Faulty furniture item

Miniandflossrock

Hi, 

Hoping for some advice if possible.

On 26/07/2022 I purchased a breakfast bar from a small furniture maker that have their own sales website but also operate via selling platforms e.g. Etsy. I went straight through their website directly. I paid in full via credit card approx £300. 

The day before the purchase I emailed the company to ask the leas time - I got a reply Immediately saying 3-4 weeks. 

5 weeks came and went so I emailed then to chase the order. No reply.

I emailed again at 6 weeks saying I would have a refund if they were unable to fulfil the order. I got a quick response saying that the table would be delivered next week .

The table arrived on week 7 with 2 delivery men who put it together and realised the legs were too wide for the table top. The table top was also damaged. We decided to have a new top made in the slightly bigger size and keep the legs. The delivery men left the table as it was and took the measurements and and spoke to the company who said 3-4 weeks delivery for a new top. He advised me to write an email to the company stating the problems and what we needed to resolve this. I did this immediately with photos. I got no response. I've been unable to find a phone contact for the company to speak to someone.

On week 3 after the initial delivery I contacted the company again asking about redelivery of the table top and to acknowledge they got my email. I got a reply back fairly quickly saying the table top would be delivered the following week and to confirm the measurements I wanted. I replied saying the delivery day was tricky due to a family member receiving urgent hospital treatment that day and stating what times we would be available to take delivery. 

I heard nothing further, delivery day was supposed to be today. I know I'm going to have to contact them again, but its getting frustrating w8th this pattern of no response.

I'm thinking of either asking for a refund and that they can come and take their faulty table back or a guarenteed delivery date within the next 7 days. Is there anything else I should be thinking of to get this resolved? I'm worried they are just going to start ignoring me. There has never been an apology for any of the issues that we have had.

Thank you 

km1500

My advice would be to ask for a refund as they have not yet delivered a table that is not faulty (and they have obviously had quite a lot of opportunity to do so)

 you might also want to notify your credit card company just in case the furniture company doesn't refund you

din't let them run the clock down

Manxman_in_exile

As per @km1500 you might end up having to claim back from your credit card issuer if the furniture company refuse to refund.

The law says that unless you have agreed otherwise, goods should be delivered without undue delay and in any case no more than 30 days after you entered into the contract.  See s28(3)(a) and (b) here Consumer Rights Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)

Obviously you seem to have agreed to a period longer than 30 days, but the furniture company hasn't come even close to meeting the timescales they indicated themselves.

In that case, s28(7) and (8) of the above legislation allows you to specify a period that is appropriate in the circumstances for delivery of the goods, and if they fail to deliver, then you can consider the contract at an end.  The trader must then reimburse to you without delay all the payments you have made under the contract - s28(9).

In the circumstances - they've kept messing you around - I'd suggest you tell them that if they don't deliver within "nn" days you will consider the contract at an end under the above legislation (quote it to them) and you will want a full refund immediately.

Question is how many days is "nn"?  14 days would definitely be reasonable in the circumstances I think.  Whether 7 or 10 days would be considered too short a timescale I don't know.  Depends how annoyed you are with them...

If they do deliver but it's still faulty, I think the law allows you to reject it for a full refund immediately.  In the case of faulty goods or goods that don't conform to contract the law gives a trader only one opportunity either to repair or to replace.

DullGreyGuy

Manxman_in_exile said:

As per @km1500 you might end up having to claim back from your credit card issuer if the furniture company refuse to refund.

The law says that unless you have agreed otherwise, goods should be delivered without undue delay and in any case no more than 30 days after you entered into the contract.  See s28(3)(a) and (b) here Consumer Rights Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)

Obviously you seem to have agreed to a period longer than 30 days, but the furniture company hasn't come even close to meeting the timescales they indicated themselves.

In that case, s28(7) and (8) of the above legislation allows you to specify a period that is appropriate in the circumstances for delivery of the goods, and if they fail to deliver, then you can consider the contract at an end.  The trader must then reimburse to you without delay all the payments you have made under the contract - s28(9).

In the circumstances - they've kept messing you around - I'd suggest you tell them that if they don't deliver within "nn" days you will consider the contract at an end under the above legislation (quote it to them) and you will want a full refund immediately.

