Damage to floor

[Bomber99]

After very good advice on several issues on this forum I am again after some advice.

l brought a devan bed on line from bedworld around a year ago and after several days one of the castor wheels broke down. After calling bed world they sent out a replacement castor. Jump forwards 11 months and 2 castors have broken down including the replacement. These castors have now caused deep scratches to the solid wooden flooring. As a compromise bedworld have offered to replace all the castors with chrome feet without additional costs, but will do nothing in regards the damage to the floor. They are using the point it is general knowledge that you have to put castor cups under castors wheels when on a wooden floor so cannot be held responsible for my negligence. They also state if I had spoken to one of there representatives they would have informed me castor cups would be needed when using castors on a wooden floor.
I pointed out this information was not on there web site but again there reply was it is general knowledge regarding the use of castor cups with castors on a wooden floor. They also had the cheek to tell me the person who laid the floor should of informed me regarding the use of castor wheels on wooden flooring.
so my question to you lovely knowledgeable people is,
where do I stand regarding the damage to the floor and realistically what are my options in getting the damage to the floor replace or compensation.
many thanks for taking your time to read this post and for any information given

[R0b]

Hello

Not sure you have much of a claim to be honest. The starting position is that if you buy something, the onus is on you to satisfy yourself that what you are purchasing are suitable for your needs.

Certain regulations for online selling require traders to provide information before the order is placed and one of those conditions is to provide information about the main characteristics of the goods. This would include a brief description of the goods in question such as the main features but I've not found anything that puts an obligation on the trader to detail the suitability of the goods for specific uses.

Unless you have specifically asked them whether the castor wheels are suitable (your post suggests not) then I am inclined to side with Bedworld in this case and I would accept their offer. It comes back to the point that the onus is on you to make enquiries to satisfy yourself the goods are suitable.

[Bomber99]

Thank you Rob for your response and the clarification the onus is on me to satisfy myself the goods are what I require and the use of them.
But where do I stand with the scratching to the flooring when the castors became broken. Like I mentioned above one of the castors broke up a few days after receiving the bed and when they sent out a replacement this one and another broke up which caused the damage to the flooring.
They also mentioned as I replaced the castor they sent out the could not be held responsible for the repair done on the bed and therefore could not reject the bed as not fit for purpose. Perhaps if this is right on there part I should get them to come and fit the new feet they are sending out lol

many thanks for your input on this

[R0b]

If you are able to show the wheel was defective rather than user error then perhaps you may be able to claim the damage was a direct result of the defective wheel. There's probably a few hurdles you would have to overcome such as whether the damage was already there, whether the damage was too remote i.e. was the damage foreseeable.

The flipside to my last post is that Bedworld cannot expect you to know that castor cups were necessary to avoid scratching or damaging certain flooring. That would mean they are treating you and other customers as if you have the expertise and knowledge to know that castor cups were needed and that would not be right, unless you were fully aware of the do's and dont's or worked in that industry then you would be taken to be held to that higher standard. If the description on the website did not provide any limitations to the wheels then I guess it's plausible to argue that they were suitable as is.

Also, come to think of it, if the wheels come with instructions that specifically mentioned them not to be suitable for certain flooring then you would be out of luck since you should have checked first.

[Bomber99]

Hi rob thank you again.
Your time is much appreciated.
There was no instructions when the bed arrived as to not use castors on wooden flooring. There is no indication on there web site not to use castors on wooden flooring. It does though state on the website (if you use legs on
on the bed then you must use castor cups) but nothing about castors.
When I spoke to the manager about this he just kept coming up with, it’s a generally known fact by the public that you do not use castors on wooden flooring unless you have cups under them just like you wouldn’t put foil trays into a microwave.

As for the deep scratching on the floor I suppose it will be difficult to prove it was caused by the breakdown of the castors, but might add the two castors that damaged the flooring are directly opposite one another and when the bed is moved follow the same direction as the grooves in the wood.

Anyway I am now waiting on senior management contacting me. Will be nice to see what excuses they can come up with

[JaneVanceek]

I had the same problem! I had to change it completely

[BenWhite]

Hi rob thank you again.
Your time is much appreciated.
There was no instructions when the bed arrived as to not use castors on wooden flooring. There is no indication on there web site not to use castors on wooden flooring. It does though state on the website (if you use legs on
on the bed then you must use castor cups) but nothing about castors.
When I spoke to the manager about this he just kept coming up with, it’s a generally known fact by the public that you do not use castors on wooden flooring unless you have cups under them just like you wouldn’t put foil trays into a microwave.

As for the deep scratching on the floor I suppose it will be difficult to prove it was caused by the breakdown of the castors, but might add the two castors that damaged the flooring are directly opposite one another and when the bed is moved follow the same direction as the grooves in the wood.

Anyway I am now waiting on senior management contacting me. Will be nice to see what excuses they can come up with

You see, I was not warned about the need for castor cups for the legs of the bed. I quarreled with them for a long time.