Missed Free Delivery and Now Huge Costs - Help Needed!

tomsilvester

We have just ordered a playhouse for our 3yo and it was 'free' delivery, to be delivered Thu/Fri this week. My wife received an email at 0930 yesterday (Wed) saying they would deliver between 1130 and 1230 that day; she did not see the email, was out all morning, and missed the delivery. The supplier is now saying that we either pay £118 for redelivery OR we can get a refund of the playhouse less £130. He has had a massive argument with my wife on the phone, has said he will refund and take the £130 without our consent. We have used the template from MSE, mostly regarding the fact that we had a contract with him and not with the courier company and that he is in effect taking out money without an agreement.  Keen to sort this today as we needed the playhouse for the summer. Any advise from a 'return of item which hasn't even been delivered'/second chance of delivery/changing free delivery to now charged/timeline of their notification of delivery slot, etc? TIA!  

Undervalued

tomsilvester said:

We have just ordered a playhouse for our 3yo and it was 'free' delivery, to be delivered Thu/Fri this week. My wife received an email at 0930 yesterday (Wed) saying they would deliver between 1130 and 1230 that day; she did not see the email, was out all morning, and missed the delivery. The supplier is now saying that we either pay £118 for redelivery OR we can get a refund of the playhouse less £130. He has had a massive argument with my wife on the phone, has said he will refund and take the £130 without our consent. We have used the template from MSE, mostly regarding the fact that we had a contract with him and not with the courier company and that he is in effect taking out money without an agreement.  Keen to sort this today as we needed the playhouse for the summer. Any advise from a 'return of item which hasn't even been delivered'/second chance of delivery/changing free delivery to now charged/timeline of their notification of delivery slot, etc? TIA!  

Well he is not taking it without consent, he already has the money, so what he is doing is refusing to refund the whole amount. Whether he is justified in doing that is another matter.

If you agreed to the terms of the delivery and they were within those terms (?) then I am not sure you have as strong a case as you think.

I assume the terms were that it would be delivered on one or other of those days and you would be advised a one hour slot nearer the time? Or, were you told that you would be contacted to arrange a convenient time? There is a big difference.

sheramber

Were you given a tracking link to check the tracking for the delivery?

Aylesbury_Duck

As per the questions above, the important thing here is the set of terms around the delivery.  If you specified Thursday or Friday and that formed part of the contract, then they've breached that by trying to deliver early.

If it was more vague than that, and the delivery was likely to occur by Thursday or Friday, or those were estimated dates for arrival, I think it's more complicated.

What were the terms?

Undervalued

Aylesbury_Duck said:

As per the questions above, the important thing here is the set of terms around the delivery.  If you specified Thursday or Friday and that formed part of the contract, then they've breached that by trying to deliver early.

If it was more vague than that, and the delivery was likely to occur by Thursday or Friday, or those were estimated dates for arrival, I think it's more complicated.

What were the terms?

I had missed that point in my earlier reply but yes, I agree.

Your second paragraph is very important.

HillStreetBlues

Normally with those  kind of couriers you get an e-mail/text the night before staing it will be delivered next day and will e-mail/text a time-frame in the morning.
Personally I don't think it's reasonable to expect someone to wait in every morning till it arrives.

screech_78

Can you link to the product and website you bought from? 

If they’ve delivered earlier than they said, then they have a cheek to ask for more money for delivery. But hard to say without seeing the terms you agreed to. 

ThumbRemote

Surely OP is entitled to cancel under the Distance Selling Regulations, which would give them a full refund of the purchase and delivery cost. As the retailer still has the item the OP doesn't even need to return it. 

Given the retailers attitude this would be my choice, as can you imagine how difficult it would be to enforce your rights if there's a problem with the product. 

Alderbank

ThumbRemote said:

Surely OP is entitled to cancel under the Distance Selling Regulations, which would give them a full refund of the purchase and delivery cost. As the retailer still has the item the OP doesn't even need to return it. 

Given the retailers attitude this would be my choice, as can you imagine how difficult it would be to enforce your rights if there's a problem with the product. 

The Distance Selling Regulations might be your choice, but I can only imagine how difficult it would be to enforce your rights since those regulations were revoked in 2013!

TELLIT01

To contact somebody at 9:30 to inform them the item will be delivered between 2 and 3 hours later does not seem a reasonable expectation to me.  Assuming payment was made via either Debit or Credit card I would speak to the card provider.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP 

Where did you buy from? If a website which one please? 

There are 2 avenues, how easy they might depend upon the required information they’ve given you, or lack of.