Cancelling An Order

[Kathyan]

Daughter went into bed shop to buy a bed. Saw one she liked and placed an order.
Paid a deposit of £200 signed an order form which said "I confirrm that I have received and
I am bound by the terms and conditions of sale (see attached leaflet)".
She has been trying to cancel the order but she was given wrong information about cancellation
procedure. They keep referring to terms and conditions. The leaflet was not attached to the order
form she was given and she was told they were online. Where does she stand legally?

[Buenchico]

There's no cooling-off period for items purchased (or ordered) in a shop. The only exception might be where a store clearly advertises a policy such as "You can return unused goods within 30 days for a full refund". (Under such circumstances it could be argued that the statement formed part of the contract of purchase). Since your daughter was not relying on such a statement when she placed her order, she has entered into a legally binding contract to purchase the bed.

The absence of the leaflet might actually place your daughter in a worse position than if it had actually been provided. If the leaflet had offered the chance to cancel the contract within a certain period, your daughter could argue that the statement formed part of the contract which she'd entered into. However since she signed the contract without any knowledge of such a discretionary term, she's left in the same position as anyone else who buys in a shop(where no additional rights, in respect of cancellation, are offered by the vendor). i.e. there's NO cooling-off period and she's stuck with the contract.

[Kathyan]

Apparently there is a 24 hour cancellation period which isn't in the T&Cs but is in the shop. Her husband went into a closer store the next day and was told to ring customer services and ask for a code to give to the store (which was not true). He rang them but because it was my daughter who signed they wouldn't talk to him. They went back to the original store and they said that because they were (then) out of the 24 hours the deposit now becomes the cancellation fee. She hadn't even sorted out the finance for it!

[EcclesCake]

Your daughter signed to say she had received the Ts&Cs, I'd suggest she is on a sticky wicket!

[Buenchico]

I suspect that as far as 'legal rights' are concerned, your daughter is probably up Legal Creek without a paddle. However it's amazing how often stores will make 'goodwill' gestures if you hassle them enough, especially if you drop some very broad hints that you'll be contacting the media about your complaint. No store will risk losing thousands of pounds worth of trade if it can be avoided by simply handing back a couple of hundred quid that they've not yet spent on anything anyway.

Hassle!

[Bazile]

I'm not on FaceBook so i don't know what goes on exactly.

Isn't this the sort of thing that if you start a discussion on there , Firms tend to try and resolve an issue quickly to avoid any adverse publicity ?

[woofgang]

A friend of mine hassled Wren Kitchens when their fitters failed to turn up and Wren just said "oh they will come next week"....she spent time in the shop talking to a friend loudly about the fact that the fitters hadn't turned up when they said they would. It took about an hour for her to be refunded a generous interpretation of what she had paid Wren in fitting charges.

[Kathyan]

The staff in this particular store are horrendous! No customer service whatsoever. She's going down a different route atm. Don't want to go into it on here. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Kathyan]

Sorry it's late, but I wanted to let you know that my daughter did get her full deposit back! She went to see her bank manager who did it all for her. I'm not sure of the details but it was something to do with her debit card.

[hc4361]

Well done!