Furniture shop won't change delivery date-what are my rights?

Hi, I purchased a sofa from mcfarland's store in athlone last week
now my auntie in law was meant to take the one i havenow but she informed me on friday evening that she could not take it.
My sofa was been delivered saturday!!
i called into the store on saturday morning before the van had left and told the gentleman the problem that had rose up
i explained to him that i would not be in a position to take the couch yet as i had not got rid of the old one
he then said that i had to take it today as it was on the truck already and i again told him that i could not take it and said that if i could not take that i will bring back in my receipt and get a refund
he then got annoyed and said i could not do that and if i wanted to go legal on this issue i could
now i work in retail and while i have no real legal expertise i am fairly sure i was entitled to a refund fair and square if i had my receipt
in the end i had to arrange for my elderly parents to store it at their inconvience and because i had no transport i had to use their truck to bring it from my house to theirs and had to pay them €30 for this
now i know people will say that is right but i have put in over €2000 to this man in the last year alone and surely he could have done this for free
just want to know what i could have done and also to let you know where to go before you shop

Re: was i wromg

hassy said:

now i work in retail and while i have no real legal expertise i am fairly sure i was entitled to a refund fair and square if i had my receipt

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You are only entitled to a refund if the goods are faulty etc. Anything else is at the discretion of the shop. I can't see that the shop have done anything wrong at all here. From a customer relations perspective if you have been a good customer maybe they could have been more accomodating but you seem to have been acting unreasonably too which won't have helped your cause.

Edit: If they delayed delivery unreasonably you might have a case to make for cancelling the contract as they have not lived up to the terms of delivery or possibly if it was made clear and agreed by them in advance that you needed some time to be ready to take delivery i.e. the terms of delivery were explicit that delivery was to be delayed. However it seems you agreed a delivery date at the time of purchase and then you tried to change it after the fact (and after they loaded it for delivery which meant they would effectively have it out for delivery twice if they accepted your change)

Agree 100% with what dam099 has said. No legal rights in this case, good customer relations may have seen the shop accomodate you, but they haven't done anything wrong.

Re: was i wromg

fair enough i still would not be entitled to a refund if the goods could no longer fit in my house though

No - that's not a flaw with the goods and it's not the retailer's problem.

They would have loaded up the truck, probably on the Friday evening.
Your sofa could have been the first item loaded on the truck, and they would
have had to unload everything to get yours off, then reload. This would have
delayed the delivery of all items on that truck considerably if you consider the logistics of delivering huge items to lots of destinations (traffic, getting stuff up stairs, assembling items like tables etc) I am not supprised yer man
got a bit testy! I just moved into a new home and have been recieving delivery of many items in the past few months, I was dreading it, as i expected delays,breakages etc but all came on time. Funiture sellers now IMO are improving their delivery service and have it timed down to a tee.

I have dealt with McFarlands in Athlone on a number of occasions and found them excellent to deal with. Their prices are extremely competitive too. I wanted to buy beds recently. I priced them in McFarlands and they were way cheaper than the big shops in Cork & Dublin. It's just a pity I live so far away...
I think it's a bit harsh to knock a retailer just because they won't accommodate your change in circumstances at such short notice.

This is all covered in the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act.

I second what CCOVICH says.

hi new to this.


i have dealt with Mcfarlands for years since i first moved out of home & i have found them very Helpfull, competative pricing & also have a facility to allow you to put a deposit on your furniture & make payments on them every week till you have it payed. which i thought was great.

i have recently bought a Leather suite off them and had it only approx 4 weeks and the stitching started to rip, my aunt also bought the same one only different colour 2 weeks previous & hers has ripped also. i was very surprised as i always found the Quality of their furniture to be excellent. i havent gone back to them as i cant find my reciept but they seem to keep a docket book for people who are making payments every week on furniture which i was.....

i dont know if i have a right to go back & complain or not seen as i dont have my reciept....

if you've been dealing with them that long i'd go back straight away and your aunt should too. notify them as early as possible and then you can sort out finding your receipt afterwards - they should have your details in the docket book too. if both yourself and your aunt went in together that would probably help.