behalf of a company (although they could be a small Ltd operating from their home, in which case the registered office would be be fine).

It does matter if they have a separate business address, because it's only their business address that isn't covered.  You cannot assume that a sole trader has their home address as their business address - so unless they have specifically told you it's their business address you should err on the side of caution and assume it isn't.

Carpetright don't strike me as the type of company that would have that level of granularity/control in their data so I'd still support their position that they shouldn't hand out the fitters details.

*"Address" here can be switched for "phone number", "email address" etc.

Bradden

Ergates said:

It does matter if they have a separate business address, because it's only their business address that isn't covered.  You cannot assume that a sole trader has their home address as their business address - so unless they have specifically told you it's their business address you should err on the side of caution and assume it isn't.

Carpetright don't strike me as the type of company that would have that level of granularity/control in their data so I'd still support their position that they shouldn't hand out the fitters details.

*"Address" here can be switched for "phone number", "email address" etc.

Which is why I made the distinction between sole trader and limited company. In my post.. you are assuming the fitter is a sole trader.. they may not be.

I thjink if we start to pick it apart Carpetright have given the personal details of their customer to a 3rd party (Fitter) which could be a breach of GDPR itself if the 3rd parry is not GDPR compliant itself.