Can I get a refund on faulty doors?

[justasecond]

I have posted this over in legal matters too.

I bought 2 sets of internal french doors from a company based in London. After many, many problems where they initially gave us the wrong doors, one of the sets of doors were finally delivered and we were told we would have to wait until mid July for the other set.

We opened them to check them within 3 days as stated the terms and conditions and there was some poor finishing on them like big globs of glue in all the corners of the glazed panels and the joins not quite meeting up . Given the amount of time taken to get the doors and the fact it was holding up our project we asked our carpenter to go ahead and fit the doors. however once the carpenter started to hang them he noticed that the doors were bowed on both sides i.e they do not meet in the middle properly. He did the best he could but he could not get them to hang properly. When they close there is a gap at the top and bottom of the doors. We have also noticed there is a large chip in one of the panels

I called the company to complain but they said that as their terms and conditions state you have to check the doors within 3 days, they cannot do anything. I told them the fault was not noticeable from visually checking them and would only come to light when the doors were hung but they are refusing to do anything about it.

Can anyone shed some light on what the legal position is on this. Surely they are responsible for ensuring they are sending out a quality checked item and not relying on the customer to do this for them, then washing their hands of it all if the customer takes longer than 3 days?
Would be grateful for any replies.

[PigletJohn]

UCTA

[justasecond]

thanks Piglet we are thinking of taking to small claims so that is good to know.
I have looked at their T&C and they expect customers to check for "Warping or bowing beyond the 4mm tolerance" . Is it reasonable to expect customers to do this before the doors are hung?

[PigletJohn]

It is much more reasonable for the manufacturer to quality-check their products to verify that they meet the quality demanded, before shipping them.

[SoupDragon]

I would have thought that they can say what they like in their T&C but surely that does not absolve them of their responsibility to provide an time that is fit for purpose?

[Wineoclockalready]

Yes the item should be fit for purpose, but by carrying on and fitting the doors after you noticed the minor problems, you are deemed to have "accepted the goods". With reference to the T&C's yes it is reasonable to expect customers to read them and to follow through with these conditions. I know you asked the carpenter to go ahead and fit the doors, but really you would expect him to check them thoroughly before doing so.