Any Ideas on sold as seen?

alfiechops

We recently advertiesed a bunk bed through ebay, which didnt sell. A woman then contacted me to say she wanted to come and see it. Which she did and then brought it for £50. About a week later she then contacted us to say a part was missing! We searched through the garage and cant find it. I have no idea if she actually lost it or if it was lost in our garage, we even got a skip to clear out the garage to find it.

She has since issued us with a court summons for it! Where do we stand? Surely she should have checked when she picked it up or got back to us quicker than a week later?

Any advise greatly recieved

sporedude

Nope it was your own responsibility to check the product was all there before selling it, Good luck in court, Your gonna need it.

Ivory_Tinkler

Are you sure the court summons is for real and did you get a letter beforehand to tell you that she was going to do this? It all sounds odd to get a court summons out of the blue? As far as I'm aware, court should be the final option when all other attempts to remedy the situation have failed and a court would frown upon someone just issuing proceedings on a whim without attempting to sort out the problem out of court.

The missing part, could this have been replaced?

3106catherine

Could you not offer to refund the money? I dont know the legalities on hether its your responsibility or not, but that would be what I would do if she was that angry about it. Was it a crucial bit that was missing?

mustrum_ridcully

Caveat emptor? I take it that this was a private sale?

If so the full Sales of Goods Act doesn't apply, the SoGA here only really applies to title and description, not to quality. The goods must simply correspond with the description, and be legally owned by yourself.

If you sold the bed as "bunk bed fully complete" you're in trouble, if you sold it as "bunk bed - sold as seen" the probably not.

I'm not a lawyer so I'd suggest a visit to your CAB, take the summons with you.

wannaberichbtch

The law states that the item must be fit for purpose, i.e. if it was sold as a bunkbed, it should operate as a bunk bed, sold as seen does not detract from this. If the missing part prevents the item being used as a bunk bed, the plaintiff has a very strong case. It sounds as though this woman is very determined, I personally wouldn't want the hassle and worry of a court case for the sake of £50.00, and if the judgment goes against you it could end upcosting you more.

Halloway

wannaberichbtch wrote: »

The law states that the item must be fit for purpose, i.e. if it was sold as a bunkbed, it should operate as a bunk bed, sold as seen does not detract from this. If the missing part prevents the item being used as a bunk bed, the plaintiff has a very strong case. It sounds as though this woman is very determined, I personally wouldn't want the hassle and worry of a court case for the sake of £50.00, and if the judgment goes against you it could end upcosting you more.

That's absolute twaddle. You do come out with some crap, don't you?

bingo_bango

alfiechops wrote: »

We recently advertiesed a bunk bed through ebay, which didnt sell. A woman then contacted me to say she wanted to come and see it. Which she did and then brought it for £50. About a week later she then contacted us to say a part was missing! We searched through the garage and cant find it. I have no idea if she actually lost it or if it was lost in our garage, we even got a skip to clear out the garage to find it.

She has since issued us with a court summons for it! Where do we stand? Surely she should have checked when she picked it up or got back to us quicker than a week later?

Any advise greatly recieved

Alfie, can you tell us the ebay item number please (you are a new user so can't post links). That way we can give you an informed opinion of what's going on.

wannaberichbtch

Halloway, is there really any need for that vitriolic outburst? Perhaps you could enlighten us with an informed opinion, rather than a personal insult.

Halloway

wannaberichbtch wrote: »

Halloway, is there really any need for that vitriolic outburst? Perhaps you could enlighten us with an informed opinion, rather than a personal insult.

Sorry, what was I thinking? Of course you are absolutely correct and fully qualified to offer legal advice on this matter. How silly of me to suggest otherwise.

wannaberichbtch

Perhaps you are better qualified than me to give Alfiechops some idea of where he/she stands on this matter, as a regular poster I'm sure your opinion would be appreciated, I've even agreed with you myself on occasion.