First time caller

[Jagsby]

New to Forums and driven here in frustration.
I'll try to kep this short - My wife ordered and paid for furniture for her Mum June 2011, delivered July 2011. M-in-L complained of problem with furniture. After delay supplier sent someone to review - he said no fault but tried to rectify the problem. We paid for report from independent upholsterer who agreed there was a problem. Company did not agree. Contacted CC provider who took up our case refunding our payment. Eventually supplier said they would provide a replacement. CC provider contacted us Jan 2012 to say we had won our case in that supplier had not sorted everything out in time. Supplier has now said that the replacement is ready for delivery and we need to go pay for it. They'll take away the defective furniture and replace with the new. If we don't pay the legal team will take the furniture anyway
The question is - we won the case, so what did we win? Who owns the goods ?
I'm not looking for something for nothing but what was the 'punishment' to the supplier for putting mother-in-law through seven months of utter worry and stress?

[teaboy2]

Re: First time caller

Hi Jagsby

Welcome to legal beagles, this is a complex area of contract and property law. But basically the supplier was in breach of contract warranty, as such the credit card provider is merely stating you were entitled to the refund the card provider issued. As such the property of the goods remains that of the suppliers. So no legal case par se has been fought or won, just that the card provider accepted your claim as valid, nothing more. Though it will prove useful if the replacement is also damaged in any subesquent legal action you take - Though chances are you will not need tot ake such actions as the supplier will want to avoid such action to protect their own reputation.

Basically the breach of warranty would in a court of law be seen as capable for remedy, which is now what the supplier is offering to do. What they are now saying is if you do not either return the original or pay for the new replacement, then you would be in breach of contract youselves, which is indeed true. Hence their threat of legal team coming to take funiture away as it still is their property. Though that threat is misleading as no legal team would come to collect it, it would be a courier, and you would be expected to return the original and have it ready for the courier to pick up. Or whether to refuse to pay for a replacement and return the original, and mutally repudiate the contract.

Bascially you wanted the problem fixed, they have now offered a replacement if you fail to accept the replacement then you must return the original product as well, and the contract will be deemed to be in repudiation - which means both parties are returned to the status they had before the contract existed, which in your case is no sofa, and in the suppliers case, sofa is back in the possession.

So what you have to decide now is whether to pay for the replacement (though insect it on delivery and if damaged do another charge back on your card - refuse to accept deliver and take photos of the damage too) while at same time contacting supplier making it clear they have failed to remedy their breach of warranty as a result of the replacement also being damaged as such you may take legal action if you are not refunded and compensated for their breach of contract, due to their inability to perform their part of the contract in compliance with the sales of goods act, now leaving you without a vital piece of funiture, that you would have had if it had not been for their breach of contract making it clear you withold the right to take legal action at any time should there reponse be unsatisfactory.

[Jagsby]

Re: First time caller

A big thanks to Teaboy2. Your advice was very swift and so concise. As a follow up, we did pay for the replacement the next day as Mum-in-law really wanted a decent suite. It was delivered 2 days later (it was already in the warehouse) and when it was unwrapped by the delivery man it had exactly the same fault (actually it was worse). So it went straight back and we took a full refund. Still disappointed that a. the shop mgr hasn't been in touch and b. that the manufacturer deems it fit to distribute supposedly quality controlled goods that are blatantly faulty. Anyway thank you again Teaboy2

[wales01man]

Re: First time caller

Surely common sense would be to buy from another supplier once bitten twyce shy comes to mind what would others on here have done?

[CleverClogs]

Re: First time caller

A big thanks to Teaboy2. Your advice was very swift and so concise. As a follow up, we did pay for the replacement the next day as Mum-in-law really wanted a decent suite. It was delivered 2 days later (it was already in the warehouse) and when it was unwrapped by the delivery man it had exactly the same fault (actually it was worse). So it went straight back and we took a full refund. Still disappointed that a. the shop mgr hasn't been in touch and b. that the manufacturer deems it fit to distribute supposedly quality controlled goods that are blatantly faulty. Anyway thank you again Teaboy2

Was the firm called Scruffy Cheap Sofas?

[bluebottle]

Re: First time caller

Was the firm called Scruffy Cheap Sofas?

Or Definitely Faulty Sofas?