Miss sold heating system

[Mark1971]

Hi any advice please.

my elderly in law signed up to a 13.5k boiler and electric heaters from fischer future heat the salesman told him it had life time garuntee and the boiler he recommended for the water would fit where his combi was currently situated prior installation an engineer came out and i met him as in law was in hospital getting chemo for his terminal cancer the engineer said 1. The boiler was excessive for a 2 bed bungalow and it would not fit and the garuntees are only limted time span. I was shocked my on law had even signed up for this but said he salesman was very pushy to say the least. Any way i comtacted fischer and asked for the return of a cash 6k deposit and to cancel as what he was sold is not fit for purpose and boiler will not fit as per salesman instruction.fischer have replied and said no we willl do a boiler that will fit i refused this and asked for full refund as the contract can not be done as agreed due to miss leading info from salesman they have since offered to cancel but with a 4.5k charge. I think i have a case for the small claims court any advice

[Amethyst]

Goodness, just had a quick google of the company and their reviews are utterly attrocious.

How long ago did your inlaw agree to this? How was he due to make the rest of the payments ( £6k deposit? and £13.5k overall cost ? - take at least 10k off that price for an overpriced install anyway ) - finance agreement or more cash ?
Did he actually pay CASH for the deposit?
do you know the make of the boiler ? Bosch ? ( we've got one of those it's good and the council installed it a couple months ago ) but Bosch are apparently pretty hot on their reputation protection and licence resellers / installers and wouldn't be too happy about this company.

CPUT info here - https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rig...gulations-2008
Contact Trading Standards too.

Also, you could get a couple other companies to quote for the same to compare prices.

des8

[Mark1971]

Hi the boiler is there own make aqualine 150ltrs a monster well more than required.the last part of payment 7.5k they arranged finance agreemnet with barclays which he didnt even need as he has terminal cancer and would not be around to make payments and at there request.luckily i have spoke to barcalys and they wont release any monies and just need futureheat to confirm cancellation. I did obtain qoutes and came in at under 3.5k i jalso qouted to them they have been done for last 3yrs by asa for mis advertising products i think i will end up in small claims court just like to know if it is the way to go

[meellis]

One thing that comes to mind is the ruling on pressure selling. There should be a cooling off period between salesman and agreement which should be around 7 days. If the salesman was too pushy then you need to check the timing on this because the ruling was brought in to stop this in particular.

[Mark1971]

Thank you will do

[Peridot]

Hi Mark1971,
Just to confirm the 'cooling off' period for contracts signed in the home is 14 days not 7 days.

[Mark1971]

Thanks for the info but it was at a pre installation visit from the trademan that it was found the goods sold were not suitable this is why i beleive my in law has been missold as the salesman had measured up the job at the time he signed up my in law.

[Amethyst]

Was the £6k deposit paid in actual CASH or by credit/debit card ? or bank transfer ?

[meellis]

Your in law might have been mis-sold but if he was rushed and felt pressurised into the sale there is already legislation in place for his protection, mis-selling is an argument you will have to prove. Just because one tradesman has stated it is in-correct might not be enough in a courtroom. Future heat are already trying to work around the mis-selling by offering alterations as they legally can, your in-law doesn't have to except. If he was pressurised and didn't have the right cooling off period there is no argument about whether the equipment is right or wrong and there isn't any alternatives that future heat can offer they have just done wrong and will have to reimburse.

[Mark1971]

Hi the deposit was cash . We have had another reply from future heat yesterday saying they will offer a cancellation as a gesture of good will at 30 percent of the total cost which is £4050 plus vat i said to them that is almost all of his deposit and no and how do they get to this figure this feels like pressure to accept there other offer of alternative as who would give away all the deposit. They are confusing me as one minute they refute all allegations and say contract stands then say we wil give you new alternative and alter contract and now would cancel but you lose virtually all deposit. If my in law was well at the time i have no dout he woyld not of invited them in to push there product and let them pressure into signing

[Amethyst]

Okay. How on earth did he have £6k in cash available to pay them?

Can you just do a quick timeline - when was the sales visit/contract signed, how long after did the man come to fit the boiler ( presumably you cancelled same/next day after that) and do you have the copies of the contracts ( sales and finance contracts ?) and have you put anything in writing to them ( or to BPF ) as yet ?

[Mark1971]

Hi i was also quite shocked he had 6k sitting around in cash but it is his money so i can only advise him not to keep vast amounts at home. The timeline was he switched to fischer for utilities several months ago he then started getting fliers promoting other products so when he found out he had terminal cancer he started to put his affairs in order without our knowledge he contacted them in november looking for storage heaters they sent out a rep same month and he surveyed property listed wherw every rhing qas ro be fit assuring it would all go as requestwd and contract drawn up that month they signed him up to an intrest free loan for 7.5k which he wont be around to pay and booked installiation for 28 feb it was only when there installation team came last week i was there and they said it wont fit i then contacted them on behalf of in law and said that the salesman has misslead and we want to cancel.yes we do have copies of contract

[Mark1971]

Apologies for the poor grammer i am replying from my phone at present..

[Amethyst]

https://www.fischerenergy.co.uk/ ? Didn't realise they did that too. Goodness.

The cancellation I believe would run from the date the goods were supplied ( or supplied and found to be entirely unsuitable in this case ) and is 14 days.

Consumer Contracts regs

(3) If the contract is a sales contract and none of paragraphs (4) to (6) applies, the cancellation period ends at the end of 14 days after the day on which the goods come into the physical possession of—

(a)the consumer, or

(b)a person, other than the carrier, identified by the consumer to take possession of them.

Does the contract give cancellation details? ( a picture of the contract would be great )

So keep at them, and if they refuse then yes, go to small claims IMO. Put your cancellation and request for refund in writing.

You've cancelled the credit agreement in writing ? If not get that idone n writing too. If the company won't / can't refund you then BPF may well be liable under section 75 consumer credit act for the £6.5k as well. des8 ?

[des8]

I would agree with you there Ame.
Sec 75 is quite clear about joint and several liability for the complete transaction

The FoS website gives this example in a Q&A section:::

If you bring a claim under section 75, the most you can get back from the lender is the amount of the credit
.
No. Where section 75 applies, it gives the consumer exactly the same claim against the lender as they would have against the supplier of the goods or services, if there were a misrepresentation or a breach of contract by that supplier. This might be more than, or less than, the amount of the credit transaction - depending on what happened.