What are my consumer rights with regard to this furniture purchase??

mave

Registered User
Messages
25
Hi,

I could reallly do with advice. Here's my story.

Bought a new couch from store up north in May as it was pound for euro. We only gave 300 euro deposit and told them we would collect couch end of June as that was when our house would be ready. They said they would hold onto couch till then as they had it in stores at the time of putting the deposit down. The only thing was we would have to wait ten weeks for our one seater recliner as that was not in stores at the time. We had no problem with that.

Got a call sometime in mid June to say we had better come up and pay rest of monies as the pound for euro offer was ending. Again we had no problem with that. We went up and paid. Got the keys for our house on the 10th of July so rang up and asked could they have our couch ready for collection on the 15th July. They said yes.

On Tuesday 14th got a call @ 7pm to say they had an audit on the 15th no one could collect or deliver from there warehouse. Was quiet annoyed at this but there was nothing I could do except ring my friend who was going up to Belfast next day to tell him he can't collect it.

Another call from the furniture company @ 10am on the 15th of July saying you can collect your couch at 1pm when audit was over. Rang driver again who happened to be up there to send him out to collect couch. He landed out there and guess what NO COUCH. As it turns out they had sold my couch that I had paid for in May that they had in stores. Was told by their very friendly staff that it was not their problem and he didnt have time to be dealing with this as he has customers (guess what I am a customer too).

So was promised the couch would be in 22nd of July and that they would deliver free of charge as they had messed up basically.

So 22nd of July comes and I get a call to say couch is there ready for collection. Reminded them that they had agreed to deliver it as it was orginally sold after me paying. Was told very politely again that they would not be delivering as we had gotten such a good deal for pound to euro.

Was fuming at this stage and after many calls (all my side as not one of my calls was returned to me) was told that i had 2 choices, collect my couch or get a refund.

At this stage I'm a good couple of weeks without my couch and I didn't fancy waiting another 10-12 weeks for another couch so told that friendly sales agent that i would be collecting my couch but would be going further to head office in England. He told me "do what i want".

Sent friend up there again yesterday to collect the couch and luck would have it his truck broke down half way up, so we tried again today. Sent another friend up and guess what, after getting a call to say last Wednesday our couch had arrived it never came in.

Rang the shop again fuming and he told me there is nothing he can do as its the manufacturers fault but they have sent down a 2 seater and 1 seater with my friend and that my corner unit will be in and ready in 10 weeks.

After spending 2,500 grand and all I'm gettin is 'its not our fault and they have other customers'. I'm really annoyed and need to know my rights as this has gone on too long plus they are an English company so dont know where to start.

Sorry for the long thread but ye now know what has happened.

Help someone please!!!!
 
Re: What are my rights??

First of all, your post is incredibly difficult to read as it almost completely without punctuation. Maybe if you edit it and tidy it up a bit you will get more replies.

As to what you should do, its not clear what you want. Do you want the couch you have paid for or do you want your money back? Or are you looking for some form of compensation for all the inconvenience?

If you want the couch, then I think you should stick it out and make sure it can be collected when its available. Double check that it is actually in stock before setting off. I usually phone back an hour after I get the call, or phone the warehouse directly with the order number. Not a foolproof approach, but worth a shot.

Alternatively, ring the manager of the shop and insist they deliver it. No point dealing with sales people if they are being unhelpful. Hope you get your couch soon one way or the other.
 
Re: What are my rights??

Wow, if I wrote a post that long I'd take 20 seconds to come up with a better title than "what are my rights".

Have you read the posting guidelines?
 
thats great i look for advice and i get abuse for my punctuation thats real nice Aonfocaleile i'm not posting for a writtin lesson but thanks i obviously should be, had it not entered your obviously overly educated mind that its frustration and annoyence that i'm wriiting for adcive as to what i should do or where i should actually even start to get somewhere with this crowd ,hoping someone has dealt with a simuilar situation with an english company living in the south. been onto managers and have been trying to get the MD of the companies number but know one seems to have his number.
 
