newbies need consumer rights advice please!! wrong sofa delivered!

[renton608]

Hi all im after some advice...

 

in june we visited a local sofa company who had a nice leather corner sofa we wanted to look at.

 

they told us they could do the corner piece in a proper right angle and not a rounded corner unit.

 

so we placed the order and waited......

 

fast forward to saturday and the sofa arrives and it has the wrong corner piece with it.

 

so i go into the shop straight after it was delivered and told them im not happy.

 

they told me there was nothing they could do on that day and come back monday.

 

so i went back to day and showed them the drawing the salesman did for us (which is also on the invoice) and told them again im not happy, the invoice also had measurement on which showed the right angle corner bit to be a metre square, the bit that turned op is 2 metres wide and just wont fit in our front room.

 

the sales man told us he would get back to us later today, which he did to tell us that they never promised us that and they cant get one??

 

we paid the deposit by credit card and the rest by cash for the sofa, what are my rights as an unhappy customer??

 

i managed to find the sofa on a website which had the correct corner piece but this other company no longer sells that sofa??

 

help!!

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome,

 

I'll move this thread to our General Consumer Issues Forum.

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[renton608]

thanks!

[silverfox1961]

Hi,

I do think you have the right to reject the sofa. In certain circumstances SoGA doesn't apply, mainly for custom made items but in your case, you have the dimensions on the invoice and someone has read it wrong.

Why not give your local trading standards a ring and see if they can offer any help

[renton608]

spoke to consumer direct and they have advised me to write 2 letters,

 

one to the company basically about the sales of goods act and that the item is not as described and that i want a full refund.

 

the other to my credit card company about section 75 of the consumer credit thing holding them jointly liable.

 

both letters going into the post recorded tomorrow!!

 

fingers crossed

 

the diagram is only on my order form as i think it was drawn on about an hour after placing the order for my piece of mind as i was going away for 4 months and the wife would be looking after it.

 

dimensions are on a compliments slip which is what they (sales chap and store manager) gave us and said they can order and to go and measure up with, this slip is attached to the order form.

 

when i went in today i told the chap running the shop whilst the manager is away that we came in and asked if they could do a corner sofa with a proper right angle corner piece as we wanted it to go tight into the corner of a room.

 

they said yes and the manager went away and came back with the dimensions on a compliment slip of all the bits we wanted.

 

the corner piece is marked up as being one metre square which was ideal.

 

we took this slip away to measure our room and when we had decided the sofa would be ideal with the corner bit they said they could supply, so we went back into the shop and placed the order. the compliments slip is stapled to our order.

 

the chap in the shop at the moment is saying that as the order just states 1 x corner and they have delivered a corner then they have stuck to thier side of the contract. even if it is the wrong corner piece.

 

i think they have delivered what "they" ordered which isnt what "we" placed an order for and as it doesnt give and sizes on the actual order form they are hoping to get away with it!!

[Kraken1]

If you can prove that it was a specific and express request, and the drawing was not just an artist's impression, then you should be able to reject. It is likely that the difference between what you have and what you wanted will need to be immediately apparent though. If you get a neighbour in, explain the problem and they look at you like you are a weirdo-nut-job, it ain't gonna fly.

[renton608]

Hi there thanks for the reply.

 

I can confirm it was a specific request as we had literally gone to the shop straight from dfs where we had seen a right angle corner sofa that we liked and when we asked the manager if he could supply a right angle corner sofa he went away to double check and came back with measurements of the pieces of sofa we would need to order.

[Sofa-Guide]

Hi. I have seen this issue with corner pieces, right angled and curved before. It seems like the salesman has promised a right angle piece knowing full well it was not an option on this sofa, in the hope that it would fit. Let us know how you get on. regards

[renton608]

i have just had a heated phone conversation with the sales man who was quite rude to us when we went into to complain about the sofa being wrong.

 

he is now saying that he is in overall charge of the company and that the person we had liusted as the md is not.

 

why couldnt he of said that at the time instead of saying he would have to get in touch with the so called md??

 

he is also saying that the headed compliments slip will get laughed out of court and that i have signed a legal binding contract (the order form ) which says we wanted to order 1x corner unit and that is what he has delivered.

 

how do you think this would stand up in court?? i have a headed compliments slip with the dimensions of the sofa we were led to believe the company were going to order for us, its in the same handwriting as the actual order as it was done by the same person(the shop manger)and it was ordered from them in good faith and trust that they could supply what we wanted. they havent.

 

they have then failed to supply us the correct sofa and are now back tracking.

 

also he has literally got off the phone to us now at 19.30 at night?? isnt that a bit strange?

 

he also had his phone on loudspeaker and had 3 other people in his office to listen to the conversation, trying to get me all tied up, surely this is entrapment??

[Sofa-Guide]

I would say that a compliment slip would carry just as much weight in court as a letterhead. Was the compliment slip signed??

[renton608]

unfortuanltely it wasnt signed but it is in the same handwritying as the order form , that much is clear. it was the manager who worte them both out.

 

the thing is we used the measurements of the slip to place the order in good faith .

 

the slip is stapled to my p[art of the order form though.

