Comet Clearance

maintenanceman

I bought fridge freezer from the Comet auctio clearance site. It was described as one small dent on left hand side. When it was delivered I asked them to unwrap the appliance to check the damage. Note that the only damage in the description was one small dent left hand side, There was no other damage mentioned in their description.
On the outside it looked OK. I signed they left. I opened the door and to my horror it looked like the fridge interior had been in a car crash, but no damage to the front of the door. Very puzzling. Contacted comet clearance imediately via email ( as it was a Saturday). The want to offer me £15. compensation or return the F/F for a refund. Can i take them to the small claims court on the grounds that the item was not as described? The replacement parts come to around £100.

unholyangel

Have you asked them for a repair? How much did you pay for the goods?

Have you tried to mitigate your losses?

Hermione_Granger

maintenanceman wrote: »

Can i take them to the small claims court on the grounds that the item was not as described?

You can do but it's almost certain that you will lose.

The want to offer me £15. compensation or return the F/F for a refund.

They have offered you a fulll refund which is all that they legally have to do, so what could you claim for in court?

ThumbRemote

maintenanceman wrote: »

The want to offer me £15. compensation or return the F/F for a refund. Can i take them to the small claims court on the grounds that the item was not as described? The replacement parts come to around £100.

Given they've offered you a refund, I'm not sure what you could take them to the small claims court for.

unholyangel

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

You can do but it's almost certain that you will lose.


They have offered you a fulll refund which is all that they legally have to do, so what could you claim for in court?

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Given they've offered you a refund, I'm not sure what you could take them to the small claims court for.

Probably referring to loss of bargain.

They usually will repair though - and should if the consumer requests this and it is not disproportionately costly.

withabix

Everything Comet Clearance sells appears to be complete junk.

AND it goes for far too high prices - often more than the same item in new perfect condition from a better retailer.

Why people bid so high for rubbish is beyond me.

unholyangel wrote: »

They usually will repair though - and should if the consumer requests this and it is not disproportionately costly.

The remedy (refund, repair, replace) is the choice of the retailer, not the customer.

The_Pedant

If they are not able to offer a suitable remedy then 'reject' the goods under the provisions of the Sale of Goods act by virtue of them being 'Not as described'.

Comet will be liable for the cost of returning the item.

As I believe these are auctions, then the DSRs will not apply. The Sale of Goods Act will though.

unholyangel

withabix wrote: »

Everything Comet Clearance sells appears to be complete junk.

AND it goes for far too high prices - often more than the same item in new perfect condition from a better retailer.

Why people bid so high for rubbish is beyond me.



The remedy (refund, repair, replace) is the choice of the retailer, not the customer.

The retailer can only refuse if it is disproportionately costly or impossible.

(1)If section 48A above applies, the buyer may require the seller—
(a)to repair the goods, or
(b)to replace the goods.
(2)If the buyer requires the seller to repair or replace the goods, the seller must—
(a)repair or, as the case may be, replace the goods within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience to the buyer;

(3)The buyer must not require the seller to repair or, as the case may be, replace the goods if that remedy is—
(a)impossible, or
(b)disproportionate in comparison to the other of those remedies, or
(c)disproportionate in comparison to an appropriate reduction in the purchase price under paragraph (a), or rescission under paragraph (b), of section 48C(1) below.


Wouldn't quite say everything is junk. A while back i got a £800 (which was actually retailing on other sites/in store for more) fridge freezer for £300. Best of it? Came with a 5 year parts and labour guarantee, frost free, super quiet, super efficient and all that jazz. All that was wrong with it? a slight scratch that is barely visible in a well lit room 1" in length.

shaun_from_Africa

The replacement parts come to around £100

Where did you get this figure from?
If it's the retail price for the bits, then Comet could probably get them for considerably less than this.

With this in mind, it might be worth contacting them again asking if they would be able to supply the parts (if they are all consumer replaceable) as this might in fact work out cheaper for them than having to collect the FF, fix it and then attempt to resell it.

CoolHotCold

It is very hard to get loss of Bargain from any retailer, as usually they don't breach their contract (or for that matter the law).


In this case, it could be argued that the interior was fine when leaving the warehouse and only during transit did the damage occur. So to start with the item was sold correctly and no breach or mis advertisement occurred. Easy to argue from Comets side and harder to prove otherwise from the OP, as such under the SoGA the customer is within their period of acceptance and can Always get their money back, or request a replacement or repair (the retailer can refuse a replacement or repair but not a full refund). So long as Comet provide this you cannot further claim for losses occurred from lack of a F/F as you have taken reasonable steps to avoid a problem, if you refuse Comets refund offer and suffer losses those cannot be claimed if the Courts deem Comet to complied with the contract and the law and you took (or didn't take/actively caused) steps that made you incur losses.


Long story short, get refund or ask Comet to repair, forget Court action.

Gavin83

Can you even claim loss of bargain on used goods as surely the pricing structure is fairly unique and can't be compared to a new version.

I'd push for a repair but I'd imagine if it's as damaged as you say then the repair costs will be a little more than £100, in which case they'll likely continue down the refund route.