Non Delivery of goods - Advice needed

Welease

Hi,

Hoping for some advice on this one, as we have just moved back from the UK to Ireland, so I am not too familiar with Irish customer rights and there doesnt seem to be anything covering non delivery/cancellations on http://www.consumerassociation.ie/rights_remember.html

We ordered kitchen table, chairs and a welsh dresser from a furniture company based in Ranelagh (I'm not sure if this forum allows the naming of companies). We were given a 1-2 week delivery time.. Over the course of the next 10 weeks we were given various contradictory stories on why it hadnt been delievered (chairs not arrived but everything else here, table not arrived but everything else here etc) , until I finally lost patience with the company and cancelled the order. I should note, that from week 8 onwards they agreed to order from a new supplier and we agreed a new deadline of week 10, on the understanding that if that date passed i would be cancelling the order.

In all of this time, we have had to continually chase them down as they never return any phone calls. The manager agreed they had been at fault and said we could have a refund (we paid 2300 Euro by Lazer upon initial ordering). The was early last week. As of today no refund has been forthcoming and i get the manager is not here, i cannot do anything about it line from the staff.

Is my only recourse through small claims court? or are there other options open to me.. and is there a certain time limit within which the company must refund.. i would hate for this to drag on for months due to their appalling customer service.. and in the meantime we still dont have a dresser or table/chairs..

Any input appreciated.

The_Conductor

I had a similar situation with some furniture. I gave a £1000 deposit for a lovely leather suite, I was promised delivery of 12 different occasions, and got all sorts of excuses about the driver getting lost, having the wrong load in his delivery van etc- over a 4 month period. I decided to take things a different direction. I got chatting to some of the staff (friendly) and asked a few leading questions regarding how much stock was on order etc. They had a massive order book that they had accepted deposits on, and advised me that none of the furniture was actually on order. I went to the Companies Office to find out details about who the directors. I rang one of them and explained what had happened- and told her that I was going to go to the press suggesting that the company was very possibly illegally trading while insolvent, and quoted the Companies Act to her- pointing out the penalties which could be applied to the directors of a company in such a situation. I received a callback from the George's Street branch of the store within a half hour (I had ordered the furniture in Blanchardstown, a different branch), stating that they had the couch and chairs in stock and could deliver it the following morning if I could be at home to accept it. I got the morning off, took the furniture in, and awaited an invoice for the balance owed (another £2000). The company appointed a liquidator 10 days later. I never got billed for the balance.

I would be very very worried about a company playing games like you're describing.