Returns Advice for Antique Furniture Shop

redbel05

This one has me slightly flummoxed, so hopefully someone can help. Sorry for the long post.

I work part time in a Vintage and antique furniture shop owned by my Uncle and Aunt.

About a month and a half ago, we had a man come in and fall in love with a couple of items including a large antique dresser. I dealt with the sale personally. Measured the dressers dimensions for him. He went home and measured her space he had for it and came back the next day to tell me that it was too big, so he bought the other piece and left.
Anyway a week later he was back saying that he had been in contact with a carpenter and was confident that the dresser could be altered to fit. I was dubious about this to say the least and said that although I am not an expert, I would not recommend altering it due to its age and detail. But he insisted that it was Ok, that he still wanted it and would find some way of getting around it. However he wanted a discount due to the work that would need to be done AND he would like to pay up for it over a month. I checked in with my uncle and he said that this was OK.
Fast forward to this week. He paid up and arranged for delivery. Due to the price of the item we gave him free delivery (usually €25 to his area). The delivery guys get out to his house and take the dresser into his living area, where he basically says it is too big, could they remove it straightaway and could he have his money back. He got quite rude at the end, as if we had misled him somehow.The shop did comply with him but looking back at this has left a bad taste. Its a small shop and if this happened often it would be out of business.

My question: What were the shop's obligations to the consumer in this situation? Is there a policy that we could implement that would cover the shop in case of future problems like this, that would still comply with consumer law?
Thanks in advance.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Sounds like a change of mind on his part, so anything you did was just good customer service but not a right .

coylemj

For a secondhand piece of furniture, bar he brought it home and it fell apart from woodworm, he has very little comeback against you. Even if he hadn't measured the dresser, you were under no obligation to give him a refund. Just because it wouldn't fit into the space intended, that doesn't give him the right to hand the item back and claim a full refund.

If you buy an item of clothing in a shop, bring it home and discover that it doesn't fit, you have no legal right to a refund. In most cases a clothes shop will exchange if the tags are still on the item and/or it's fit to be sold as new. That clearly doesn't apply here so the answer to your question is that you could have stood your ground and refused to take the item back.

He's obviously a complete time waster, I hope you deducted the €25 delivery charge before you refunded his money. If I was you, I would have deducted €50 - €25 to deliver it to his place and another €25 to bring it back to the shop.

Why should you be at the loss over his incompetence with a measuring tape?

Flatzie_poo

coylemj wrote: »

I would have deducted €50 - €25 to deliver it to his place and another €25 to bring it back to the shop.

Why should you be at the loss over his incompetence with a measuring tape?

You can't retrospectively charge for a service you waived.

Anyway, legally the customer is entitled to nothing here. Anything to avoid the worth of mouth worry you have is entirely out of goodwill and up to you.

coylemj

Flatzie_poo wrote: »

You can't retrospectively charge for a service you waived.

We're both agreed that the vendor is holding all the cards here so I'm not sure why you're making that point.

You can offer to take the item back as a gesture of goodwill minus your expenses and if he refuses and insists on a full refund, tell him to get stuffed.

Hobson's choice.

rubadub

redbel05 wrote: »

Is there a policy that we could implement that would cover the shop in case of future problems like this

Stop giving "free deliveries" for a start. Give them a discount if you want. Then there is no arguing about this phoney marketing ploy.

If you had charged him €25 delivery and thrown in a "free" lamp worth €25 as he was buying the dresser, then there is far less chance he would have attempted to keep the lamp when sending the dresser back -even if he is effectively getting the same value from you.

If this whole fake free delivery thing did not exist we would lose a good chunk of threads which are about customs & couriers screwing people due to no shipping being shown on items.

I was certain he was going to look for a refund after sawing a foot off the top!

L1011

Ensure that you repay him in whatever method he paid over the month in - purchase and return of high value items is a low-level money laundering scam. Although if it was cheques/bank transfers make sure they're 100% cleared first...