Question is how many days is "nn"?  14 days would definitely be reasonable in the circumstances I think.  Whether 7 or 10 days would be considered too short a timescale I don't know.  Depends how annoyed you are with them...

If they do deliver but it's still faulty, I think the law allows you to reject it for a full refund immediately.  In the case of faulty goods or goods that don't conform to contract the law gives a trader only one opportunity either to repair or to replace.

S28(3)(a) would in relation to the original delivery and we would need sight of the original contract to know what was actually agreed.  There are two obvious get out clauses that can get round which is one saying the contract doesnt commence until the goods are dispatched (which most ecommerce sites have) or two have a contract that says its going to be up to 60 days (or whatever).

I know when I last bought a sofa the headline stated it was 3-4 weeks or such but the contract itself said it would be within 90 days (it was pointed out at sale that the headline wasnt a guarantee).

The OP didnt reject the goods when they were delivered and therefore this is a repair or replacement which falls under S23 rather than S28 and as such 23.2(a) states it must be within a reasonable time which is clearly much more subjective than the set 30 days of clause 28.3(a). The item is clearly being made to order given its bespoke to the OP's measurements and so a lead time doesnt feel unreasonable.

Manxman_in_exile

@DullGreyGuy -  fair points.

I think I'd still put the argument to the seller and see how they respond.  Somehow I think they might not be 100% up to speed on the ins and outs of the legislation.

Miniandflossrock

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I sent an email on Thursday evening asking for the replacement table top to be sorted by the end of next week (28th) or a full refund d and that they could come and pick the faulty table we have up. There has been no response as yet (Monday evening). 

Miniandflossrock

A bit of an update - I started a credit card dispute in October against the company as there had been no further response to my emails and I was unable to find a phone number to call and I was still in possession of a faulty table.

At the beginning of November, I got a random call from the company saying my table top would be delivered 2 days later. When it arrived, it was the wrong table top both style and material. So I sent the whole lot back with the delivery men - I screenshot the delivery tracking page which said I had returned the whole item. I emailed the company saying stating what was incorrect and that I no longer wished to deal with them and had put in a dispute through the credit card which I expected them not to dispute as they had received the goods back in full. I phoned the credit card dispute company to update them and that I no longer had the table in my possession.

Have heard nothing further from the furniture company. Today was deadline of 45 days in which the company had to dispute the credit card claim - and guess what they did - disputed it! I had a message from the credit card company telling me this. I now have to wait a further 30 days for the company to respond - I'm not sure why they have done this and waited right to do it on the 45 days. The credit card company have said they need no further evidence from me at the moment (I have every email, phone call and delivery listed in a document to show the trail of what has happened).

I'm not sure now if I'm likely to get my money back or not - it was a few hundred pounds so not insignificant to us. I no longer have their item I sent it back after they had failed to deliver twice what I had ordered..... 

Alderbank

"I'm not sure now if I'm likely to get my money back or not - "

Were you told the reason why the chargeback was reversed? 

You still have section 75 protection from the credit card company, who legally are jointly responsible. Essentially the card company's legal experts will carefully consider all the evidence (so quite different from chargeback where they just accept whatever the retailer says) and if they decide the courts would probably decide in your favour they will pay up to avoid the extra costs of a hearing.
Even if s75 is refused by the card company you still have the statutory right to take either the retailer or the card company to court

Ditzy_Mitzy

Alderbank said:

"I'm not sure now if I'm likely to get my money back or not - "

Were you told the reason why the chargeback was reversed? 

You still have section 75 protection from the credit card company, who legally are jointly responsible. Essentially the card company's legal experts will carefully consider all the evidence (so quite different from chargeback where they just accept whatever the retailer says) and if they decide the courts would probably decide in your favour they will pay up to avoid the extra costs of a hearing.
Even if s75 is refused by the card company you still have the statutory right to take either the retailer or the card company to court

I'm not sure that the section 75 claim has been reversed, merely that the furniture maker has decided to dispute the OP's claim against them.  They, the furniture maker, are within their rights to do that and will now, presumably, need to provide evidence to the creditor that the OP's claim is not valid.  Nothing she has said thus far suggests it is, meaning it is likely that the creditor will find in her favour in a month or so and the money will finally be returned.  The furniture maker knows that and is no doubt stalling for time in an effort to keep hold of the cash for as long as possible.  Why?  Bad business or cashflow issues in all likelihood.