Time for good, old fashioned service

Jan 19 2010 by Neil Warwick, The Journal

THIS week is supposed to be the most depressing week of the year. Christmas is over and pay day is at least a week away for most people.

All of the Christmas bills need to be paid, it is dark when you get up to go to work and when you come home in the evening and the weather has been somewhat challenging. But there is yet another factor that is getting some people down – their consumer rights and how to enforce them.

Before Christmas, we pointed out that if you wanted goods delivered in time for the festivities, whether it was a special present or some new furniture for the family gathering, you would be wise to incorporate a special term into the contract to ensure that the goods would be delivered on time. However, after the holidays some people are finding that the goods they received were not quite fit for purpose and yet the retailer is being difficult about repairs or replacement.

A real case is that of a piece of furniture ordered and delivered for the festivities. Unfortunately the leather material of the furniture was marked on the front. The customer did all of the right things in terms of bringing this to the attention of the delivery driver and noting the damage on the delivery invoice. The initial reaction from the retailer was to say that this was simply part of the natural contour of the leather.

Following a protracted exchange of correspondence and the involvement of lawyers, the retailer has blamed the manufacturer, blamed the customer, offered compensation, withdrawn the offer of compensation, refused to allow the customer to reject the goods and offered to repair the goods and then failed to do so on a number of occasions. Needless to say that special new piece of furniture no longer seems very special to the customer.

It is an unfortunate by-product of the recession that a small proportion of retailers would rather risk a damaged reputation than a damaged cashflow, particularly when they receive full payment prior to delivery. While consumers are more aware of their rights, sellers are also more aware of how to play the system knowing that the cost of legal action will far outweigh the compensation a customer can hope to gain.

There is a risk, however, that this can lead to an escalation that is both unwarranted and unwanted in our society. Given the almost unprecedented access to communication though consumer groups, websites and social media, it is not difficult to envisage a scenario where consumers will start to be more militant about bad service.

In order to dampen this down before retailer reputations are shredded on the worldwide web, consumers must be quicker to inspect and reject goods at the point of delivery and some retailers must go back to good old fashioned customer service standards.

:: For information about how Dickinson Dees can help SMEs, contact Neil Warwick on 0191 279 9375.