Is this legal? MFI renege on offers

Barbie_doll

Had a kitchen quote from Ikea before Easter 08. Discovered MFI had offer on - I did not copy text from website & offer changed shortly afterwards so no hard evidence, although thus far, offer not disputed by MFI. Offer = a) price match PLUS b) free install (over certain value). Naturally, got MFI to quote PDQ. MFI could not match price (over £1k/ 25% more than Ikea) and said, no free install due to heavily discounting me already! When pushed, MFI claim that Ikea cabinets are only 12mm thick & therefore inferior & price match only on like-4-like. Actually, my Ikea cabinets 18mm vs MFI range 15mm, so Ikea quality better. MFI not responding to any emails/ requests for info/ further clarification. :mad:
1) Anyone got text copy of this offer, esp T&C / know how I can get a copy please?
2) Legally, where do I stand please?

Tozer

This is tricky as you have not actually gone with MFI and have therefore not got a contract with them.

Afraid there is little you can do legally.

nomoneytoday

If Ikea are better (18mm cabinets etc) then why do you want MFI to price match?

Barbie_doll

15mm vs 18mm cabinets not really an issue for location and proposed use: will be well protected by sturdy work surfaces and doors (much more important).

So no grounds to pursue? :mad:

Anyone have similar experiences with companies reneging on special offers? :rolleyes:

pinkshoes

Legally you have no rights, as you had no contract. I'm not sure you'll get much further re-negotiating, as perhaps they just don't want the business that badly??

If the quality is the same, the delivery dates are the same, the installation is the same, then I'd just go with IKEA.

Barbie_doll

Totally understand. It was the free fitting - worth around a wopping £5,000 - that I was particularly after. Dash & double dash! :cool:

Many thanks for comments so far. Would still be interested to know if anyone has the text of the offer/ has experienced a similar problem with MFI/ successfully made use of their offer.

poet123

Not without a contract between you and MFI.

We sucessfully sued a well known furniture store some years ago when we bought a suite and they offered the full purchase price back in 5 years provided you did xyz,which we did. They responded by saying the company they were insured with had reneged on the deal, so they could no longer honour it(I think that was how it went,details are hazy now,it is 6/7 years ago).

We countered witht the fact that our contract was with them,it went to court and they sent a barrister down(even though it was small claims court)that in itself went down badly with the judge,but we won on merit,clarity,and detail and how it was presented, I think,as 2 other cases identical to ours(we assumed)lost.

tallyhoh

Dont go for the free fitting, dont know of anyone happy with it.

dangeroussports

Barbie doll,

you need to build a small bridge and get over it.

Why dont you pay a little extra and get a half decent kitchen instead. Why bother with chipboard when you can have a quality solid wood product which will last you years rather than something from Ikea / MFI which falls apart when the cat takes a p**s on the worktop.

I shake my head at this sort of budgeting.

Benji

Barbie_doll wrote: »

1) Anyone got text copy of this offer, esp T&C / know how I can get a copy please?

Tried to get a copy for you through www.archive.org but interestingly MFIs website is specifically set up through its robots.txt file to prevent itself being cached.

Maybe this is a recurring problem with them and they are trying to prevent people obtaining evidence?

Of course, it is possible they do this to stop search engines indexing their pages - that's the usual use for the robots.txt file - but why would they want to NOT be on Google?

Benji

dangeroussports wrote: »

I shake my head at this sort of budgeting.

Hi DS, you must remember that not everyone can afford the type of kitchen you suggest - a basic 'cheap' flat-pack unit might cost £50, solid wood pre-assembled is going to be much closer to £200. That might be 'a little extra' to you, but it isn't to me, especially when you multiply that by, say, a dozen cabinets.

Incidentally, you really mustn't let the cat take a p on your worktops - it's not hygenic and makes the sandwiches soggy.