Wrong description on 1.5k purchase

[Gribbit987]

In January I bought 1.5k of engineered oak flooring from Luxuryflooringandfurnishings.co.uk.

In the description it says because they’ve used a non commercial lacquer you can buy the product yourself and do localised touch ups if required. It is really unusual for a wood floor product to offer this. We’re very rough on our floors and refinishing is very disruptive so this seemed a great feature.

The floor only got fitted in May. A few weeks ago my dog did some spectacular gymnastics across the room and scratched the floor.

I tried to buy some lacquer as per the description and got stuck - couldn’t find anything with that name.

I emailed them on 22/6 and waited.

I sent a follow up email on 29/6.

On 5/7 I received the below response (original attached):

“Good Afternoon Ellie,

Thank you for your email.

Osmo don't not sell Lacquer, it appears there is an error on the product information on our website. We use the Osmo Oils for our other products.

The lacquer our manufacturers use can only be bought commercially, as such these aren't branded so we are unable to tell you which lacquer was used for your flooring. I would recommend ordering a few samples of the flooring via our website and sourcing some sample lacquers from your local diy store and testing the lacquers out on the sample pieces of wood to find the best match to your flooring.

In order to relacquer the flooring the whole area needs sanded and the lacquer applied to the whole area. Patch repairs cannot be done with the lacquer as you will be able to tell the difference.

Kind regards, Luxury Flooring”

They've now updated the listing and removed the highlighted text.

I am not very happy with their response!

Not sure how to handle things going forward and whilst I have a ponder figured I would find out what others would do in this situation…

All musings appreciated 😀

I know you purchased in January but when did you physically take ownership of the goods?

Also, why was it not fitted until May? Was that fitted by the same company?

What a beauty!! With a face like that she can get away with destroying floors 😏.

I'd be seriously pissed off, can't believe they haven't offered a part refund as it's clearly their cockup.

What do you mean the listing doesn’t make sense?

I intentionally bought a lacquered floor. I’ve had oiled floors before and purposefully chose engineered lacquered as it is much more durable. However, you still get the odd scratch and therefore the description of easy repair really appealed to me.

Osmo specialise in wood finishing products. I assumed they sold a line of lacquer as per the information in the description.

IANAL but have contract law experience through work, their claim that the lacquer was commercially available was a representation on their part, which was a substantial part of why you decided to make the contract ie buy that product and not someone else's. So, adequate compensation could be something like them giving you a tin of the trade only lacquer for future use, or giving you a free re-lacquer for the first instance, or a substantial discount to account for you needing to sand and relacquer the floor. If they're not prepared to do any of that I'd take it to twitter or through your credit card company.

It’s MoneySavingExpert but Which has one about the consumer rights act as well. I used an amalgam of both to write a 2 page complaint and got a car refunded after it was also wrongly described and they also wouldn’t deal with it at first.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/template-letters/letters/problems-with-services/letter-to-claim-damages-for-misrepresented-goods-and-services/
?

I bought in the sale and received in January. Booked in for fitting and first dates available were May. Privately fitted - they don’t offer installation.

Oh the guilty party is very beautiful. I think any number of scratches could be overlooked considering

I bought in the sale and received in January

Ok so, as you sent your first correspondence on 22 June, you are within the the initial six month period. That means that, as the product is ‘not as described’ you have to give them one chance to repair or to replace - either would have to be done within a reasonable time frame. If they don’t or don’t do it satisfactorily, you can claim a full refund as you are within the initial six month period since you took delivery of the item.

You have to decide what you would be happy with. Then you need to communicate, in writing, quoting the Consumer Rights Act, what it is you require them to do, and go from there.

This link details your rights on Which? There’s a link at the bottom to letter templates.
www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act-aKJYx8n5KiSl

Ooh yeah, I’d be raging. Won’t take over your thread but SCS did the same sort of mis-selling although they hadn’t laid the flooring thank goodness so I was able to return it.

Could you ask them to send you some samples of lacquer and flooring for free given you bought the flooring thinking you would be able to easily do touch ups? It’s their mistake after all.

Push for a refund or ask them to commit to relaquering it for you every 2 years

Also "needs sanded" aaaaaargh

Thanks everyone 😀

Seems unanimous that they should be offering some sort of solution rather than dismissing me.

I’ll email them and update on how it pans out.

Beautiful dog! Good luck with it, OP.

sorry @Gribbit987 , only just seen your question!

When I said the listing doesn't make sense, I meant because touch in lacquered floors don't really exist. Basically choose oil (which can be touched in) and lacquer which can't. You absolutely chose right going for lacquer, but to anyone in the industry, the idea of a touch in lacquer would ring alarm bells, because no one has managed to pull this off! If they did they could retire pretty sharpish! They should have picked it up before someone could buy a product with that promise. Seriously though, have a go with the Bona Refresher, it won't be perfect, but will probably help.

Sorry - didn’t see your reply!

We used to have Junckers lacquered solid oak floors. When it got some scratches I bought their very expensive pro lacquer system and did some spot repairs. Small imperfections can be obscured with touch ups if you’re light handed and can access the products originally used.

I had intended to buy unfinished wood and get it lacquered when installing for this very reason. Their description, with its assurance I could source the lacquer, made me decide otherwise.

I shall have a google of the product you recommend - thanks!