Waiting well past an ETA. Is a Refund Justified?

Lbutterboy on 04/11/2021 - 19:51

Hi all,

Just looking to see what the general consensus is with delays on household items at the moment.

My partner and I bought a couple of items online from a fairly well known furniture retailer in mid-August.
At the time of checkout, the ETA on the delivery was about now (first week of November). Since then, the ETA has changed several times and now sits at January of 2022.

Now I realise that supply chains are completely stuffed at the moment, however with an ETA that far out, and with Xmas time off, I could build our own or potentially source something second hand before we received these goods.

We decided to request a refund for the items only to be told by a Store Manager that we could get a store credit, or wear a 20% fee.

Given that they couldn't supply within a reasonable (our opinion) timeframe, do you think we should be able to get a full refund?

Am I expecting too much in the current environment?

Thanks for your thoughts!

General Discussion

Comments

  • Kirbieb on 04/11/2021 - 19:57
    +6

    Harvey norman tried this shit with a friend of mine with a lounge, ended up escalating the complaint up the food chain until they got a refund.
    Depending on how long a timeframe it has been you are entitled to a refund

    • butterboy on 04/11/2021 - 20:00

      Thanks for the feedback!

      • Kirbieb on 04/11/2021 - 20:02

        Just looked at ACCC https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/sales-delivery/non-deliver…

        This covers this exact scenario.

        • butterboy on 04/11/2021 - 20:09

          Thank you very much. As always the ACCC leave a fair bit up to individual interpretation, but still very useful.
          Cheers!

          • Quantumcat on 04/11/2021 - 20:41
            +3

            @butterboy: Seems pretty clear

            When a business accepts your payment for products or services they must supply them to you within the timeframe they have indicated or if no time was specified, within a reasonable time.

            They indicated they would supply now, but they haven't

  • rambutann on 04/11/2021 - 19:59
    +1

    Its a difficult one, I work in logistics, and an 8 week delay is not abnormal at the moment.
    I had a shipment arrive at LA port in July… It sat in LA port for exactly 8 weeks, it has been further delayed in transit, and will likely be a 10 week delay in total. It will arrive in Melbourne late next week. I could not have predicted this.

    If it is not a custom piece of furniture, id be demanding a full refund. If it is, then id be dealing with it.

    • butterboy on 04/11/2021 - 20:01

      Definitely not custom.
      Thanks very much for the insight. Very interesting and fingers crossed for your shipment!

      • skid on 04/11/2021 - 20:58
        +1

        You were ok with a 2.5 month delivery for a non-custom?

        AFAIK, furniture stores have a certain number of shipments a year and your order might have missed the ship that it was scheduled for.

        If you have other furniture in the meantime, I'd wait it out.

        In the T&C's on my custom order, it was a 50% fee.

        • butterboy on 04/11/2021 - 21:01

          We were ok with waiting up until Xmas when we're likely to need it all when family are here.

          It would be nice to have a coffee table though!

          I can understand high fees on custom furniture, though I would expect particularly long lead times on that at the moment.

          Thanks for the input.

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 04/11/2021 - 20:18

    Did your buying agreement come with a clause about back orders and was your order bespoke/special order? if not just Persue full refund

    • butterboy on 04/11/2021 - 20:55

      I can't find any clause regarding backorders and this was a standard off the shelf item.
      Thanks!

  • BargainCowboy on 04/11/2021 - 22:02

    I assume you refer to IKEA since it has been backlogged something serious. I called them and gave them a gentle "reminder" after they missed their ETA by 2 months(!). The parcel came a week after.

    • butterboy on 04/11/2021 - 22:17

      Not IKEA actually. Definitely not a company that large, but one of the larger Aussie stores.

      I'll see how the reminder affects our situation ;)

      Cheers!

  • BugsBunnyAUS on 05/11/2021 - 02:35

    Bet you it was Nick Scali.

    There's not much you can do. Try and get something free out of them I guess even if it's small or token. Realities of the current logistics environment unfortunately.

  • biznes on 05/11/2021 - 07:13
    +3

    I had the same situation with Temple and Webster in August - product was out for delivery, but never got a call or doorknock from the driver. It simply never came and went back to the depot, and for about a month after I could get no response from them or the courier service as to where the product was, or if it was coming at all.

    So naturally, when they offered a refund I said yes please. Had no idea if it was ever going to arrive.

    Two whole months after the refund (late October), I get a notification that the product was out for delivery again. This time the driver found my door and left it with me. So I got it for free, albeit 3 months after purchase.

    Better with me than sitting in a warehouse right?

    • Heaps for Cheaps on 05/11/2021 - 07:52
      +5

      "Better with me than sitting in a warehouse right?"
      You have done them a favor and stopped it cluttering up a warehouse and being a OH & S issue for the staff.

  • butterboy on 21/11/2021 - 08:28
    +1

    Just to close the book on this, the store escalated this to higher management and we had to follow up a couple of times. Just yesterday they agreed to refund our purchase, but we had to come into the local store to do so (for what was originally an online purchase).
    Clearly the local store Manager was not happy as the email we received was less than professional in my opinion.

    Thanks everyone for your opinions and assistance.

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