any help for business buyer as SOGA no good

stickney

Hi there,
Can someone help point me in the right direction regarding what rights someone has when buying as a business??

The reason i ask is because my friend was instructed to purchase a laptop as a business buyer even though the laptop was mainly for home use and not work.
The laptop has died at 13 months, she went to the store to see if they would maybe repair as gesture of goodwill with it only being 13 months old and basically got told to go away/nothing will be done.
Because she bought as a business user they will not honor SOGA 1979 due to it being a business purchase?, while this may be the case is there some other protection that she could fall back on because of this??

Is there another 'act' that may cover her for help with this at all.

More annoyed than anything as she now realise's why they were keen for her to buy as a business when she mentioned she was a physio, as she now has a £350 paperweight !!!!
After looking on the internet it seems this is common practice to get someone to buy as a business if they can so that they can back out on the SOGA if something does go wrong

Thanks in Advance for any help or advice with this.

unholyangel

Who did she buy it from? Its a tricky area because while technically you cant sign away your rights as a consumer, the one exception to this (from what OFT have said anyway) is a company that ONLY sells to business customers and the consumer falsely represents themselves as a business.

The SoGA does still apply, just there are additional rights if you are dealing as a consumer and it is possible to contract out of certain liabilities in a b2b contract.

You say it was mainly for home use......is it being used in the course of a business?

bris

B2B purchases are exempt from consumer rights but you do still have contract rights, you need to look at the sales contract to determine your rights.
While buying as a consumer does give you more rights, buying as a business allows you to claim back the vat( if vat registered) and put the expense through the books for tax relief etc, so it does have some advantages.
You now need to look to contract law and determine whether or not you have a case outside the manufacturers 12 month warranty. It will be difficult, it's difficult enough for a consumer to get a remedy proving fault so a B2B transaction will be even harder.

arcon5

Business contracts aren't excluded from SOGA, its just terms can be contracted out in favour of their own fair terms.

But doesn't mean goods shouldn't conform to contract and be fit for purpose

Fire_Fox

She wasn't instructed, the decision was hers. If she does run her own business she should already know what she is permitted to purchase and what she is not and she is responsible for adhering to the legislation and guidelines in what she writes off and what she does not.

SuperHan

Did she claim VAT back on the laptop? If she did, it's a little bit of picking what suits.

neilmcl

SuperHan wrote: »

Did she claim VAT back on the laptop? If she did, it's a little bit of picking what suits.

Not all businesses are VAT registered!

ThumbRemote

I've been in PC World before, when the first free sales advisor was from PC World Business. "It's OK, I'll just put it through as a business purchase for you" he said, until I refused. I suspect he had a target to reach and this would have gone some way towards it.

It would have been quite easy for someone less savvy to simply agree to this.

SuperHan

neilmcl wrote: »

Not all businesses are VAT registered!

That's true (and I'm not sure how implied that was the case, but anyway)... But if she did claim it back, she certainly shouldn't be arguing that it isn't primarily a business laptop!