Delayed, defective doors

Q: Eight months ago, I ordered four internal doors from a local seller. The sales contract specified that the doors were to be delivered within 13 weeks from the day when measures for the doors were taken.

These measurements were taken a week after I placed my order. Therefore, the doors should have been delivered to my house by mid-April. However, due to shipment delays and quality issues, the doors were delivered in mid-June – two months after the agreed date.

Soon after the doors were installed, I noticed four defects, two of which were deep scratches. I immediately informed the seller, who accepted responsibility and sent one of his employees to “fix the problem”.

The scratches could not be repaired and the seller agreed to have the two doors replaced with new ones. This, however, means I will have to wait for nine weeks for new doors to arrive and to be replaced. In the meantime, the seller agreed to leave the damaged doors installed until the new doors are delivered.

Unfortunately, I paid the due balance when the doors were installed and before I noticed the defects. Do I have any legal rights after all this inconvenience – unacceptable delays, breach of the sales contract and poor service?

A: When consumers finalise a sales agreement with a seller, the sales contract is usually made of terms and conditions both parties are legally obliged to adhere to.

In case of ordered goods, one of these terms and conditions usually concerns date of delivery. The seller is duty bound to observe this date. When sellers realise that they cannot deliver the goods on time, consumers have the option not to accept the delay and can request to cancel the contract of sale and be refunded the deposit.

Hence, when you were informed about the delay, legally, you had the right to cancel your order. Alternatively, you could have tried to negotiate a discount as compensation for the inconvenience suffered due to the delayed delivery.

The time when you were informed about the delay was the best time for you to obtain some form of compensation. However, such discount or financial compensation is actually not a legal right but a matter of agreement between you and the seller.

As to the defective doors, the seller is carrying out his legal obligations in repairing and replacing them. Should the replaced doors also result defective, then you may have the legal right to refuse further replacements and instead ask for your money back. That would mean giving back the doors to the seller and getting your money back.

Regarding compensation for the inconvenience suffered, in your case the answer is no, because even though it is true that waiting nine weeks for the doors to be replaced is a long time, the fact that you still have the damaged doors installed at your house minimises the inconvenience.

The situation would be different had you been left without internal doors.