consumer rights advice

[sunnygym]

Hey if anyone could help it would be appreciated.

We ordered a sofa and its due to be delivered to our new house next month but unfortunately I was made redundant and now have to pull out of the purchase of our house, we have nowhere to store the sofas and will probably be six months until we are in a position to need them. Where do we stand with regards to paying for the sofa(DFS)?

Do we have the right to cancel the order without paying?

When we spoke to the sales manager they said that they would try to sell our sofa to someone looking for the same style and colour but we are likely to have to pay some costs, is this right ?

Any help would be great

Cheers


dont know why there is a smiley face !!

Edited by sunnygym on Sunday 2nd May 17:40

[NDA]

Did you sign an agreement in the store? Got a copy of that? What does it say?

[singlecoil]

Did you sign some kind of order form/contract, if so, what does your copy say about this sort of problem?

Have you already paid anything towards it as a deposit, if you have then you can consider that lost. Also, if you have paid a deposit, it would be reasonable to assume that the supplier would have set the level of deposit at one which would cover them in the event of your not paying the remainder on delivery, so you could write off the deposit and consider the matter closed.

[sunnygym]

Unfortunately we did sign a sales contract and it does state that the order cannot be cancelled but just want to know if there is a way out of it. i can’t see how i can be forced to buy goods. i haven’t just changed my mind i physically cant store them and i cant afford to pay for them anymore

We have not paid a deposit the 1st payment was due to come out after delivery (end of may)

[streaky]

sunnygym said:

Unfortunately we did sign a sales contract and it does state that the order cannot be cancelled ... i can’t see how i can be forced to buy goods.

Which bit don't you understand? - Streaky

[XG332]

i will store it in my living room for six months for you.

[sunnygym]

XG332 said:

i will store it in my living room for six months for you.

As long as the wrapping stays on that would be grand

Edited by sunnygym on Sunday 2nd May 19:22

[XG332]

sunnygym said:

XG332 said:

i will store it in my living room for six months for you.

As long as the wrapping stays on that would be grand

Edited by sunnygym on Sunday 2nd May 19:22

I wouldnt want to stain them,

[Jasandjules]

What are the terms of the contract?

[Dan_The_Man]

What are the sofas, get some pics on here, someone may want them.

[Superficial]

Without being a law expert if you've signed to say you can't cancel the order then it looks like you're stuck with them.

[ymwoods]

I see it as you have 3 options.

1. Get lucky and find someone that will pay the same as what you brought them for and then once you in the position to move go for the same ones again @ DFS
2. Find someone willing to buy them for only a little bit less than what you paid and take a loss on the difference.
3.Find a cheap storage place that will hold them for 6 months (or find a friend/PH'r with the space)

I would have offered my old offices for you to use as I am currently in new premises and doing up the old ones to rent out. However part of the "doing up" is building a van lift to get to the second floor in place of the current big doors and stairs so only have a tiny back entrance door to get in with tight corners and would have no chance getting them in! plus its very dusty atm.

[singlecoil]

There's another option. Tell them you don't have the money and find out how much money they want from you. If you can afford it, pay it and walk away. If you can't afford it offer them a lower sum and see if they accept. Unitl you've got some actual numbers you can't make any decisions.

[JustinP1]

sunnygym said:

Hey if anyone could help it would be appreciated.

We ordered a sofa and its due to be delivered to our new house next month but unfortunately I was made redundant and now have to pull out of the purchase of our house, we have nowhere to store the sofas and will probably be six months until we are in a position to need them. Where do we stand with regards to paying for the sofa(DFS)?

Do we have the right to cancel the order without paying?

When we spoke to the sales manager they said that they would try to sell our sofa to someone looking for the same style and colour but we are likely to have to pay some costs, is this right ?

Any help would be great

Cheers


dont know why there is a smiley face !!

Edited by sunnygym on Sunday 2nd May 17:40

What the law says is in this situation you have breached the contract.

Therefore they would be entitled to ask you for the damages caused by that.

As the moment, they cannot *make* you pay. They would have to take you to court and prove that they have suffered a financial loss and what that loss is. Therefore if your sofa has not yet been delivered, indeed, if it has not yet been made, then they have not suffered anywhere near a full loss. So, they could never argue this.

Also, they also have a duty to mitigate their losses. They can't just say that they burnt your sofa when it arrived and they want you to pay. To mitigate their loss they could easily sell your sofa, although they could argue that this was a reasonable cost in doing that.

So, if your sofa was £1000 and your deposit £200 for example:

If they sell the sofa for £700, the most they could legally ask you for is another £100 (plus a reasonable rate for out of pocket costs).

And here lies the rub: If they sell your sofa for £1000, they need to give you back your deposit in full, unless they can argue that they incurred some other kind of loss in doing that.


My advice:

In a nutshell, don't pay them. Write them a short letter explaining that you wish to cancel the contract with immediate effect, and whilst you appreciate that you need to cover your out of pocket costs in doing so, ask them to detail the exact cost of cancelling the order before it is made against the cost of selling it, ask them to take the course of action which mitigates this loss as much as possible, and to get back in contact when this loss is known.

They will umm and ahh and the most you will lose is your deposit, and most likely they'll just forget about it.

[ymwoods]

Do what Justin said, he sounds like he knows what he is on about!

[sunnygym]

we didnt pay a deposit

when speaking to DFS they said they would try to sell it (if someone makes the same order will sell to them)

[spikeyhead]

Justin has put in a reaswonable amount of effort to advise you how to proceed.

I suggest you follow that advise. The sooner you do it, the less it should cost you in the end. It's going to cost you some, but how much is dependent on how well you follow his advise.

[E31Shrew]

Didn't you get the 'nothing to pay for 4 years deal'?

[sunnygym]

no we chose to start paying it off as soon as we could

[E31Shrew]

Are you able to revert to the 4 year thingy and then perhaps see if you have a relative who could store for you.