Diamond Living refusing to play fair!!

DubLass

I recently paid a deposit on a leather suite of furniture, a dining room table and chairs and a sideboard to match. Unfortunately the house I was moving into has fallen through and I called Diamond Living to say that I wanted to cancel part of the order, this being the table chairs and sideboard but that I still wanted to take the suite of furniture. They have informed me that I will lose the deposit paid on the table and chairs ie 450 and that I cant use this off the balance of the suite of furniture, does this sound right to anyone else??:mad: (I have also paid a deposit on the suite of furniture)

Hagar

Did you pay individual deposits on individual orders?
If not, how have they come up with the figure of €450?

Doctor DooM

Well, if the furniture has been made for you it'd be a dead loss to the company if they did not retain the deposit. Sadly that's what a deposit is for, nasty as it is they're not doing anything wrong.

tbh

you ordered something, you didn't want it, you lose the deposit. Seems fine to me to be honest.

DubLass

Hagar wrote: »

Did you pay individual deposits on individual orders?
If not, how have they come up with the figure of €450?

Only the suite of furniture was in stock so he made up two invoices of my whole order and charged two deposits - I still owe money for the suite but they wont let me use the deposit from the table and chairs

tbh

DubLass wrote: »

Only the suite of furniture was in stock so he made up two invoices of my whole order and charged two deposits - I still owe money for the suite but they wont let me use the deposit from the table and chairs

but why would they? The deposit from the table and chairs was for the table and chairs. If you pay a deposit, it's usually to secure the item, and to protect them against losing money if you change your mind for whatever reason. Now they are left in the position where they ordered the stock for you and now you don't want it. So, they keep your deposit - it seems perfectly reasonable to me, I'm afraid.

jor el

DubLass wrote: »

Only the suite of furniture was in stock so he made up two invoices of my whole order and charged two deposits - I still owe money for the suite but they wont let me use the deposit from the table and chairs

Unfortunately for you, that's how deposits work. It signifies your intention to buy, and if you don't buy, you generally lose the deposit, unless the company have some policy in place that allows for you to recover it. This is very rare, and completely up to the company.

The only time you'd normally get a deposit back, is when the company cancels the order.

vms7ply9t6dw4b

They're within thier rights but being a bit harsh i would think...

Keeping 10% of the deposit, if anything, would sound fair its not like the furniture they sell is handmade. Plus you're buying other items from them aswell its not as if they wont be getting business from you! Very sharp practice.

Ring them and suggest keeping 10% and transfering the balance to the other item and if they refuse say you dont think thats fair and (as much as it pains me to suggest it) you're pretty sure Joe Duffy wouldnt either. They wont want the bad publicity, certianly not these days.

tbh

Ivy Juicy Logo wrote: »

Ring them and suggest keeping 10% and transfering the balance to the other item and if they refuse say you dont think thats fair and (as much as it pains me to suggest it) you're pretty sure Joe Duffy wouldnt either. They wont want the bad publicity, certianly not these days.

I'd advise against threatening Liveline They are not doing anything wrong, they know it, and liveline will know it too

vms7ply9t6dw4b

tbh wrote: »

I'd advise against threatening Liveline They are not doing anything wrong, they know it, and liveline will know it too

It doesn't have to be illegal to be wrong...

Paulw

Ivy Juicy Logo wrote: »

Keeping 10% of the deposit, if anything, would sound fair its not like the furniture they sell is handmade. Plus you're buying other items from them aswell its not as if they wont be getting business from you! Very sharp practice.

Ring them and suggest keeping 10% and transfering the balance to the other item and if they refuse say you dont think thats fair and (as much as it pains me to suggest it) you're pretty sure Joe Duffy wouldnt either. They wont want the bad publicity, certianly not these days.

With the way the furniture business is these days, they'll want to keep every cent they can. They keep 10%??? That wouldn't even cover their admin costs for placing the order to their supplier.

If you put down a deposit, you should check if it's refundable or non-refundable if you cancel the order.

I'm afraid I have to totally agree with the majority here. The company is doing nothing wrong at all, and there's not much you can do.

robo

Sorry OP - they are not doing anything wrong in this case. And I can't imagine that Lineline(although you never know) would touch this as it is not an injustice to you.

tbh

Ivy Juicy Logo wrote: »

It doesn't have to be illegal to be wrong...

that's true, and I take your point about the fact that the company could do more to keep the customer sweet, but at the end of the day, they are out of pocket because she changed her mind (or, in fairness, circumstances dictated that she had to). But what's to stop anyone from ordering anything and then changing their mind the next day? Deposits

vms7ply9t6dw4b

tbh wrote: »

that's true, and I take your point about the fact that the company could do more to keep the customer sweet, but at the end of the day, they are out of pocket because she changed her mind (or, in fairness, circumstances dictated that she had to). But what's to stop anyone from ordering anything and then changing their mind the next day? Deposits

Its not as if shes pulling out of a deal and taking her money to a competitor though. And again its not like Diamond Living have had this bed and sideboard specially comissioned for the OP. Her circumstances have changed but diamond living are still getting a sale from her, granted its a smaller sale then they may have hoped for but they're still getting the custom.

