B & Q Delivery failure....

[tomba90]

Ok,

 

A new one for me, I purchased a kitchen from said company and they specified a date in the future for delivery.

 

The T&C's on the receipt staded "delivery, we will do all that we reasonably can to deliver on time blah blah blah....., If they can't deliver they will contact the customer (me) and inform them of the alternate date.

 

B&Q did not inform me and I booked a joiner to fit the kitchen 2 days after stated delivery. Of course the kitchen was only half delivered and a could not cancel the joiner.

 

The kitchen still has not been delivered, third and final del. will be 12/12 hopefully.

 

So i'm writing a letter of complaint requesting all my costs incurred returned, sighting breach of contract.

 

before I post letter on thread, pointers from anyone would be appreciated !!!!!

[barracad]

Without having sight of the terms and conditions it is difficult to comment. However, if they offered a guaranteed delivery date then you have a good case. If they offered an estimated delivery date then you won't have much chance of getting anything back.

[rosiecotton]

Delivery times are what's known as a "warranty" rather than a "condition" of contract. If a condition of contract is breached, then this leads to the consumer being able to claim redress for breach of contract. If a warranty is breached, this is seen as less serious and the consumer cannot instantly claim this redress.

 

If the consumer, at the time of making the contract, has made time of the essence, for example stating that the kitchen must be delivered by this date, this effectively makes the delivery date a condition of the contract rather than a warranty - and therefore you can claim breach of contract.

 

However, unless the importance of delivery on this date was stipulated at the time of making the contract, it is very doubtful that you will be able to claim damages.

 

This is a wordier way of saying what the previous poster has already said

[tomba90]

My receipt states:

 

• This item(s) will be delivered on 08.11.2006 to a room of your choice
  
• 2 days prior to your delivery you will recieve a phone call telling you when the delivery will be am/pm/eve
  
• Someone must be available to sign for the goods

We did recieve the call telling us the time of delivery but no details that it would be short.

 

Point is I have incurred £500 costs due to the fitter having to come back to finish the job.

[rosiecotton]

Did you discuss the delivery date with them at the time? And are those words bold and underlined on the receipt? If so, you could argue that this formed a condition of the contract, worth a try.

 

It's a tricky one to call, to be honest. Normally companies can state "delivered in two weeks" or "delivered by" and this doesn't constitute a condition of the contract, i.e. if they fail to deliver by the date stated it's not classed as a breach of the contract.

 

You would need to prove that this delivery date had been made a condition of the contract somehow, though, as the law doesn't automatically allow for this.

 

If you could prove that you had made delivery date a condition of the contract, then you could claim your fitters costs as consequential losses for their breach of the contract.

[tomba90]

Hmmm, tricky,

There is nothing bold or underlined, I just did that to highlight the points. Though the wording does suggest a condition.

 

Is it worth discuusing goods & service act 1982 section 15 (i think) delivery of product ??

[Isiris]

Surly if they said they would deliver, which they did deliver, but it was short.

 

So they did enter a contract by actually delivering but the delivery was short hence the chap had made an arracngement for a joiner to come to install the kitchen.

 

Personally, why the joiner had to charge 500 to come back I dont know. If he said X to do the job, he will have had to do all the job, cant see what having to come back would make any difference.

 

Guess what I do for a living

[rosiecotton]

The Supply of Goods and Services Act would only apply to contracts where there is an element of service, i.e. if they were contracted to install the kitchen as well as sell it. (Delivery wouldn't count as a service).

 

You're looking at the Sale of Goods Act for this transaction and unfortunately as stated, this Act does not make delivery time a condition of the contract, even if a time is given by the trader.

 

You could try arguing your point, but it might be a bit tough. I know it doesn't seem fair, though - I'd be a bit annoyed too if I were you. It hardly seems reasonable for you to expect the kitchen to be delivered before making an appointment with a fitter to come around - sadly the law doesn't really give you much backup here.