[Sofa-Guide]

Like I mentioned in my previous post it seems like the manager hoped this would fit. This seems to have backfired, but the manager is not going to admit this. I have experience In furniture retail. Be firm, don’t give up and be persistent. As soon as this manager realises that the problem is not going to go away he will have to do something about it. You may not have to go as far as going to court. I have seen you have sent two letters this should be enough for the company to realise you are not messing around.

[renton608]

what is my next step then as in the phone conversation we just had he was adamant he is not going to refund me or replace the goods.

 

he also said that he is getting the company barrister to write me a recorded letter and it will go out on monday??

 

can i take this as his acknowledgement of my letter i sent to reject the goods under the sales of gooods act?

 

is my next step a solicitor?

 

help!!!!!!!!

[Kraken1]

how'd you pay?

[renton608]

the sofa was £2300 . i paid 900 on credit card and the rest cash.

 

i have sent my cc company a letter holding them in joint liability.

[Sofa-Guide]

I would wait until you receive a reply from your credit card and the "company barrister" before taking any further action as it seems that you will have to fight this with letters. You can visit a solicitor for some professional legal advise. They will be able to advise a lot better than me if you have a good case.

[Kraken1]

if the cc company won't help then you can take it to the financial ombudsman.

[Sofa-Guide]

Hi again Renton,

 

So how are you getting on? have you had a response to the letters you have sent?

[renton608]

Hi there thanks for the reply.

 

so far the so called letter from thier barrister has failed to appear which im not suprised about.

 

my credit card company have replied too asking me for more info which i have duly sent to them.

 

trading standards seem very keen on this as they have broke laws by promisisng one thing and failing to deliver, it also appears im not the only person to be ripped off by this company.

 

do you think it would be rude of me to start charging them storage costs as the sofa is sat in my front room , still packed up.

 

we have had to cancle christmas lunch at our as we have no where for guests to sit !!

[Kraken1]

do you think it would be rude of me to start charging them storage costs as the sofa is sat in my front room , still packed up.

 

we have had to cancle christmas lunch at our as we have no where for guests to sit !!

 

No, but of questionable legal basis. Doesn't stop you trying though, just be aware that it probably won't work. Document your living arrangements and you can ask FOS to award you comp for the inconvenience suffered. Or deliver it back to them, and claim the cost back later. If it is that inconvenient, and christmas celebrations are at risk, that is what I'd do.

[Sofa-Guide]

Good to hear you are getting somewhere Renton. Sorry to hear you have had to cancel your christmas lunch. You have sent your credit card the relevent info, so they should fight this battle on your behalf.

[Kraken1]

CC co won't fight anything on the OP's behalf, they are a potential defendant and could be out of pocket themselves. They'll treat it as such.

[renton608]

right just more of an update really and another request for advice!!

 

i recieved a phonecall from the store manager yesterday asking me to go into the shop, i said i had no transport so couldnt so he said he would come to my house which he did

 

he went on to explaing that the sofa manufacturer does not make a right angle corner unit and he got the catalogue out to show me all the pieces he could get.

 

he then got out a picture of a sofa that is almost identical to mine, made by the same sofa maker but for another sofa company called csl.

 

on this picture is a rightangle corner piece with the dimensions which match the sizes the manager wrote on my compliments slip.

 

he then got out an email from the sofa manufacturer saying as a goodwill gestue they wil make a corner piece to match my sofa.

 

he offered no apologies and is adamant that the sizes on my compliments slip mean nothing and i would get laughed out of court if i took it further.

 

i asked him again why his so called manager had given me the dimension on the comp slip and he just said "i dont know"

 

the new piece would take 12 weeks to make and he didnt give me anything in writing??

 

he also said that if i reject this then he is happy to go to court as he thinks he has done nothing wrong?

 

my question is this , my wife does not want the shop to have our money any more. if we do reject it then how will this reflect on us if it went to court?

 

also as i am pursuing this through my credit card will the affect their decision to give me a full refund?(the credit card company that is)

 

the so called chairman of the sofa comapny who came to see me said if i keep writing posts on the ELS winding up thread then his solicictor has told him he can sue me for slander??

 

please advise as not sure which way to turn ??

 

thanks

[scooter19]

Hi, all i can say that this is very much like my case with els/yes sofa specialist, i paid deposit on credit card and the rest cash which they requested and they failed to send what we ordered. contacted consumer direct, sent letters and like you got intouch with credit card and under section 75 we managed to get all our money back, even the cash we paid was covered on the credit card. like you had the nasty calls and threats, just stand your ground and if you can record your calls all the better, keep everything logged from times and dates of phone calls to letters sent, get names of people you speak to as in my case they will give you different names for the same person and he will range from sales man to owner. Trading standards are aware of them as they got involed for us. i think watch dog should be made aware of them in the furture, i did put a thread on here about them but it was taken off i bet by them, i did email them on here asking where it had gone but i heard nothing back. so sorry you are having to go through this, i know it was very stressfull for me but keep your chin up and fight this till the end.

[sir_gilmour]

Hi

Welcome to The Consumer Action Group.

 

 

I am just letting you know that as you haven't had any replies to your post yet, it might be better if you post your message again in an appropriate sub-forum. You will get lots of help there.

 

Also take some time to read around the forum and get used to the layout. It is a big forum and takes a lot of getting used to.

 

 

Once you start to find your way, you will soon realise that it is fairly easy to get round and to get the help you need.

 

It can be bit confusing at first.