Hillary's blinds, formal claim

mr_stripey

In my opinion, OP is being unreasonable.

Yes it sounds like the service was shoddy but ultimately you have the blinds and therefore should pay for them. A reduction for the "hassle" might be reasonable - i'd say 10% at most.

But make them your offer and see what they say

Okell

Jimmygg7 said:

Okell said:

Jimmygg7 said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Jimmygg7 said:

No worries. No, it was the price for everything, no breakdown.

Thanks OP

Where a contract includes installation and there is an issue with the install you can seek a remedy, ultimately to treat the contract at an end, but that is something you must action which I don't believe is possible now due to the contract having been performed (i.e blinds installed, presumably to a satisfactory standard).

Where goods are sold with a service but not itemised this is known as a transfer of goods (rather than a sale of goods), this does require the goods not to be central to the contract and it may very well be that the blinds are.

I believe where a contract is a transfer you can seek a price reduction for a breach (such as failed installation agreements) but I think IMHO £585 would be considered too great an amount given the circumstances. 

Jimmygg7 said:

Eventually, another fitter came and fitted them.

Now, they sent me a claim form for the other 50% + interest, that says:

What happened in-between these two events OP? Did they send demands for payment, did you have any discussion with them regarding pay a reduced amount?

Did you recieve a letter in the post informing you they would take this to court?

Other posters will know more on how to check but have they actually filed a claim or just sent you a filled in form as a sort of bluff?

They did actually. They phoned me to settle this once, and at the time I said I would. But then thinking about it a bit more, I decided that I didn't want to pay it for the aforementioned reasons...

As per my previous post I was on your side until you said this ^^^.

Why did you agree to settle, but then renege on it?

Seems disingenuous and unreasonable.

Don't agree to something and then backtrack.  You should have stuck to the argumant that they had delayed unreasonably.

I understand your perspective. I initially agreed to settle, but on reflection, I decided it wasn’t the right call. 

Everyone has the right to reassess and make choices that align with their stance and circumstances. That doesn't make them disingenuous and unreasonable.

NO!!!  You have no such right after you agreed to pay up!!!

I am almost exclusively pro-consumer on these boards but I am not going to support consumers who act unreasonably and try to backtrack on things they have voluntarily agreed to.

There was no need for you to agree to settle.  You should have stuck to your guns.

If you thought you'd made a mistake in agreeing you should have gone back to Hillary's and tried to re-open negotiations with them.

What you couldn't do is refuse to pay up after you had agreed to do so.

You give consumers a bad name...

DullGreyGuy

Jimmygg7 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Jimmygg7 said:

Would you think that a 25% discount sounds reasonable?

How many blinds did you have fitted? Or how long did it take them to do the job?

I dont think 25% sounds anything like reasonable as the majority of the fee is for the blinds that will last years and you have no complaint about the blinds themselves. If you assume Hillaries over charge and its £50/hr for fitting then you may have an argument for 50% of the fitting charge but nothing for the blinds itself. 

The payment was for the service as a whole, plus it cost me personally days off work, we could calculate that. We could also add the number of hours that I spent chasing them.

Took them around 2-3 hours to fit them if I remember correctly.

Lets assume they round up so its £150 fitting and so £75 deduction

Courts typically dont award "personal time" monies unless you can show you have made a financial loss as a consequence. Tons of claimants try it on in my former line of work (mid value motor claims where our policyholder is at least partially at fault) and whilst we may have thrown £20 of go away money to some I cannot remember a single litigated cases where the courts awarded it. 

Using paid holiday is similar, if you had taken unpaid holiday there is a financial loss and thats claimable potentially. You cannot claim for the first date they didnt show but you can include the last date when they did actually show and do it. They may offer you something but the time for that was when the appointments were missed not now months later just when they litigate. 

Jimmygg7

I'll go with the counter claim option and see what happens. I'll update the thread when I have news.

Jimmygg7

Okell said:

Jimmygg7 said:

Okell said:

Jimmygg7 said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Jimmygg7 said:

No worries. No, it was the price for everything, no breakdown.

Thanks OP

Where a contract includes installation and there is an issue with the install you can seek a remedy, ultimately to treat the contract at an end, but that is something you must action which I don't believe is possible now due to the contract having been performed (i.e blinds installed, presumably to a satisfactory standard).

Where goods are sold with a service but not itemised this is known as a transfer of goods (rather than a sale of goods), this does require the goods not to be central to the contract and it may very well be that the blinds are.

I believe where a contract is a transfer you can seek a price reduction for a breach (such as failed installation agreements) but I think IMHO £585 would be considered too great an amount given the circumstances. 

Jimmygg7 said:

Eventually, another fitter came and fitted them.