 

It's always a good tip to remember that if you want something delivered by a definite time, to stress that time is of the essence when you enter into the contract. Sorry it's a bit late in this case

[tomba90]

Cheers for the info Rosie & Isiris,

 

I have sent a watered down letter, and we will see !!!!

 

Keep ya posted...

[tomba90]

Hey !!!

 

I must be getting good at this8-) , they have offered £350 to cover the cost's I have incurred.

 

I accepted as an interim payment, and they where fine with that.....

 

So I'm well on the way to getting it all back.....

 

Woo Hoo.....

[elgarsrondo]

I have had a similar debarcle with B&Q....

 

An expensive kitchen, 8 delivery dates .... but still missing workshops ...over 7 months later.

 

Eventually delivered on the 20th December after literally 51 hrs on the telephone and my insesant project management of the chief executives department and delivery centre.

 

It was admitted to me verbally at many points that they had sold over 480 kitchens knowing they wouldn't be able to deliver for months as a warehouse had burnt down and stock would take over 6months to replenish. Yet they still went ahead and sold them anyway. Is this lawful? It's certainly not honourable.

 

I put in a claim for compensation which included no kitchen for 7 months, cost of hiring seperate tradesmen for jobs 5 times, meals out (due to lack of kitchen), days of work, my time of 52hrs on the phone, and distress and inconvenience.

 

This came to a total of £3000. They damage limitated this with an offer of £1300. I have rejected this and sought legal advice.

 

It has been suggested to me by community legal services direct, OFT and Trading Standards that I would be able to claim under The supply of goods and services act.

 

I was suprised by the advice on this thread.

 

I would be grateful if you could clarify your opinion concerning my case.

 

Thanks

[MARTIN3030]

If trading standards has told you this,following you presumably giving them the facts then I would ask them to take it up for you on your behalf.

However before they would get involved you would need to show that you have given them reasonable opportunity to resolve your complaints and that has not been forthcoming.

If you can get the sections of the act that they have all briefed you on then you can put this in writing in a letter before action,and this will show that you are prepared to exhaust the law to fight them.

If they fail to respond to a letter before action,then I dont see why your local trading standards cannot take up the case for you.

If its outside your local area,ask about a home relationship between B and Q and the area TS office who can then act.

Ts will need originals of all communications between you and B and Q they will copy them and return them.

You have the option of small claims but I am sure the intervenion of TS would get a quicker result.

[tomba90]

Hi, sorry not logged in for a while,

 

Not sure goods and services act will help, as they are not providing a "service".

 

I went down the road of "breach of contract" kitchen was not delivered within a reasonable time, and you have incurred substantial cost's. A little threat of "small claims" did me no harm......

 

Read all the T&C's you have with the original reciept, and throw it back at em...

 

If you require the person's name I spoke to, it's no problem, just send me a mesage.

[handyandyc]

ok. here goes. i work for bnq warranrty take em for all you have . take money for loss of earnings . say you took time off work for when the delivery was supposed to take place and it didnt. send the recipt and a covering letter i dunno the fax adress but it will be something like b n q installation service centre units 2 and 3 lancaster court barnes wallis road fareham hampshire ... something like that cuz im at home at the moment but if you call 08453093093 thats the warranty department one of 2 of us will pick up the phone and give you the fax/email address or the company address and once you send the recieot we WILL refund you the costs since it is through fault of bnq that you incourred the costs write a small letter explaining all the bits and bobs and sound very very confident that you have spoken to trading standards about this and i completely promise that you will get comp. im sorry i can not give my name because of reasons that im worried i may get fired because i know full well that bnq will fob you off over and over again because we are so short staffed to get anything done honestly call our number and something will egt done i promise. as long as you have what you want. take take take get as much as you can out of bnq cuz they will give may take a couple of months but they will

[fluffythingys]

that was not supposed to be under the name of handy andy c that was suppose to be under the namew od fluffythingys x soz x fluffyty6hingsy