Return bad product

Emmsy1976

Hi Forumites, I bought 2x wooden shelving units from an online company. They cost £316 in total. They arrived on a Thursday in late October and on the following Saturday I opened them to put them together and found that each piece of wood was either warped, has a crack extending into the wood from a pre- drilled hole, or just a crack. I put a few bits together and its very wobbly- for the price. I called the phone number several times and have done intermittently since, I get put on hold for approximately 10 minutes then it cuts off. I emailed them with proof of purchase and photos of the bad quality wood. They accepted that this qualifies as a refund but state that I need to pay £50 for them to collect the goods before they will collect and refund. I think in an email I suggested I could drop them back somewhere- within in reason in London, this was ignored.

I contacted consumer Consumer Help and Advice | CTSI - Chartered Trading Standards Institute UK and they have since sent me 2 template letters which I tailored to my request. The first I sent registered post and have proof that my letter arrived. They have advised me to send a second template registered again, if there is no response to that I can take them to court. I am writing here to see if there a quicker or alternative way to do this as sending a few more of these letters at £7 each I may as well just pay the £50 and be done. I am a full time working sngle parent and really really really don't have time for the back and forth, £316 was a whole lot of money to spend on such a terrible product.

Thanks

DullGreyGuy

Having sent a letter before action you either follow through and go to court or become the boy who called wolf and the company can safely ignore your complaints/threats because you've shown you don't follow through on it. 

Depending on how you paid you could look to your bank for a chargeback or S75 claim (if it was a credit card) but the former may be frustrated by the fact you still have the goods.