Dealing with Furniture Company

[GRMA]

In July 2020, I purchased a Corner Sofa and a Separate Recliner Chair from ScS Doncaster with a total value of £4,454.98. A £2,000 deposit was paid, and an HP agreement was taken out to begin paying Direct Debit once goods were delivered.

26 Sept 2020: SCS confirmed that the ordering system had not picked up the order as the furniture was from 2 separate suites, as a show of goodwill, they would give me £180 once the furniture arrived and as I was sitting on deck chairs they would loan us a suite.

3 Jan 2020: As we still not received the new furniture I Notified ScS that I would like to cancel the whole order without further delay and obtain a full refund of £2,000.

ScS confirmed the chair had been ready in the warehouse since September but as I had specified both had to be delivered together. they would be obliged to charge a 25% cancellation fee.

ScS have now taken the loan suite back but have still not paid me any money back at all.

I have spoken to Citizens Advice and they have confirmed that ScS have breached The Consumer Rights Act 2015 and that the contract is void given the misrepresentation.

ScS are not returning my calls or answering my emails soooo,

My Question is, I paid the deposit on my debit card, if I contact the bank would they be able to get my money back on my behalf?

Bumping for you
Have you tried Twitter?

I would have thought so, ring them. Can you move this to legal? You may get some more knowledgeable advice

SmellyPooHead, it was CAB that advised me to keep going with it, but its very hard when ScS are not answering emails or phone calls
bravotango: unfortunately I am not on twitter wouldn't even know how to start :(

Have you thought of using the Small Claims Courts? We had to resort to this to get our daughter's deposit back when she was at Uni., it was straight forward and cheap to do. These days, that was over 20 years ago, I suppose the pressure of social media is as influential. I've never heard of anyone having a good experience with that company if there were problems, or the other 3 letter one either.

hansgrueber: we have started proceedings with the Small Claims Court (SCC) and have 28 days to submit the claim we emailed ScS to let them know that we were taking it to the SCC but we thought we would give them at least 2 weeks to respond, before we press the submit button on the claim, I suppose I was hoping they would be forthcoming if I prewarned them.

Wow, I would be so mad!😐 and you still don’t have any furniture!

It may be possible to do a chargeback with a debit card, but you cannot do a S75 claim as that is only with credit cards.

Was the 25% cancellation fee just on the chair or on the whole amount? If it was just in the chair, I would be inclined to think it was reasonable as it was available for you.

As to the rest, well I would be careful with using wording like “misrepresentation” if you start legal claims. I cannot see that anything has been misrepresented, it is more straightforward than that, in that they haven’t delivered.

It is worth giving your bank a call and asking about the chargeback, although as the chair was available to you, I don’t know if the bank would process that part.

Princessbanana: yes still no furniture hubby sitting on a patio chair and i am on a loaned patio 2 seater from DD
Aprilx: it was the CAB who gave me a letter template to send to ScS and in that it stated

"The Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires sellers to supply services which are “carried out with a reasonable degree of care and skill”. And the item provided must be provided within a reasonable period of time. It must also be "as described" which includes the delivery time.

I therefore allege that you have breached my consumer rights and that the contract is void given the misrepresentation. You are therefore in breach of contract."

ScS want to charge the 25% cancellation charge on the chair only their calculations are

cost of the chair is £1295.99

• £50 (castellan leather protection) +£25 (mechanical warranty)
• £30 (glides)
• £69 (delivery and assembly) = £1469.99

25% of £1469.99 is £367.49 am sorry that money is better in my pocket and not ScS

@GRMA

Princessbanana: yes still no furniture hubby sitting on a patio chair and i am on a loaned patio 2 seater from DD Aprilx: it was the CAB who gave me a letter template to send to ScS and in that it stated

"The Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires sellers to supply services which are “carried out with a reasonable degree of care and skill”. And the item provided must be provided within a reasonable period of time. It must also be "as described" which includes the delivery time.

I therefore allege that you have breached my consumer rights and that the contract is void given the misrepresentation. You are therefore in breach of contract."

ScS want to charge the 25% cancellation charge on the chair only their calculations are

cost of the chair is £1295.99

• £50 (castellan leather protection) +£25 (mechanical warranty)
• £30 (glides)
• £69 (delivery and assembly) = £1469.99

25% of £1469.99 is £367.49 am sorry that money is better in my pocket and not ScS

Oh I was not suggesting they were not in breach of contract, they absolutely are as you are still waiting for your goods. I just didn’t see any “misrepresentation”.

I am sure you would prefer the £367 in your account than theirs, but the fact is you ordered a chair which was not part of a set, it was made for you but you declined to take delivery. If that is the case, I think they are being reasonable (and more to the point I cannot see it being unlawful and I would imagine it is contractual) to charge a cancellation fee relating to that item alone. It would be worth checking your purchase contract on that point but I would suspect they have covered themselves. I would not accept some of the costs that they have applied the 2605% to though, such as the delivery and warranty as you have not had those.

You can get a chargeback via debit card (discretionary and not same as cc) but different platforms have different timescales so the sooner you speak to your bank the better.

*25%

Update: Thank you all for your advice especially regarding the chargeback, I contacted my bank first thing Monday Morning and received the money into my account this morning Happy Days :)

Further update: ScS have sent me an email offering me £928 instead of my £2,000 mmmmm no brainer lol x

Make sure your bank blocks any attempt to retake the money you might need to cancel the card you bought it with

Thank you Theunamedcat will do

You've had all your money back through a charge back ?

That's FANTASTIC

LaurieFairyCake yes I have, full refund, I have cancelled my card so they cant take anymore money out of my account, I am sure ScS wont let it lie Lol :)