Section 75 or chrge back?

Gillingham

@ILW, you perhaps are not aware that the Kindle is an Amazon product and is not manufactued in the UK. I very much doubt that any of the 'tablet' devices around are made here in the UK.

I buy 'Made in the Uk' products where I can. Unfortunately this is not always possible.

This was a question regarding Section 75/Chargeback and not a question of buyers ethics.

chattychappy

Gillingham wrote: »

This was a question regarding Section 75/Chargeback and not a question of buyers ethics.

Ha ha ha.. that's MSE for you. You should have seen the stick someone got in another thread when her son run up some charges on an xbox and was asking if she was liable.

Norfolk_Jim

What a strange lot of contradictory advise being posted here compared to Martins fairly easily understood guide.

Have you read the guide?

Credit card purchase over £100, both retailer and CC are equally liable - you could go after either of them.

Makes sense to try to sort it out with the retailer first but you are not compelled to - just more reasonable to try.

Am I totally misunderstanding Martins guide? You were sold something to use in the UK that in fact does not work adequately in the UK. The CC is as responsible for sorting your problem as the store is - you didn't get what you were sold - A UK compatable kindle.

suggest you just follow the advise in Martins guide and if the experts on here think he is wrong in his guide, could they please tell him directly.

To quote just a little bit from the guide
"This isn't the credit card company being nice, it's a legal protection put in place so that you're never in the position of paying debt for something you didn't receive or wasn't as it should've been. Whether it's a flight, kitchen, computer or anything else, pay on the card and the card company's responsible too."
My bold and underline

Gillingham

Thank you Norfolk Jim, that is how I understood it to be. I posted regarding this matter in the hope that someone who had also claimed under section 75 could advise me if there is anything in particular to say/not say to the cc company regarding this.

I am currently in some dialogue with Best Buy and have just sent them some more information from the receipt so I will see what they come back with. The specific store was not helpful at all and I feel sure that I am not the only tourist to fall foul of their mis selling.

As I am a UK national, living in the UK and only visited the US on holiday, I don't have a US address and obviously have not/would be unable to get a US credit card as suggested in a previous post.

Thanks again for all replies.

meer53

Norfolk_Jim wrote: »

What a strange lot of contradictory advise being posted here compared to Martins fairly easily understood guide.

Have you read the guide?

Credit card purchase over £100, both retailer and CC are equally liable - you could go after either of them.

Makes sense to try to sort it out with the retailer first but you are not compelled to - just more reasonable to try.

Am I totally misunderstanding Martins guide? You were sold something to use in the UK that in fact does not work adequately in the UK. The CC is as responsible for sorting your problem as the store is - you didn't get what you were sold - A UK compatable kindle.

suggest you just follow the advise in Martins guide and if the experts on here think he is wrong in his guide, could they please tell him directly.

To quote just a little bit from the guide
"This isn't the credit card company being nice, it's a legal protection put in place so that you're never in the position of paying debt for something you didn't receive or wasn't as it should've been. Whether it's a flight, kitchen, computer or anything else, pay on the card and the card company's responsible too."
My bold and underline

Fairly easily understood, yes.

Card issuer and retailer jointly liable, yes.

The OP's problem will be in proving that he was told that the item would work correctly in the UK. If they have proof of this, then fine, if not, it's going to be pretty difficult for them to get their money back.

Section 75 claims are not guaranteed to be successful.

gglaze

That's kind of my point. Also you are trying to use a sledgehammer to knock a small nail in.

If this was a case of they handed you an iPad box, and it turned out to be a kindle inside the box; or they handed you a "Kindle UK" box and it turned out to be a Kindle US inside the box, then that would be more clear cut. But to just go on your word vs the word of some random sales associate (do you remember his name? do you know his full name? is he even still employed there?). It seems like you are getting into a legal area where much more cut and dry evidence may be required.

In reality, your actual problem is that you want to return an item for a refund, because it didn't turn out to be what you thought you wanted. Using S75 for this is massive overkill. The store still exists. The store has a return policy. The store would certainly accept your return. (Unless there is something you haven't told us). If I was a lawyer looking to dismiss your S75 claim, I would point out those 3 facts, and I'm pretty sure the judge would throw it out, right?

