Broke an item while shopping

maveli

Hi All,
Thanks for your replies.As I mentioned ealier I got the money from CC and I sent an email to the shop about the refund from CC and stated they have commiited a theft. I got a reply back from them saying they are passing my email to their solicitor to proceed with defamation case as I alleged theft. I contaced CAB again and they told me to wait until I get any letter from their solicitor.

bingo_bango

If they are suing for libel, then it's on the basis that no fraud was committed. Have you reported this company to the police for a fraudulent act?

If they are not under investigation, and there is no conviction on foot of the same, then they have not formally committed a theft. You may have jumped the gun slightly.
As the likelihood of such a conviction is slim at best, I suggest you read up on The Defamation Act 1996 and look at making an offer to withdraw under S2 of the Act, unless of course you want to fight this (could be very expensive) in which case I would begin to instruct a solicitor immediately you receive their letter.

Of course it depends on exactly what you said as to whether or not it is a defamatory statement, but that's for a court to decide.

If I called you a murdering toerag, thus tarnishing your reputation, but knowing you had never been convicted of a murder, would you be content to allow me to continue making that statement? Somehow I doubt it. You would exercise your right under the Act above and take action against me.
That's what this store are doing, whether they actually did it or not is immaterial. Unless of course they are convicted of an offence.

Think long and hard about this.

pendulum

That is a nonsense threat. For them to take action for defamation, you would have had to have communicated with others, and not just directly with them.

Wiki's definition:

In law, defamation–also called calumny, libel (for written words), slander (for spoken words), and vilification–is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government or nation a negative image. It is usually, but not always,[1] a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).

You said they committed theft in a private email after they took money from you without permission. That may or may not be theft - it doesn't matter. They have incurred no damages as a result of what you said and can take no action. Let the morons pass it on to their solicitor, he'll tell them there's nothing they can do and hopefully charge them for the privilege.

I agree with CAB advice. Do nothing until (if!) you receive correspondence from a solicitor.

sarahg1969

They clearly don't understand what defamation means. In simple terms, it means making a false statement to a third party. You can't defame someone by saying something only to them personally. As I am sure their solicitors will tell them (and hopefully send them a bill too).

Firefox1975

Business must be REALLY busy in that shop if the owner has time to waste on a legal claim for about £50!

Just put his windows through.

Edit - actually don't do that - that's illegal.

Pay someone else to do it. :-)

pelirocco

They must have had a good memory for card details , because a record isnt kept by the card machine

maveli

The owner was on BBC complaining about lack of business. Here is what he said, as reported by BBC

Edit : removed it after seeing redpete's post on next page.

Esqui

pelirocco wrote: »

They must have had a good memory for card details , because a record isnt kept by the card machine

Unless they are copying card details down...that's a worrying situation

Mark_Hewitt

Either way it sounds like they are in breach of their agreement with the card service provider, I would imagine they would take a dim view of such things.

love_my_2_boys

they must have saw what happened and decided if you purchases anything that they would charge you for he damaged item also, CC machines don't keep a record of previous transactions for security reasons obviously.
By law if something is broken accidentaly in a shop they cannot charge you for it but claim from their insurance.
I'm glad you got your money back tho...flamin chancers