€50 re-delivery charge - because THEY (furniture shop) couldn't find the place!

[Louise]

I bought a marble table from a furniture shop in Navan a few weeks ago and paid a 20 euro charge for them to deliver it down to Dublin. They asked us for two contact numbers to arrange delivery and my boyfriend gave them his work one and his mobile. Now they rang him during the week and arranged to deliver to us today between 8 and 2. We rearranged our plans so we would be in and they had our full address. At 11:30 today we received a phone call from the shop saying the driver wasn't able to find our apartment and we would either have to collect the table ourselves or pay a 50 euro redelivery charge. They said they had tried to ring us for directions - there was one missed call on my boyfriend's mobile - probably while he was in the shower.

I rang the shop and pointed out to the manager that the terms and conditions on the delivery docket stated that if nobody was in when they came to deliver that they would charge 50 euro to redeliver but there was nothing about the driver not being able to find the place. She replied that it was just common sense that we would have to keep an eye on our phone. So we either have to pick it up ourselves (without getting our 20 euro back) or pay an extra 50 euro. Is this fair? I know we should've checked the mobile but at the same time we paid for this service and we weren't informed that we would have to pay if the driver couldn't find us.

Thanks
Louise

 

[RainyDay]

Seems strange - did they leave any message when they called? It is 'just common sense' that no phone can be guaranteed to be answered 100% of the time. Did you try returning the call to the missed call number?

I would start talking about involving the National Consumer Agency and/or Small Claims Court and see how they respond.

 

[Louise]

Re: €50 re-delivery charge - because THEY (furniture shop) couldn't find the place!

They left a message at 11:14 saying that the driver needed directions and to ring them back. Unfortunately we didn't get this until after we received their call at 11:28 saying the driver was gone and we now have to pay a redelivery charge. When I spoke to them they claimed they rang many more times, some to my boyfriend's work number. He wasn't at work as it was a Saturday - we had given that number so they could ring during the week to arrange delivery. Sometimes the reception around our apartment is bad so it does go straight to voicemail but 14 minutes didn't give us much time to check his phone.

I plan on ringing the consumer agency in the morning to see what they say.