Sale of Goods Act and group-buying sites

klint

I recently used a group-buying website - most people are aware of Groupon; I used a similar one called GoGroopie.com to buy three 32 GB SD cards at £9.99+£1.99 p&p each. The deal consisted of paying GoGroopie £29.97 for a voucher for the three SD cards. I then used that voucher to get the cards from VivacityStores.com, and I had to pay £5.97 p&p directly to VivacityStores.

When I got the cards, a few days ago, I tested them and found them to be faulty. They behaved ok for the first 8 GB stored on them but once you went above that the data became corrupted. Also, they wrote at 4 MB/s while they were advertised as Class 10 which implies 10 MB/s - but being "not as described" is probably only academic when they are not even fit for purpose.

My question is: who do I have a claim against, under the Sale of Goods Act? GoGroopie or VivacityStores? Or both, one for the purchase of the voucher and the other for payment of p&p? I hope it's not both, as that would make the claim really tedious.

arcon5

Have you actually contacted them for a remedy?

klint

arcon5 wrote: »

Have you actually contacted them for a remedy?

No, I didn't see much point in getting into a dialogue with them: I was going to send the cards straight back to them saying I am rejecting them under the terms of the Act and claiming a full refund (including the costs of return postage). I am not willing to accept a replacement as I suspect that all of the cards they have in stock are defective, since three out three were.

nomoneytoday

32gb cards for a tenner - that's about half the proper price from a reputable store... seems to good to be true IMHO


http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/29682924/HP-Pro-Series-32GB-Class-10-SDHC-Memory-Card/Product.html?searchstring=32gb+class+10&searchsource=0&searchtype=allproducts&urlrefer=search

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_6&products_id=111247

klint

nomoneytoday wrote: »

32gb cards for a tenner - that's about half the proper price from a reputable store... seems to good to be true IMHO

Indeed, I suspected the offer was too good to be true, so I'm not all that surprised they were faulty (which is why I tested them as soon as I got them.) But that doesn't excuse them, they should still be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. Moreover, they are advertised for £35 each on the seller's website so I pity anyone who actually paid that amount and has not yet realised they are faulty (you won't know until you've stored at least 5 or 6 GB of data, which normally takes a long time).

Having said all that, I also want to point out I'm not saying anything bad against the shop itself, they probably unknowingly used a dodgy supplier and didn't realise they were selling faulty goods.

System

Your complaint is against Vivacitystores.

Think of it like being given a store gift card. If you buy something with it that goes faulty then your complaint is against the retailer of that item and not the gift card seller.

mattyprice4004

Sounds like 8GB cards with some clever hex coding to make them appear larger.

Was doing the rounds on eBay with USB pen drives a while ago from China.

dont_buy_from_comet

how did you test them in a card reader or in a camera, phone or other item?

I know its probably a card reader but some things like phones and cameras will not read over a certain GB

klint

dont_buy_from_comet wrote: »

how did you test them in a card reader or in a camera, phone or other item?

I know its probably a card reader but some things like phones and cameras will not read over a certain GB

In a card reader. On two separate PCs, one a laptop with a built-in card reader and the other a desktop with a USB adaptor. Both were capable of SDHC standard. Both work ok with a 16 GB card that I already had from a well-known manufacturer. I used two different testing techniques, one was to use a testing utility application and the other was to copy manually a number of files and then try to read them to verify their content.

Anyway, I've sent them back to the store now, and I'm waiting to see what they say. I'll let you know the outcome.

damien69

Just had major difficulties with GoGroopie after making the mistake of buying vouchers for a trip to Venice. Turned out that flying from Manchester would cost an additional £700+. Anyway I digress, I tried to get a refund in accordance with their own T&Cs criteria & was completely ignored. Luckily I purchased via PayPal and they refunded me. I would warn anyone against using GoGroopie should they need any Customer Service. :mad:

wealdroam

klint wrote: »

Anyway, I've sent them back to the store now, and I'm waiting to see what they say. I'll let you know the outcome.

Hi Klint, any news on this yet?