Faulty cooker bought from gumtree...

columbiana

Hi, a bit of assistance required, yesterday my mother bought a canon longdale cooker from a seller on Gumtree. It wasn't plumbed in so she couldn't see it working, but was assured 'it had only been used about 5 times, and is in full working order'
Once she got it home, we discovered that the ignition doesn't work, and after a bit of googling found that this needs a new part that costs £45. We also found that the dial for the oven is loose, and it's impossible to find out what temperature the oven is cooking things at.
The bracket that holds the grill in place is also missing, making it unusable.
The seller claimed it was her own cooker, but we have now found a further 3 ads on gumtree with the same number, so they are obviously some kind of dealer...
As it's a private sale, is there any right to a refund, or does she have to take it on the chin and accept she has lost her money?
Any advice appreciated, cheers.

shaun_from_Africa

The first thing to do is to contact the seller and explain the problems and ask for a refund.

If it's a private seller then getting a refund may prove extremely difficult or impossible.
Unless the seller will refund voluntarily
you will probably have to take legal action and even if you win it won't guarantee that you get your money back.

You said that the seller has other items for sale on Gumtree.
Are these items all cookers, or it is a selection of different items?
If they are all cookers or similar goods, this will help to show that the seller is acting in a business profession, in which case winning legal action may be far easier, and you may be able to get Trading standards involved, especially if you tell them that a business seller is selling faulty appliances.

columbiana

The seller has just called me back, at long last. As expected, they started off fobbing me off, but after they admitted to doing house clearances, I advised them that as a dealer they are acting illegally by posing as a private seller. I also let them know I have screen shots of all their adverts as evidence,and that I would reort them to trading standards following this advice on their website...

"Some traders try to pretend they are private sellers so that it will be more difficult for you to claim against them. If you suspect that you are dealing with a trader and not a private individual, do not buy! If he is hiding his true identity, you can be sure he is hiding some defect in whatever he is trying to sell you. Tell-tale signs include lots of 'small ads' with the same telephone number or if the seller tries to hide the fact that he has business premises by offering to bring the item round to your house. Also, contact Consumerline on 0300 123 6262. It is a criminal offence for a trader to try and give the impression in advertisements that he or she is a private seller. This is a particular problem with the sale of second-hand cars. The details will be passed to the Trading Standards Service who can investigate complaints about advertisements placed by so called "hidden traders".

This seems to have done the trick as they are now happy to refund the cost of the repairs, we have agreed £45 as a fair partial refund.
So a good result in my opinion, especially as my mum didn't think to get a reciept!
Thanks for reading, hopefully this may help someone else in the same position.