Furniture store claims order cancellation fee

Hi,

I agreed to buy a kitchen from Mobel Maxx back at the end of Sept. Gave them all the measurements and a rather pushy salesperson advised on a set of units, saying they could be adapted to the size of the room.

Anyway, cutting a long story short...when their installation people arrived, it turned out that the kitchen could indeed be fitted...provided I wasn't too bothered about opening the windows!

I had a colleague translate this in a letter and sent it to Segmuller. Now they are asking me to pay 344,71 as a Schadenersatz ( Cancellation fee?)

They also have all my bank details, so if I don't pay up can I expect them to just take it from my account? I'm with Kriessparkasse Munchen Starnberg. Can you instruct them not to pay out, as I have done in the past with my English bank.

Thanks.

Möbel Maxx or Segmüller?
Did you, an agent from the furniture store or an independant contractor measure your kitchen? What does it say about the fitting in the contract? Take pictures of the kitchen, especially the window area.
Personally, I don't think the store has a leg to stand on as blocking your kitchen window renders the room almost unusable under German law. Tell the store that you will not pay and will contact them after obtaining legal advice.

*disclaimer: Ask a lawyer to look at your contract pdq, this is my layman opinion.*

Hi sara,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I took measurements myself. This is quite difficult to explain, but after looking at them...the salesperson said the unit could be "adapted" to fit my room, that is to say, units could be seperated...put in a different order etc.

It was Mobel Maxx, which is a Segmuller subsidiary. All the correspondance has come from SM's head office.

Only 3 months of lessons at Goethe means I am struggling to explain all this on the phone or by letter.

I already have another kitchen fitted, done at half the price and with much less hassle.

Should I expect them to just take this cash from me, seeing that they have all bank details?

You gave them the measurements...but did you advise them on the location of windows? You can hardly hold them accountable if you didn't show them where the windows are.

No, i did. arggh...knew it would be too tough to explain,,,

DanHessen is right there. Did the salesperson know a. where the window is and b. in which direction it opens? Are they claiming damages for breach of contract or for actual work/services rendered?
Still, if they knew the measurements and the window details they should have notified you of any possible difficulties before sending the kitchen out.

a ) Yep
b ) Yep

But she insisted it would still fit and that the installation guys could break the units up and work around that. Sorry if this isn't making sense

Do you have her name? Do you have witnesses for the quoted statement? Do you have legal insurance?
If so, speak to a person of the legal persuasion.

I think you need to give them a chance to correct their obvious installation error before you can cancel the contract. If they don't comply, then you may have a leg to stand on in regards to getting your money back and not paying a cancellation fee.

Actually I find this a bit strange. We also ordered our new kitchen from Segmüller and they forced/advised us to make the measurements themselves. They made the initial offer based on our measurements but said they would remeasure themselves before making the final order. But we ordered directly from Segmüller and not from MöbelMaxx.

Sorry, little off-topic.

I bought a free standing kitchen from Mobile Maxx, they delivered and I installed. 2 months later they sent me a letter saying they were going to cancel the contract from their end as I had not received the kitchen. They would then ban me from buying there again.

I sent them a letter saying here is the receipt (paid on the day I ordered), and the delivery note (with receipt for paying the delivery guy) and I had my kitchen and was happy.

They never sent any more letters after that.