If a ladder is damaged on arrival it should be refused; obviously the items leave us in good condition and the carriers sign a ticket at the warehouse on collection confirming all items are undamaged.

If the item was left (damaged) without a signature the carriers are violating our trading terms and they should swap the item at their cost.

If you have signed for the item as “received in good condition” and then you discover some damage we can try to claim from the carriers but from experience it is unlikely that any compensation will be awarded because the carriers can prove that they delivered the item in good condition and argue that the user must have damaged the item.

All damaged items should be reported to us via email; we need written evidence to present to the carriers

In the past a few people have contested this idea with trading standards but from our experience the law has always ruled against the purchaser because they signed for the item as received in good condition; in practice when receiving delivery of a television / new dress etc. its was accepted that these could not be unwrapped and tested thoroughly while the carriers were waiting for a signature.

In the case of our products they are not generally packaged at all (depending on the item) and so inspection is easy, simple and quick – therefore not realising what you were signing etc. is no defence.

This is a very unfortunate situation that regrettably occurs occasionally but if people examined the items before signing the ticket (as per our terms) the carriers would not get away with it.