Hi Mave,

I have amended your post and title of the thread as I can see that you are extremely upset at this stage.

It will help your situation if when posting on AAM that you try to keep the posts short, to the point, use paragraphs and punctuation if possible.

Lesson over now and down to business.

You have been treated dreadfully by this company and at this stage it might be best if you contact www.consumerconnect.ie to seek their advice. Dealing with a UK company may complicate consumer rights.

Hope things work out for you.

Sue Ellen.

P.S. Please observe the no potential defamation posting guideline and do not identify the location or name of the company in question.
 
Mave...

Could a call to Trading Standards in NI help???...

I understand that they're VERY helpful, VERY pro consumer, and no company likes crossing swords with them... Might be worth a try... Here's a link to their website...

[broken link removed]

Hope it works out for you... It's dreadful how you've been treated by this company...

Darth...
 
Wow thats terrible customer service.

I would agree that if you want this couch and since you got a good deal on it, then stick it out. Buying a couch is not a once in a lifetime thing and i think it's safe to say they will never get your custom again. If they treat you like they have treated other customers i dont see them being in business for much longer.

On the other hand there are other good deals around up the north, and they might have it in stock there and then and you can collect, God knows how much longer your'll be waiting on this other crowd. Next it will be it has been discontinued, then you wont have the set.
 
thats great i look for advice and i get abuse for my punctuation thats real nice Aonfocaleile i'm not posting for a writtin lesson but thanks i obviously should be, had it not entered your obviously overly educated mind that its frustration and annoyence that i'm wriiting for adcive as to what i should do or where i should actually even start to get somewhere with this crowd ,hoping someone has dealt with a simuilar situation with an english company living in the south. been onto managers and have been trying to get the MD of the companies number but know one seems to have his number.

As a long time poster on this website, I would point out that by recommending you tidy up your post, I was trying to help you get more responses and advice. My post was NOT abusive in any way. I know this site well and your original post would not have received many responses because lots of posters here would have given up before I did. I also posted some advice myself. If you do a search for my posts (by hovering over my username) you'll see that through my posts, I regularly try to help other users of this site.

Sue Ellen's advice is top notch and something you should look in to.
 
thanks to those of you who posted with your kind words and advice.
Darth got onto the site and made a complaint so thank you, hope something comes of it.
 
It also shows that there are pitfalls to buying up North and the streets up there are not paved with gold. (I am not saying that it could not happen down ROI, its just that people seem to think the North is better for everything)

2,500 is a significant amount to spend and you should get some good quality furniture elsewhere.

I know it might be hard to take, but I would not leave my money with someone who behaved like that, even if I were to sit on orange boxes for the interim.

Hope you get sorted.
 
I hope it helps, Mave... Can't do any harm to get Trading Standards on to them, whether it does any good remains to be seen...

You must be totally fed up by this stage, and be like a briar at the moment...

Please let us know how it goes!...

Darth...
 
You can get on to Trading standards here there and everywhere and consumer rights as well. In these very difficult times no advice group will be able to get your money back if these crowd go BANG. The best thing is to go North and collect your money and put shopping in the wee north down to experience.

There has to be furniture retailers in the Republic that will be able to sort you out for €2,500 with some suitable furniture. Just find a shop that has the goods in stock and if you choose to pay use your credit card which will cover you in the case of more messing about.

Up you go and collect your money before its too late.
 
Hi Mave,

The company you are dealing with sounds like a complete disaster. Furniture companies can be very difficult and from my own experience companies that are run in this manner are in "trouble". given the current economic market I think you should play safe and get your money back rather than waiting another 10 weeks for fear that the company may have closed by that time.

However, if you paid by credit card etc. I think you should contact them to find out what your rights are. Previously, credit card companies would cover you if you did nor receive the goods. However, I heard that they were thightening/removing this facility.

Also, I know you were told you got a good offer but I would not be suprised if you could not find a better offer out there at the moment.

Best of luck.
 
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