Messed about by Reid Furniture - What are my rights?

kungfuman

Back in oct I placed an order at Reid Furniture for a 3+2 seater sofa, a bedroom set and 2 coffee tables and paid a deposit of £200. I was told delivery was going to be middle of december which was ideal since i have people coming over for christmas. Anyway, come the start of december, i keep chasing the local store up only to be told to keep waiting for their transport team to call. On 20th december I went to speak to the manager and basically told him to deliver the order or i'm cancelling. He said the coffee tables were out of stock and he could get the rest of the order (sofa and bedroom set) to me on dec 23rd. i was told if i cancelled i would lose my deposit. Since i needed the furniture for christmas i paid the remaining balance (order value was £2000). Anyway, on delivery day they only delivered the bedroom set which also was damp and looked trashed. I phoned their transport team and was told the sofa was never booked in. I was fuming then as they were closed till boxing day and basically meant my guests on christmas wont have any where to sit.

I went in on boxing day demanding a refund of the order and compensation for the inconvenience. The manager said i would have to put my complaint in writing to them. I have put my written complaint in today and the manager said I should hear from them soon.

Anyway, i wondering what are my rights in this situation? if they refuse me a refund, are there any steps i can take to reclaim my money?

smcaul

Did you make the manager/salesperson aware at the time of order that you required them before Xmas? If you did then this can form part of the contract, and by failing to deliver on time you can cancel and get all your money back. Sounds like they are going to try and give you the run around - luckily you can take them to the small claims court - faulty items (damp etc) items not delivered within specified time scales, go to moneyclaimonline.gov.uk start everything off or fill in the forms take them into the shop and place them in front of the manager (preferably with customers around) and tell him he has 24hrs to issue a refund before you submit the forms online and start proceedings - then hopefully stand back and watch him start jumping - the forms tend to somewhat focus their attentions to your troubles.

kungfuman

When i placed the order back in 28th Oct I did ask the sales staff that i wanted it for christmas and he said no problems. Its down on the sales order as middle of december but their usual get out loophole with 'estimated delivery - we would not be liable blah blah' terms. I'll see how they respond to my written complaint, but as you say, if they are going to give me a run, then i'll go down the money claim route. Just wondering, how much does the moneyclaim procedure cost and can this be added to the claim?

Blacksheep1979

yes you can add your costs - it costs differing amounts depending on how much you're claiming. Should all be listed on there or a quick google for small claims court costs should sort you out.

kungfuman

UPDATE: i went to the store to and had a little rant. the manager phoned customer services and basically they are going to refund the sofa set and coffee tables but not bedroom set cause it has already been delivered. They say the only way they would refund me is if they sent an inspector to look at the goods and if anyway damaged then they would refund me. I'm really not happy the way they have dealt with this at all. are the any other routes i can try, i.e threaten to go to trading standards etc?