To ask for some money back?

[Itsonlyorangejuice]

Ordered and paid for a load of urgent building supplies for 8am delivery today as part of a project. Have a team of builders on site for £350 a day and machinery hire at £150 a day. Materials never turned up and builders can’t do anything until these materials are laid (genuinely, that’s not on their word, that’s from seeing what’s needed and knowing they can’t do anything of the job without it) Building supplies company very apologetic as they ‘missed us’ and have assured me it’ll be here tomorrow by 8am, but I’m still out of pocket by £500 which isn’t cash I have to throw away!

Do I chalk it up to sods law or should I try and ask for some sort of compensation?? Hate stuff like this and don’t know if that’s U?

Ring customers services and try getting your money back. You should be entitled to a refund or some kind of compensation as they have cost you money'

Hhhhmmm to be fair having everything arrive the morning the builders start isn't exactly what you'd call organised. I think you should chance your arm but will probably have to chalk this down to experience and be more organised next time

Thanks

returnifthesmiley today isn’t the start day - It’s the third week. They are part way through the project. But something cane up that wasn’t expected which needed doing before they could proceed any further.

To clarify - the requirement for this stuff came up yesterday, so I called and arranged it immediately as I am onsite so I don’t think I could have been more organised in that instance

Check the small print. Most builders merchants have notices advising not to start work until materials are delivered.

You’d be unreasonable not to contact the company and ensure they compensate you for the £500 wasted due to their incompetence. That’s assuming you were given this morning as a guaranteed delivery time?

If so, no, it’s not Sod’s law, you took a company at their word they’d be reliable and their error has cost you dearly, so they need to sort it.

What does ‘missed us’ mean btw? That they attempted delivery but you weren’t around? Cos that changes things.

Lyndsey

Thanks, sage advice.

Yes, they advised we were second drop off which should be circa 8am by the route they had deliveries mapped on - I could therefore have understood a little bit later if they had been held up etc as they had a scheduled for a drop off before ours, but ‘Missed us’ means they left the depot this morning without our stuff loaded on, and returned after a full day of deliveries with ours still sitting in the yard. They were profusely apologetic, but I’m also annoyed that despite phoning every hour to chase it no one seemed to checked with the lorry and just kept saying ‘it’s been loaded and it’s on it’s way to you’.

Ah well if they were assuring you all day that it was on its way to you then yes I would expect them to give you some compensation. How much were the goods worth?

Ah ok sorry, definitely call and ask so if they only guaranteed delivery yesterday

That’s shocking.

When businesses fuck up like that, the usual standard is to return the customer to the financial position they were in before the fuck up, and potentially a goodwill gesture/compensation in some cases (usually banks). In this case I’d be expecting to be given the £500 back and have the goods delivered ASAP. I wouldn’t be fussed about any compensation as it’s unnecessary but they do need to compensate you for what you’ve lost out on due to their error.

Don’t even phrase it as compensation, phrase it as if you’re confident they will obviously pay you back for the money spent on builders and ask how they want to go about sorting this out. Don’t be timid or ask ‘would it be possible please’, be assertive and curt if necessary because they’re the ones who’ve messed up and need to be doing everything they can to sort this out and keep your custom.

And yes, the fact you spent so much time chasing it, and they lied by saying it was on the lorry, backs your case up even more. You don’t have time to be chasing a business you trusted to get goods you’ve paid for and been assured would arrive at a certain date!

There may be something in the contract from who you’ve bought from saying they won’t be held responsible - I had this with a sink which arrived smashed and was told I shouldn’t have got the plumber to come that day - despite the fact w only found out it was smashed when the plumber opened it.

Good luck, but I don’t know how much luck you’ll hav.