On the other hand, you could look for a way to just follow the returns process and return the item and get your refund - and then everyone is happy, and no unpleasant lawyer stuff to deal with either.

Gillingham

I asked the Best Buy for a refund and was told that I couldn't have one as it was outside their time limit for returns. As it was purchased on 21st November (as a Christmas gift to me from my hubby) it wasn't even looked at until the end of January. I paid for it on my card and hubby gave me the money when we came home. Over christmas we had a family member missing in a foreign country and setting up a kindle was the last thing on my mind. When did I set it up and tried to buy some apps it would not work. You know the story from there.

I have just sent further information to Best Buy and await what they have to say. The initial response I got from them was that they couldn't do anything about it.

meer53

I don't think you will get any further with this really. Why not try to sell it on Ebay ?

dalesrider

Norfolk_Jim wrote: »

What a strange lot of contradictory advise being posted here compared to Martins fairly easily understood guide.

Have you read the guide?

Credit card purchase over £100, both retailer and CC are equally liable - you could go after either of them.

To quote just a little bit from the guide
"This isn't the credit card company being nice, it's a legal protection put in place so that you're never in the position of paying debt for something you didn't receive or wasn't as it should've been. Whether it's a flight, kitchen, computer or anything else, pay on the card and the card company's responsible too."
My bold and underline

We're a journalistic website and aim to provide the best MoneySaving guides, tips, tools and techniques, but can't guarantee to be perfect, so do note you use the information at your own risk and we can't accept liability if things go wrong

My bold.....


That guide is like a dummies guide. Simple.

Do you think that a CC is going to roll over and payout, without proof.
As a kindle it does work, Cm admits that. I would guess that internet works as well.
Its the apps etc that do not work. TBH as a kindle fire owner, no great loss.

Yes, the OP can take the CC co to court. That is his legal right under S75.

Too many people think that S75 is a cop out charter when they cannot be bothered ( OP excepted here ) to do any leg work. Which is why a CC requires YOU to prove YOUR case before looking at things.
CC may even take it up with Best buy and get it resolved. just do not expect a quick fix.
S75 can take months to resolve when dealing with 3rd parties are involved.

gglaze

Gillingham wrote: »

I asked the Best Buy for a refund and was told that I couldn't have one as it was outside their time limit for returns. As it was purchased on 21st November...

Yup, that was the missing piece of information here.

Ok, still thinking constructively...again if you were still in Florida, I would suggest going to the store and speaking to the manager, explaining the situation and the fact that it is due in part to his incompetent staff and their bad advice. I would suggest that a return is in order in this case, even outside of the normal time limit, because of the bad advice. I know customer service is quite different over here in the UK, but in the US generally they try to actually make the customer happy, even if that means bending the rules a bit. In this case the manager may very well agree to accept a return on these grounds, as long as you still have for example original packaging, receipt, etc? You do have that stuff still, right?

So, given that you can't walk into the store - well if I were you, I would still be trying to accomplish exactly this, but over the phone. If the first person you speak to says you can't return because of the policy, then ask to speak to the manager, and then explain that this is a special situation, and that his incompetent staff is partly to blame for this, and see if he can help you out.

As others have explained, the other alternative is to get into a sticky legal process, and it really doesn't seem like you have a rock solid case. Sure, every once in a while you hear about some customer winning a case against a huge store chain for some dodgy advice, but for every one of those, there must be 100 that have lost. If you don't have the full name of the sales rep who gave you the advice, along with all the necessary details to even make it possible to use that as "evidence", your case is very thin indeed.

Barring that, I agree with the other advice - just sell on ebay. You never know, you may actually turn a profit and sell above your purchase price - happens to me occasionally! Especially since you can sell in the UK - there are probably plenty of UK buyers who don't really care about the region problem and would still pay the "premium" UK Kindle price, which is going to be higher than what you paid.