Just not a very smart thing to do on the part of Diamond Living i think. The OP is NEVER going to shop there again, and you can be sure she will tell everyone who listens about how she was shafted... and lets be honest she was shafted... it would have been very easy for Diamond Living to keep 10% (to the poster who said that 10% wouldnt even cover the admin costs of ordering it, unless the buying department fly to china to personally sign the order for every single piece of furniture i would think that would have it well covered) and transfer the remainder of the deposit over to the other items.

Theres an old saying i remember from my customer service days, "A happy customer tells an average of 3 people about thier experience, an unhappy customer tells 10" i would have thought retailers would be doing everything they could to keep customers happy these days.

parsi

Ivy Juicy Logo wrote: »

Its not as if shes pulling out of a deal and taking her money to a competitor though.

We don't know that.

I'm sure that all these shops have heard all sorts of stories about why people change their mind/need to pullout.

Doctor DooM

parsi wrote: »

We don't know that.

I'm sure that all these shops have heard all sorts of stories about why people change their mind/need to pullout.

Indeed.


Furthermore, many pieces of furniture are customised in factories for customers, rendering them useless for resale.


The thing with customer care is that businesses exist soley to generate profit. Businesses offer exactly the level of customer care they think will maximipe profit- no more, no less.


The real mantra of retail is 'the customer is usually wrong, but it seldom rewards to tell them so'.


If you believe customer care is truly king- or has ever been- you are buying into the carefully constructed image.



Sadly, this is all too apparent in the op's case- the hard side of the business is showing. But in the end, they aren't doing anything wrong.

Lollipops23

SDooM wrote: »

Sadly, this is all too apparent in the op's case- the hard side of the business is showing. But in the end, they aren't doing anything wrong.

agreed-also Diamond Living(like a lot of the furniture stores) appears to be on its knees at the min, i heard an ad this morning offering a minimum of 40% off everything. i'd say they're pretty desperate and so not in the mood for losing more money than they need to.

OP; the whole point of a deposit is to protect the shop in a case just like this.yes it really sucks balls for you, but that's the risk you take in ordering furniture before you've a house to store them in.

Welease

As others have said, there is really nothing unfair about what they are doing..

Most of these stores have to order the items in... hence the 6-12 weeks delivery times on furniture sometimes.. They don't hold stock because it's too expensive.

You asked them to order it, which they did at a cost to them. They are now stuck with stock they don't want because your changed your mind. If you change your mind, you forfeit your deposit.

DubLass

parsi wrote: »

We don't know that.

I'm sure that all these shops have heard all sorts of stories about why people change their mind/need to pullout.

You actually do know that, whatever about lying to the shop to try get back my deposit why would I lie on here when Im asking for advice??

antoinolachtnai

My experience with Diamond is that they can get a bit bloody-minded at times and start pushing the hard line. Sometimes they're much easier to deal with. It's a bit random. I don't know what to suggest.

The reality is that they are probably badly enough stuck for cash at the moment.

They are more or less within their rights. There is a point of law that you could call them on, if they turn out to be able to sell the item to someone else pretty quickly, but it would be a long slog for the amount of money involved.

Lollipops23

i don't know what people aren't getting-it's not as if OP recieved the furniture and it was damaged or something,or not as described.while it's not her fault the house fell through,it's not the fault of Diamond Living either;why should they lose money over it?this is the whole point of deposits!!!

ongarite

If you don't get your deposit back if you pull out of a house sale so by the same logic why should you get your deposit back for furniture,etc..
Both showed an intent to purchase from the seller and then you pull out and break the contract.

3DataModem

ongarite wrote: »

If you don't get your deposit back if you pull out of a house sale .

You do get it back actually, unless you've signed contracts.

DubLass

Ok heres the update. I wont say it was easy, as it took a lot of phone calls and determination on my part but today I was told that I can use the deposit of 450 as credit to use in the shop. Incidentally they didnt ok this until I had already paid off the balance of the sofa which I was happy to do.

So well done Diamond Living!!

Lady_Dee

To save the deposit going down the drain, you could very courtesly ask DL if you could possibly use deposit as a credit against a future purchase for when you are successful in buying a home...for commercial reasons it would be folly of them to refuse that offer. They could accept subject to a 12 mth timeline but better than nothing given it's currently your hard luck not theirs.
Best of luck...I know the feeling as I've been that soldier. Dee.

Lady_Dee

Threads crossed...well done!

dudara

Old thread. Closed

dudara