Joan and Ron bought and paid for six dining room chairs from Hills Interiors (Hi

Question

Joan and Ron bought and paid for six dining room chairs from Hills Interiors (Hills). Joan and Ron drove their car to the Hills warehouse loading dock behind the store to load the chairs into their car. The loading dock attendant was helping another customer load furniture when Joan and Ron arrived at the dock. Joan and Ron waited about ten minutes, then told the dock attendant they would load the chairs themselves. The six chairs were sitting on the dock in plain sight so the attendant agreed. As soon as he was free, the attendant quickly came to help Joan and Ron load the last of the six chairs into their car.

When Joan and Ron unloaded the chairs at their home, the leg on one of the chairs was broken in transit. Joan and Ron returned to Hills with the damaged chair and requested that Hills replace it. They admitted the chair was not damaged when it was sitting on the dock before being loaded into their car. They further claimed that because the dock attendant was unavailable to load the chairs when they arrived at the dock, Hills should be responsible for the damaged chair. Joan and Ron stated they were not professional furniture handlers and should not have had to load the chairs themselves or be responsible for any damage.

Should Hills legally be responsible for the damage to the chair? Why or why not?  

If you were the Hills warehouse manager, how would you handle this situation, and what would be your legal justification?

Explanation / Answer

Should Hills legally be responsible for the damage to the chair? Why or why not?  

Joan and Ron bought chairs from Hills Interiors and they tried to load the chairs in the care all by themselves. They were too impatient to wait for the attendant to come and load the chairs into the car. First of all, they should have checked the chairs at the time they were loading them into their car. If they had checked there and then, this problem could have been avoided. It may be that they checked the chairs and found that everything was ok which clearly suggests that the leg of one of the chairs broke in transit. This is clearly Joan and Ron's fault.

First of all they didn't wait for the attendant to come and then broke the chair in transit. They could have asked the company to deliver the chairs to their home so as to avoid any damage. They didn't do that as well may be thinking that chairs are light in weight and hence can be transported in a car. This would have saved them transportation cost which they would have to pay to the company otherwise.

Hills are not responsible for the damage to the chair and Joan and Ron can't ask for a replacement. It was their mistake and they should have been exercised some amount of patience. It was not that Hills had no attendant who could load the chairs. It was just that the attendant was busy and as soon as he finished his previous job, he came to the couple and started helping them but by that time, they had loaded 5 chairs into the car.

If you were the Hills warehouse manager, how would you handle this situation, and what would be your legal justification?

If I were the Hills warehouse manager, I would have first tried to calm down the customers (Joan and Ron) and would have tried to make them understand that it was not my fault. I would have tried to be calm and patient and would have listened to their complaints and would have suggested what went wrong.

If it is possible for me to exchange the broken chair with a new and fresh piece, I would have exchanged it but I would have made sure that customers check the chair thoroughly so that they don’t come back to me for the same complaint. I know it’s not easy to return a damaged product especially when the damage was on the side of the customer but there are two things to this: one, nobody is sure if it really was the couple's mistake or ours and secondly, customer is a king. These kinds of gestures make a good image of a company in the eyes of a customer and word of mouth publicity helps a great deal in expanding and growing business.

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