Now, they sent me a claim form for the other 50% + interest, that says:

What happened in-between these two events OP? Did they send demands for payment, did you have any discussion with them regarding pay a reduced amount?

Did you recieve a letter in the post informing you they would take this to court?

Other posters will know more on how to check but have they actually filed a claim or just sent you a filled in form as a sort of bluff?

They did actually. They phoned me to settle this once, and at the time I said I would. But then thinking about it a bit more, I decided that I didn't want to pay it for the aforementioned reasons...

As per my previous post I was on your side until you said this ^^^.

Why did you agree to settle, but then renege on it?

Seems disingenuous and unreasonable.

Don't agree to something and then backtrack.  You should have stuck to the argumant that they had delayed unreasonably.

I understand your perspective. I initially agreed to settle, but on reflection, I decided it wasn’t the right call. 

Everyone has the right to reassess and make choices that align with their stance and circumstances. That doesn't make them disingenuous and unreasonable.

NO!!!  You have no such right after you agreed to pay up!!!

I am almost exclusively pro-consumer on these boards but I am not going to support consumers who act unreasonably and try to backtrack on things they have voluntarily agreed to.

There was no need for you to agree to settle.  You should have stuck to your guns.

If you thought you'd made a mistake in agreeing you should have gone back to Hillary's and tried to re-open negotiations with them.

What you couldn't do is refuse to pay up after you had agreed to do so.

You give consumers a bad name...

Consumers "get a bad name" when they settle for less than fair. Standing up for yourself when something doesn’t sit right isn’t unreasonable—it’s common sense.

Bradden

Jimmygg7 said:

Okell said:

Jimmygg7 said:

Okell said:

Jimmygg7 said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Jimmygg7 said:

No worries. No, it was the price for everything, no breakdown.

Thanks OP

Where a contract includes installation and there is an issue with the install you can seek a remedy, ultimately to treat the contract at an end, but that is something you must action which I don't believe is possible now due to the contract having been performed (i.e blinds installed, presumably to a satisfactory standard).

Where goods are sold with a service but not itemised this is known as a transfer of goods (rather than a sale of goods), this does require the goods not to be central to the contract and it may very well be that the blinds are.

I believe where a contract is a transfer you can seek a price reduction for a breach (such as failed installation agreements) but I think IMHO £585 would be considered too great an amount given the circumstances. 

Jimmygg7 said:

Eventually, another fitter came and fitted them.

Now, they sent me a claim form for the other 50% + interest, that says:

What happened in-between these two events OP? Did they send demands for payment, did you have any discussion with them regarding pay a reduced amount?

Did you recieve a letter in the post informing you they would take this to court?

Other posters will know more on how to check but have they actually filed a claim or just sent you a filled in form as a sort of bluff?

They did actually. They phoned me to settle this once, and at the time I said I would. But then thinking about it a bit more, I decided that I didn't want to pay it for the aforementioned reasons...

As per my previous post I was on your side until you said this ^^^.

Why did you agree to settle, but then renege on it?

Seems disingenuous and unreasonable.

Don't agree to something and then backtrack.  You should have stuck to the argumant that they had delayed unreasonably.

I understand your perspective. I initially agreed to settle, but on reflection, I decided it wasn’t the right call. 

Everyone has the right to reassess and make choices that align with their stance and circumstances. That doesn't make them disingenuous and unreasonable.

NO!!!  You have no such right after you agreed to pay up!!!

I am almost exclusively pro-consumer on these boards but I am not going to support consumers who act unreasonably and try to backtrack on things they have voluntarily agreed to.

There was no need for you to agree to settle.  You should have stuck to your guns.

If you thought you'd made a mistake in agreeing you should have gone back to Hillary's and tried to re-open negotiations with them.

What you couldn't do is refuse to pay up after you had agreed to do so.

You give consumers a bad name...

Consumers "get a bad name" when they settle for less than fair. Standing up for yourself when something doesn’t sit right isn’t unreasonable—it’s common sense.

I think the time to negotiate is before you accept the offer not afterwards - as you said it's common sense.

DullGreyGuy

Jimmygg7 said:

I'll go with the counter claim option and see what happens. I'll update the thread when I have news.

Ultimately your choice but just for the avoidance of doubt... 

You were quoted £1,170
You have only paid £585

And now you are saying:

1) I dont owe you the other £585 + costs + interest and;
2) Actually they owe you some money because a 2 month wait is worth more than a 50% discount even though these blinds will be here for years to come. 

Aylesbury_Duck

It's very rare that a complainant's estimate of a sensible discount for poor customer service is reasonable.  It's usually an unfeasibly high proportion of the price.   Then they're surprised when the retailer doesn't agree.