Sofa chaos

Charlieew

Hi all, hope you can help me make sense of this.. buckle in its long...

i ordered 2 new grey sofas from one of the major sofa shops. On the day of delivery the man started handing me green cushions.. i said "thats not what i ordered" they checked the item and it appears the error was with the manufacturer as the label on the item was for the sofa i ordered and matched the other one (which was correct) but this sofa was ebtirely differnet.

They said they would leave the sofa as otherwise id have nothing to sit on and make a note of what happened and someone would be in touch. 

I did get a call from aftercare the same day and she said someone would look into it and get back to me but this was over a week ago and nothing... 

Now this would normally be straightforward.. id be jumping up and down demanding the correct sofa asap... however.. i really like the one they delivered to me and am happy to keep it, it matches my room and its more expensive.. lol

Ok...so i cant find anything in consumer law that says i cant keep it. The item has been delivered, its in my house, i notified them it was wrong,  etc..  

But... 

1) the sofa i actually ordered was on credit, so i will be paying credit for a sofa i dont have
2) if i just call it evens (as the sofa i have is worth more) then if anything happens to it it wont be guaranteed as... 
3) its not even a sofa that is sold by the company i have a contract with (it is one sold by a catalogue company)

I can find no precedent online for this situation but the things i am considering:

1) the sofa was knowingly delivered to my house and has now been in my house a week with no contact.
2) the mistake was with the factory, not the company i purchased from, so they wont lose out by me having it.
3) this sofa will not be covered by any guarantee so to keep it will be my risk (ok) 
4) i dont think the company i bought from can demand it back as its not even their sofa
5) i dont think the factory can demand it back as i dont have a contract with them and it was their mistake and what are they going to do with a used sofa?
6) the catalogue company wont lose out as the factory will just have to make another to fix their mistake and fulfill their customers order so they wont care (beyond the delay) 


I could just keep quiet and hope it goes away, but the missing grey sofa i ordered.. i have to carry on paying for... 

Assuming i am within my rights to keep this one then I obviously dont want another.. they dont usually accept cancellations.. so i am thinking the options will be
1) they find and deliver the correct sofa and i have to pay for it (and sell it) 
2) they cancel that sofa so im only paying for the one sofa i ordered and was delivered 
3) i keep quiet, pay the credit knowing i dont have the sofa im paying for and hope that nothing goes wrong with the green one as i wont have any leg to stand on (or sofa to sit on)

Im not sure how this stands on the consumer credit act either.. 

Does anyone have any advice for me.. PLEEEASE!! 

And in case i didnt make it clear...the green sofa is mine now and they will have to carry it out with me on it if they want it back mwahahaha 

eskbanker

Now that you've advised the supplier of the error, you're in their hands - they should replace it with what you ordered but may be amenable to leaving things as they are if you suggest this as a solution (you don't really have the right to insist on it).

Charlieew

Thanks, as this sofa isnt even theirs im not sure how they would enforce taking it away though? And that does not solve the problem of paying for a sofa we dont have. 

eskbanker

Charlieew said:

Thanks, as this sofa isnt even theirs im not sure how they would enforce taking it away though?

You ordered two sofas from a supplier and the resultant delivery contained two sofas - even if the shop doesn't list the erroneous one, I think you'd struggle to convince anyone that it doesn't belong to the shop if you reject it.

Charlieew said:
And that does not solve the problem of paying for a sofa we dont have. 

Likewise if you entered into a contract to finance two sofas and now have two sofas, why would that be a problem if you'd be happy with both of them and the shop was prepared to accept you keeping the more expensive one?

It's unclear if you're wanting to have your cake and eat it - the best outcome sounds like it would be keeping the more expensive sofa and not having to pay any more for the privilege, but you're surely not hoping that you can get away with retaining it without paying for either it or the one you'd intended to buy?

MalMonroe

Charlieew said:

Thanks, as this sofa isn't even theirs I'm not sure how they would enforce taking it away though? And that does not solve the problem of paying for a sofa we don't have. 

Hi, whose is the sofa? It has to be the sofa company's since they delivered it to you - and you were buying the original one on credit terms. So no sofa, as yet, is yours. And you do have a sofa to use, even if it's not the one you thought it was going to be.

You have not even been inconvenienced, since the delivery driver said they would leave that one for you so you would have something to sit on. Quite considerate, I think - although saved them the trouble of having to take it back to the warehouse. But as soon as that happened, the furniture became second-hand.

Had it been me I'd have refused delivery altogether, though and would have managed with my deck chairs for a while - have done that before.

Now you have a sofa, you like it and you're prepared to keep it. It's just not the original one. Had you not liked it, you would have been well within your rights to ask them to remove it and replace it with the correct sofa. That is not termed a cancellation. 

Why not just phone the retailer, tell them that and say that you have been inconvenienced and didn't actually receive the sofa you ordered and think that them letting you have it at the original price for the original sofa would be compensation enough for this error? Besides which, if they took it back now, they would not be able to sell it as new furniture.

It's worth a try - I have found that often a little cheek, delivered with the utmost courtesy, often works a treat.

Hopefully they will be able to help. I wouldn't keep quiet because these things get found out anyway in the end and it's not really a big deal. I don't think, anyway. Just be up front and honest. Always the best policy.

In the meantime, enjoy your new green sofa. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Charlieew said:

Thanks, as this sofa isnt even theirs im not sure how they would enforce taking it away though? And that does not solve the problem of paying for a sofa we dont have. 

