Wrongly Printed Personalized Goods

Lutravel

We bought personalized adloops for our small business but when they turned up the font was so small we almost had to squint to read it.We phoned the company and said that the font was not to the size of the proof which we had agreed to. They said that we had asked for the name to be printed 7 times along the length which we had, but the size of the proof they had sent via email was almost 50% longer than the actual size of the loop so when they tried to print 7 onto it they had to shrink it right down.

We said that we want the proof we had agreed to but they now say that the proof is only for colours and nothing to do with font size?? There was no mention of this before we placed the order.The proof they sent us which went to and fro a couple of times was to get the correct size of the front and position of logo.

The company is run by 2 partners, when we first contacted them one partner told us that he could see there was a problem and that they will sort it, then suddenly the other partner got involved and we were told that they are not correcting the problem and stopped returning emails or calls.We are genuine people and if it was our fault would hold our hands up but in good faith we have trusted a company who have ripped us off.

We can't afford to lose this money, does anyone have any idea what we can do? Is it worth taking through the small claims court?

Thank you for your time for any replies.

shaun_from_Africa

It sounds like the SCC may be your only option, but don't forget that before you do this there is a procedure that you must go through.
Send them a letter stating that the goods supplied were not manufactured to the required specifications, and that you either want your money refunding in full, or a new batch making, failing which you will have no option but to take legal action.
You then have to send them a "letter before action" (you will find templates for this on the internet).

Make sure that everything is well documented and you keep copies of all correspondence and that it is sent recorded.

wealdroam

Lutravel wrote: »

We bought personalized adloops for our small business but when they turned up the font was so small we almost had to squint to read it.We phoned the company and said that the font was not to the size of the proof which we had agreed to. They said that we had asked for the name to be printed 7 times along the length which we had, but the size of the proof they had sent via email was almost 50% longer than the actual size of the loop so when they tried to print 7 onto it they had to shrink it right down.

We said that we want the proof we had agreed to but they now say that the proof is only for colours and nothing to do with font size?? There was no mention of this before we placed the order.The proof they sent us which went to and fro a couple of times was to get the correct size of the front and position of logo.

The company is run by 2 partners, when we first contacted them one partner told us that he could see there was a problem and that they will sort it, then suddenly the other partner got involved and we were told that they are not correcting the problem and stopped returning emails or calls.We are genuine people and if it was our fault would hold our hands up but in good faith we have trusted a company who have ripped us off.

We can't afford to lose this money, does anyone have any idea what we can do? Is it worth taking through the small claims court?

Thank you for your time for any replies.

You need to study their T&Cs in detail.

Is this a business to business transaction?
If so, consumer legislation will not be of much use.

Maybe post on the Small Business board?

shaun_from_Africa

If so, consumer legislation will not be of much use.

The SOGA applies to B2B contracts just as it does to B2C ones. It's just that for B2C sales there are additional rights (these are sections 48 onwards and various other sections which usually specify something such as "when the buyer deals as a consumer"

The section that applies to sellers being able to reject faulty or misdescribed goods applies as much to business buyers as it does to consumers.

wealdroam

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

The SOGA applies to B2B contracts just as it does to B2C ones. It's just that for B2C sales there are additional rights (these are sections 48 onwards and various other sections which usually specify something such as "when the buyer deals as a consumer"

The section that applies to sellers being able to reject faulty or misdescribed goods applies as much to business buyers as it does to consumers.

Thank you Shaun.
Yes, I know that.
Which is why I did not say something like "SOGA is not relevent".

In a B2B transaction, the seller is allowed to include terms that would not be allowed in a B2C transaction.
Which is why I said "You need to study their T&Cs in detail."

shaun_from_Africa

Thank you Shaun.
Yes, I know that.
Which is why I did not say something like "SOGA is not relevent".

Sorry about that, or as the youngsters around here say, "my bad" (even though I've never really understood that expression)

Lip_Stick

Did you not see the size of the adloop, or be given any print areas? Generally on proofs an enlarged version is shown for clarity, but a version to scale should also be pictured.

I have to say though, as someone who was a designer in the printing industry, it used to drive me crackers when customers wanted masses of information on something that was only big enough to have a web address on. If you specified you wanted the name of the company on 7 times, did you not think that it would make the font very small?

Despite the above, you should have been told the font would be too small, and given more guidance.

Lutravel

All contact made so far has been via email or telephone. I will contact them again to ask for a refund and inform them that we intend to pursue the matter. Is it adequate to send this via email or should it be recorded letter?

Lutravel

We first asked for the name to be printed onto the loop just 3 times but when we saw the proof these were totally lost on the size of it. We assumed that the size of the proof was the printable area and when we said that we didn't really like the huge gaps in between the name we were told that they could fit more on. We told them that we did not want to change the aspect ratio but were told that 7 fitted on the loop ok and by the look of it it did. The problem is that their proof is not to scale so to fit 7 on in reality the writing was so small it is unreadable.This is the first time we had ordered this type of thing so took advise from the company who we believed to be more knowledgeable than us.

I can't understand why someone making them did not think to question the size of the font...after all what is the point of an adloop that you can't read?

Lip_Stick

Any professional company would have included the print area written down in case the recipient's printer wasn't set up correctly. Are you sure you didn't have the printer set up to fit to print area or anything like that?

I agree that it's stupid to have something printed so small that it's unreadable. Hopefully the company involved will agree with you and sort it out.

P.s Where is the company based?

Flyboy152

wealdroam wrote: »

Thank you Shaun.
Yes, I know that.
Which is why I did not say something like "SOGA is not relevent".

In a B2B transaction, the seller is allowed to include terms that would not be allowed in a B2C transaction.
Which is why I said "You need to study their T&Cs in detail."

Indeed they might, but it still doesn't mean they can include something which would not comply with the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.