Defective Furniture Twice - Can I request a refund whilst a third has been ordered by retailer?

ksm9

Hi all - see summary below - your input would be appreciated:

What did you buy: Powder Coated Garden Furniture (5 year warranty) cost circa £1500

When did you buy it? July 2024

Where from? Online Retailer

How did you pay? Debit card

What went wrong? As follows:

Paint defects noted on the 1st furniture item, with areas of furniture not fully powder sprayed. Raised within days with retailer. Retailer first suggested I spray painted the areas myself and they would cover paint cost (!!?). 

When I declined this they agreed to replacement furniture to be sent.

1st replacement delivered 3rd August, with similar (or worse) paint defects. I raised the issue with them again.

Retailer said another item would be delivered direct from the manufacturer (I assume in China) and be properly quality control-checked. At the time I agreed. I was then told after this there would be a 10-12 week lead time.

20 weeks later, having received nothing, I contacted them, to be told it would not be delivered till sometime after spring (circa 30+ weeks now rather than 10-12). Given some of this purchase was on the basis of supposed good customer service and a 5 year warranty, I requested my right to cancel things entirely, return the furniture and request a refund.

Online retailer declined this, stating that as they had already requested another furniture item, this would be delivered to me in a few months and I did not have a right to refund as the replacement process had already begun. Note they continue to sell this same item online so are not being financially disadvantaged or having to order a "custom" or "special" item. 

I remain with the first replacement at present which is functional as a table but with the paint defects.

What are the vendors telling you? Wait for second replacement to arrive in months

What solution or remedy are you looking for? Refund and return, and to refuse the second replacement, as the first was faulty and there are significant delays on the 2nd

Do let me know what you think as to where I stand - I understand as I raised this issue within 30 days I have to give the manufacturer one chance to replace/repair, which I have, and only agreed to the second replacement assuming a reasonable timeframe. With months of delays, can I now cancel the delivery of the second replacement? This is an item they actively sell on their website.

The situation does not bode well for customer service with this retailer in the future - am I within my rights to pursue via MCOL if they refuse to play ball?

Alderbank

ksm9 said:

Hi all - see summary below - your input would be appreciated:

What did you buy: Powder Coated Garden Furniture (5 year warranty) cost circa £1500

When did you buy it? July 2024

Where from? Online Retailer

How did you pay? Debit card

What went wrong? As follows:

Paint defects noted on the 1st furniture item, with areas of furniture not fully powder sprayed. Raised within days with retailer. Retailer first suggested I spray painted the areas myself and they would cover paint cost (!!?). 

When I declined this they agreed to replacement furniture to be sent.

1st replacement delivered 3rd August, with similar (or worse) paint defects. I raised the issue with them again.

Retailer said another item would be delivered direct from the manufacturer (I assume in China) and be properly quality control-checked. At the time I agreed. I was then told after this there would be a 10-12 week lead time.

20 weeks later, having received nothing, I contacted them, to be told it would not be delivered till sometime after spring (circa 30+ weeks now rather than 10-12). Given some of this purchase was on the basis of supposed good customer service and a 5 year warranty, I requested my right to cancel things entirely, return the furniture and request a refund.

Online retailer declined this, stating that as they had already requested another furniture item, this would be delivered to me in a few months and I did not have a right to refund as the replacement process had already begun. Note they continue to sell this same item online so are not being financially disadvantaged or having to order a "custom" or "special" item. 

I remain with the first replacement at present which is functional as a table but with the paint defects.

What are the vendors telling you? Wait for second replacement to arrive in months

What solution or remedy are you looking for? Refund and return, and to refuse the second replacement, as the first was faulty and there are significant delays on the 2nd

Do let me know what you think as to where I stand - I understand as I raised this issue within 30 days I have to give the manufacturer one chance to replace/repair, which I have, and only agreed to the second replacement assuming a reasonable timeframe. With months of delays, can I now cancel the delivery of the second replacement? This is an item they actively sell on their website.