Quite easily, because they have documentary evidence it doesn't belong to you.

As others have said, work with the retailer to see if you can get the outcome you'd like.  Just consider the fact that as you said yourself, any future problems with the green sofa may be difficult or even impossible to resolve under your consumer rights.

born_again

I did get a call from aftercare the same day and she said someone would look into it and get back to me but this was over a week ago and nothing... 

One can only guess that either they are talking to the manufacture to find out what went wrong, or looking at internal paperwork if ordered correctly to find out where the other correct sofa is.
Never really going to be quick.

Debbie9009

Unless I have read this wrong, the sofa you have is not sold by the company your original sofa was coming from, it’s from an entirely different company.  I suspect this will be a problem as the company you have the contract with, won’t be able to say you can keep the sofa as it’s not theirs to give to you.

I can’t see that they are going to want to negotiate with another company on your behalf.  So I think you might be stuck with trying to negotiate with them yourself, and I don’t think they will give you the sofa for free, so you would be negotiating a payment.  This of course means you would want to cancel the original sofa, but if that has already been made that could also be difficult.

If it were me I’d be onto the aftercare company and asking them to speed things up, I suspect if you are not careful you could end up with two sofas to pay for.  Whilst the driver shouldn’t have left the sofa with you, the moment you realised it was from a difficult company you should have been requesting for it to be collected.  Have you made the company you have the contract with aware that the sofa is from a different company ?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

It's going to be a headache for the store to sort out if you voluntarily give them back the sofa, if you say you are keeping tough luck it's an even bigger headache they probably don't want.

How much more expensive OP? I find it hard to believe a national retailer would take a customer to small claims over the wrong sofa unless the difference is significant.

OP if you have a Google of CEO email there might be a contact email on that site for a higher level of customer facing staff there and a polite and brief message pointing out what has happened and a request to keep the incorrect sofa may well see a result and if they agree to let you keep the current sofa in return for the agreed price you may not have a warranty but consumer rights would still apply (durability, etc). 

Charlieew

MalMonroe said:

Charlieew said:

Thanks, as this sofa isn't even theirs I'm not sure how they would enforce taking it away though? And that does not solve the problem of paying for a sofa we don't have. 

Hi, whose is the sofa? It has to be the sofa company's since they delivered it to you - and you were buying the original one on credit terms. So no sofa, as yet, is yours. And you do have a sofa to use, even if it's not the one you thought it was going to be.

You have not even been inconvenienced, since the delivery driver said they would leave that one for you so you would have something to sit on. Quite considerate, I think - although saved them the trouble of having to take it back to the warehouse. But as soon as that happened, the furniture became second-hand.

Had it been me I'd have refused delivery altogether, though and would have managed with my deck chairs for a while - have done that before.

Now you have a sofa, you like it and you're prepared to keep it. It's just not the original one. Had you not liked it, you would have been well within your rights to ask them to remove it and replace it with the correct sofa. That is not termed a cancellation. 

Why not just phone the retailer, tell them that and say that you have been inconvenienced and didn't actually receive the sofa you ordered and think that them letting you have it at the original price for the original sofa would be compensation enough for this error? Besides which, if they took it back now, they would not be able to sell it as new furniture.

It's worth a try - I have found that often a little cheek, delivered with the utmost courtesy, often works a treat.

Hopefully they will be able to help. I wouldn't keep quiet because these things get found out anyway in the end and it's not really a big deal. I don't think, anyway. Just be up front and honest. Always the best policy.

In the meantime, enjoy your new green sofa. 

I am thinking the sofa belongs to the manufacterer as it does not belong to the compnay i purchased from at all but it had not yet been passed over to the company/ customer it was destined for... but the mistake was the manufacturers as they were the ones who stuck the wrong label on (wrong item details- even stated grey when it is very obviously green) so it was labelled up for me and was loaded on the lorry as my order and came to me and was delivered to my house.. so no errors on the order or the delivery 

I would think the manufacturer would be obliged to "suck it up" as it is 100% their error.. not mine.. 

The company i purchased it from wont be charged for the sofa i have as its not their order.. they will be charged for the missing grey one... which is now somewhere in limboland... 

And as the green one is not owned by the company i purchased from so i dont feel they have the right to tell me if i can or cant keep it, or can have it instead of the grey one

I would pay for the 2 sofas  but im paying for a sofa that i dont physically have so under consumer credit act im pretty sure you are supposed to actually have the thing you are paying credit for..

The manufacturer themselves could contact me and ask for it back but what will they do with a 2nd hand sofa plus it was totally their mistake and as such most of the info i can find suggests i am absolutley within my rights to keep it and they cant ask for payment for it.. 

All other examples are about rejecting the incorrect goods, none say what happens if you want to keep the incorrect goods ... 

Its really complicated... 

I am not averse to just keeping quiet and paying for the 2, but i feel that technically that is not correct and obv if i have any issues with the green sofa then i have no comeback and im paying for a grey sofa i didnt get (plus i paid extra for foam cushions! Lol) ..i just wondered if anyone with more knowledge than me could help me unpick it so i know what im talking about when i speak to the company.. 

Charlieew

Debbie9009  Have you made the company you have the contract with aware that the sofa is from a different company ?

When the aftercare lady called me on day 1 i told her i knew it wasnt one of their sofas... she just said they would get back to me in a couple of days. but nothing yet...