I think we may have been done!

I ordered a Shed from a company on the Internet. I will not say which one, yet, until either we get the goods or we get our money back. Then I will plaster it on every Gardening Website and Consumer reporting page that I can find, not to deal with this company.
The order went in on the 14th of April.
We then got an Email on the 20th of April that the shed was under construction, since then nothing.
I Emailed them on May 3rd to ask what was going on. I got this reply.

Unfortunately, we don't have a confirmed delivery date on our system at the moment but we will chase this up with our logistics manager and will call you with your two hour arrival time.

I Emailed again on 8tth May pointing out that their advert said Delivery within 10 days.

I got this reply.

With regard to the delivery lead time, we do state that the 10 working days is a guideline for you based on the current average for delivery of the building but is not a guaranteed delivery time. When we can't plan the delivery in for the lead day (10th working day) we do plan the run as close to that date as possible. Please accept our apologies if you feel this wasn't made clear to you. It is certainly never our intention to mislead or misinform.

Since then nothing.

Now what do I do? Wait ? For how long?
And more important how do I go about getting my money back. I did pay with my Credit card so we do have some protection.

Thanks. Long posting I know.

 

And yes I did do a lot of research into the company before ordering and all the reports I found were very positive.

 

Is this a mass-producing shed company? or more hand-to-mouth and made-to-order?

We ordered a fancy Bed for my Daughter for Christmas. Delivery was some 8 weeks (which I thought was excessive, even if made to order ...) 8 weeks came and went ... chased them up and got an excuse about the wood not being properly seasoned or somesuch. A new date was set, that came and went .... eventually the bed arrived about 3 weeks ago - how long after XMas is that? I left it to Mrs K to berate them, I think she got some money-off, but its a bit of an anti-climax as an XMas present when it arrives in late April ...

I never worry about these things if I pay by Credit Card, the CCard company has always sided with me, and if the company has been useless I just get the CCard company to make a Charge Back (refund me, impose a Fine on the supplier), if I'm feeing less angry I give the supplier the chance to refund me (which doesn't cost them the fine)

To my mind Cock-Ups occur, I measure such instances by how well the company sorts it out. Rarely is it up to my expectation in the UK. In the USA, on the other hand, it is rare to find fault with how they sort such things out.

 

Thanks Shiney. I will Email them as you suggest and see what happens.

 

Also wondered about threatening to Email BBC's Rip Off Britain too.

 

Palustris I personally think that you just missed the delivery date from China ,
most of the main place in UK are just collecting order and pass them to China , then they arrive over here in containers and everything get mix up or messed up .

I used to work near by an oak furniture shop , the furniture was arriving from china every 1/2 weeks , with missing parts or damaged during transport , then the stuff working in the warehouse was really unreliable , but I wouldn`t blame them as they where underpayed and called when they needed .

I would say the 20% of order are getting lost or damage , it`s easy for them to reorder a new shed for you .....

good luck with it

 

Good point ... however, it doesn't excuse the poor communication :(

 

Exactly, how hard is it to send an Email with an update?
What I would like to do is to find out the Email address of the Managing Director and send my complaint to him rather than to the Sales Dept.

 

This is the Email I have just sent.
I ordered this shed from you on 14th. April. I received an Email to say that it was being made on the 20th.April. since then despite 2 Emails I have heard nothing.
I have been advised that as the advert implied delivery within 10 working days that I should give you 7 days in which to supply proof that it is on its way to us or we will require our money back.
Failure to do so will give me no choice but to, also, make a claim on the credit card company under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.
I will also, regretfully, find it necessary to contact consumer organisations, Trading Standards, and all relevant gardening forums.
Even if there was a slight delay on the ten day target, a month without you even having a date for us is totally unacceptable.

Hopefully it will do the trick.I will let you know, but I am not holding my breath.

 

Well, no response to the Email, not even an acknowledgement of receipt.
They did take the money out of the Credit card on the day I made the order, so they have had the money now for 32 days.
Really annoying that we have now found we could have bought a similar product on Ebay for a lot less and had to erected for free.