I've taken Comet to court - Sale of Goods Act

Kris0812

Not sure if this is the right board. I've taken Comet to court since they refused to repair my hi-fi free of charge or give me a refund under the Sale of Goods Act (laser of CD player faulty twice within 13 months). I've already received a copy of their defence and a hearing will probably be scheduled soon.

Last Friday I received a letter from Comet offering me a repair free of charge plus a cheque for £30 for the full court fees. I can't accept that since I had to obtain an independent report on the fault (as recommended by Consumer Direct) that cost £35.25 and they are not offering to reimburse me for that too, so it wouldn't be a free repair.

My questions:

1. Has anyone had a similar experience and would know - if the court ruled for a refund - how much that could be (13 months until the second time faulty, purchase price was £99)? I'd prefer a refund since there is clearly something wrong with the unit if the laser fails every few months.

2. Since I haven't been able to use my hi-fi since February 2006, can I also claim some sort of compensation provided I win the case or ask for it if we settled the matter out of court?

Thanks a lot for your replies!

hollydays

Surely you can only claim what you have applied to claim on the forms you filled in?This is what happened when i sued a company through the county court.

taxiphil

Given the facts you've provided I'd say a court is almost certain to rule in your favour, so I wouldn't accept Comet's offer. I'm also pretty sure that if you reject Comet's offer they'll come back with an offer to settle your claim in full before the court hearing, as they won't want the bad publicity or the risk of getting a CCJ against their name.

The first offer is just a bit of "bluff" to mitigate their losses.

The amount you're claiming should be the cost of buying a replacement (assuming the broken one is beyond economic repair), which I wouldn't imagine is vastly different to the purchase price given that it's only one year old. Or if that model's no longer on sale it would be the purchase price of a like-for-like replacement.

Not sure about the compensation for not being able to use the hi-fi since February, though, as I suppose they could argue that you could have tried to resolve the matter much earlier. And I doubt that a county court judge would feel that the loss of use of a hi-fi has affected your quality of life enough to warrant compensation.