Business to business dispute

emj1234

Hi All,

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but it is my first post, i have a business that has been gong for many years and we are always expanding and trying to streamline our processes.

We embarked on a new invoice software so we was recommended a company from a welll known company who unknown to us didn't do the service we were looking for. 

I will try to make this short as its a very long state of affairs, we were given a quote for the service and software we needed to meet our needs, we acceptted this, a deposit was paid and we were told this could around 3 months to sort out, at the same time we would be paying for the software while the work was being done to tailor it to our needs.

We had gone into the fourth month and still the software wasn't ready to use, months and months have gone by with numerous issues along the way, 18 months later it was still not fit for use, we had stopped paying after 9 months the start as this was getting beyond a joke, hoping this would give them the hurry up.

At the 18 month or so we were pulling our hair out with them, we had tried to get a meeting setup to see what was happening with reply at all, we had done everything in our power to get this sorted but to no avail. We approached a solicitor for advice who said we should terminate the contract under them breaching their contract. 12 months has now gone by with the solicitor trying to get this sorted without going to court, we have no software and have only used it in the testing phase.

The company in question has said we have not given them enougth time to iron out the issues when we were told 3 months and we stopped this after 18months how time do they think was needed?

We are now thousands of pounds out of pocket and nothing to show for it, we are also scared of going to court incase we lose, but we have done nothing wrong here.
Please let me know your thoughts as this has been almost 3 years of stress and it is not over yet

Kind Regards.

DullGreyGuy

Unfortunately an advert for the need for a good vendor selection process including due diligence. 

So what outcome do you want and what would you be willing to accept? Are you happy to simply walk away without owing them any monies or do you want more? 

Ultimately there is little a forum on random people online can add without much more detail of the whole process and sight of the contract given a qualified solicitor has already had access to it all and advised. As a business, rather than consumer, you are much more bound by the contract you agreed to than having statutory rights etc which overrule the contract. 

emj1234

Thanks for the comment, all due diligence was done as far as we could, they were recommended by a really well known company, any monies we have paid we would like back.
Surely contract or no contract that shouldn’t give a company the license to take excess amount of time to fulfill it? Our decision on the agreement was time sensitive based on the 3 months we were told to complete it.

Okell

emj1234 said:

... We approached a solicitor for advice who said we should terminate the contract under them breaching their contract. 12 months has now gone by with the solicitor trying to get this sorted without going to court, we have no software and have only used it in the testing phase...

Sorry but if you have a solicitor who is giving professional, paid for legal advice, what makes you think that anonymous people on a Consumer Rights forum can second guess them and give you business advice?

You perhaps should be posting here - Small biz MoneySaving — MoneySavingExpert Forum - or just follow your solicitor's advice.  Otherwise why pay them?

Hoenir

You've sought legal advice. What's the solicitor's opinion?  Random strangers on the internet aren't going to have the answers to resolve a B2B matter. 

DullGreyGuy

emj1234 said:

Thanks for the comment, all due diligence was done as far as we could, they were recommended by a really well known company, any monies we have paid we would like back.
Surely contract or no contract that shouldn’t give a company the license to take excess amount of time to fulfill it? Our decision on the agreement was time sensitive based on the 3 months we were told to complete it.

So what clauses did you have in the contract about the consequences of delivery going over 3 months if the timescale was so critical? 

What was the basis of billing? T&M? Fixed cost? 

Undoubtably if you used their contract rather than yours there will be terms about you giving them sufficient resources available etc, it sounds like they are arguing that the delays are at least in part due to this not happening. Have you gathered your evidence to disprove this?

It's much easier to hold a firm to explicit terms of the contract than nebulous ideas that the time taken to date is excessive etc.