To think an £80 fine for missing a Daals delivery is unnacceptable

[Teapotdictator1]

Made a mistake of buying a table and chairs from Daals advertised as including free delivery. Couldn't book a slot for delivery at the time. The day before got an email to say I didn't need to be at home for the delivery just contactable. At 4 am on the delivery day, was notified of a delivery that morning with no number to call to rearrange delivery at short notice and had to go to work. Noone from the delivery firm called. Later same day got an invoice for £80 for a missed delivery. Emailed customer service to complain and arrange another delivery date. They refused to arrange delivery on any date of my choosing, and refused to remove the fee as it is mentioned in the long list of T&C they know that noone reads. Has anyone had a similar experience and been able to challenge the fine?

Awful company, had a bad experience myself when I ordered 4 chairs and one turned up damaged. They had no stock left to replace the damaged chair but refused to collect and refund all 4 insisting they would only collect and refund the individual damaged chair. what good are 3 chairs to me with no option to source another when I needed a set of 4!

When i have shared my experience and recommended others give them a wide birth lots of people have shared similar stories.

I can thoroughly recommend Swoon or Cox&Cox for similar products and brilliant customer service.

Now why don’t you have a go at understanding some of the other - very good - points that posters have made regarding the enforceability of contract terms…

please do come back and update op!

£80 is unreasonable but you should've contacted them the day before (after they said you didn't have be available) to clarify how they were going to deliver / where they were proposing to leave the table and chairs. That was your responsibility. I dont think you can leave it to them to sort that out - you have to be satisfied that delivery will be possible. As someone else said, where are they going to leave it if youre not at home ?

A 4am text on the day of delivery is a piss take. I'd be cancelling the entire order. I've always imagined companies offering 'free' delivery build that cost into the price of the goods anyway, then schedule deliveries based on demand in the area. I prefer to pay up front and have some control over the date.

IMO, if you knew the delivery day, I would have arranged a day's annual leave or work from home.

That's nonsense. Cut op some slack sorry.. it's not a loan agreement or a house purchase where you really need to take note, its some chairs and a table for crying out loud and never have I heard of a fine of 80 for a missed delivery especially when a date wasn't agreed with the op and they just turned up really... didn't even call, sending an email at 4am is not notice, its unprofessional on their part. Who could have anticipated that's what would be in the terms 🤦‍♀️

If you don't read the T&Cs, how do you know if it is kerbside delivery or delivery to a room of your choice or how much they charge to return the goods if you don't like them

Will it though?

I've worked in plenty of places where Ts&Cs have not gone through multiple legal reviews before being published. More like "written on the back of a fag packet"

They didn’t know the delivery day ahead of time- they messaged her at 4am on that day! I don’t know about you but I can’t just message my boss before work and get a day off unless it was an emergency. With a bit of notice I could

I thought the OP knew the delivery day, just not the time?

I'd point to the email the day before saying no one needed to be in personally. In our situation it would be totally fine to leave the goods at our back door. We live on a very quiet no-through road and they wouldn't be visible from the street; we have very little opportunistic crime. So the chances of someone seeing them, having a van to take them away in, and doing all that with what would almost always be a car on the drive, are very small. If I'd had that email and then got charged for a missed delivery because no one was in, I'd be furious.

I am confused. If you didn't need to be at home, why did they not just leave the items outside then?

This is the first time I have been stung by a failed delivery charge, and so will definitely be reading T&C more carefully in future. I still think that an £80 fee seems excessive when other companies charge no more than £30 for delivery of similar items. It is true that I was notified of the delivery date 2 days prior, and I was going to be available for most of that day, but I had to be at a meeting in the first part of the morning, and was only informed at 4am of a morning delivery slot. Because the firm promised a call from the delivery driver just before arrival, I thought I could ask them to leave the furniture in the drive at my risk or ask our neighbour to sign but there was no promised call or note that they had even been, just an email with an invoice. I have no faith in this company and won't order from them again.

Will it? Probably not actually.

Have you had to cough up OP?

You have to tell daals that you are happy for item to be left outside

daals will not do that unless they have received explicit instruction from the customer, which the op makes no mentions of doing

Same here. Had a wardrobe delivered and driver couldn’t get it off the van as it was too large and heavy for me and him to manage. Suggested redelivery when he had a helper so I agreed. Had the worst customer service ever experienced, tried to cancel the order which was very painful! They then deducted £89.99 from my card claiming missed delivery!

I’ve got some lovely furniture from Daals but their customer service is shocking. I won’t use them again as it’s just too faffy