The situation does not bode well for customer service with this retailer in the future - am I within my rights to pursue via MCOL if they refuse to play ball?

Welcome to the forum.

The retailer said another item would be delivered direct from the manufacturer (you assume in China) and be properly quality control-checked. At the time you agreed.

s23(7) of the Consumer Rights Act says:
A consumer who...agrees to the replacement of goods cannot...exercise the short-term right to reject, without giving the trader a reasonable time to replace them (unless giving the trader that time would cause significant inconvenience to the consumer).

The purpose of that is an attempt to be fair to the retailer.

The question becomes whether the delay would cause you 'significant inconvenience'.
Some people would not at all be inconvenienced by a delay because they would not intend to be sitting outside before April or May, but they are not you. More significantly, you have the free use of the replacement table which is fully functional. 

Also if you pursued a MCOL claim against them, the hearing allowing for the current backlog would not be before the end of 2025, by which time the new furniture might have arrived.

Food for thought.

RefluentBeans

Where is this online retailer based? If UK, are you 100% sure (a .co.uk domain or UK place-name doesn’t mean that they’re in the UK…)

ksm9

Alderbank, thank you for your input, useful points. Would the fact that the retailer has already had one chance to replace unsuccessfully be of use to me or as per the legislation, now I have accepted an offer of repeat replacement, do I now need to see this through regardless? 

RefluentBeans, this retailer is definitely UK based.

Any other thoughts welcome - I just thought what will end up being circa 8/9 months for replacement was an unreasonable timeframe regardless of what the table was used for and should on that basis give me the right to cancel...

Okell

@ksm9 -  after the first replacement was delivered which you found to be defective, did you tell the seller that you were now rejecting the item as defective and that you were exercising your statutory right to a full refund?

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you were legally entitled to a full refund after the first replacement was not satisfactory.

You might be able to argue with the retailer that they should have understood that this was what you were doing even if you didn't specifically say so, but... if you didn't specifically say so, it might be a difficult argument to win.

Did you agree at all when the seller told you they'd ordered a second replacement?  Or did you say "No - I don't want another replacement, i want a refund"?  Or did you say nothing?

ksm9

@Okell I did agree to the 2nd replacement - it is only now months on I feel I am being taken for a ride. As you mention I should have asked for a refund immediately after the 1st replacement. Now I have agreed I guess I have to wait - even if many months - to see if the 2nd is satisfactory and it seems there is no way round this?

Alderbank

ksm9 said:

...I guess I have to wait - even if many months - to see if the 2nd is satisfactory and it seems there is no way round this?

Since you don't want to share who the retailer is, or even which part of the world they are in, we can only give you very general advice.

There are other options and there may be other routes to pursue but we need more information.

Which is the website you bought from?

ksm9

Apologies I was unsure how much I was meant to share - retailer is mazeliving . co . uk and they are located in the UK.

RefluentBeans

I think this is a very complex issue. Generally, when the retailer has the right to repair/replace the goods the goods must then conform - if they don’t you can exercise your final right to reject. 

This is complicated because you’ve already accepted an offer for a replacement. That replacement should be delivered in a timely manner, but this is a tad vague. A t-shirt will have a shorter lead time than say a brand new car. 

I do think though that given the lead time has now extended a fair whack longer (over double the maximum expected lead time) then I think you should be fine to exercise your final right to reject. 

This is however really easy to say on a forum where everything is easy to do, but a lot tricker when it’s in reality and you’ve got retailers who at best don’t know the law and at worst try to circumvent the law. 

The best thing to do is to write out, calmly and factually the process that you’ve outlined here. Then say what you want. There will be parts of the law you can refer to - but I can’t remember them. But you don’t need legalese or references to write this letter. If that doesn’t work then the next steps will be looking at exercising your consumer rights. Normally through small claims.