Advice needed on problem with CardSave and lost chip and pin terminal

sniper786

Basically we have a small convenience store and we started taking card payments in February this year. Around a fortnight ago the chip and pin terminal just stopped working, i phoned up to report this and was told a new one would be sent out the next day.

The new terminal arrived and i asked the delivery driver if he wanted the old one, he said no. The old terminal was lying about for around a week when my staff ended up binning it by accident.

Received contact from cardsave a few days ago who want to collect the old terminal, i explained that it had been binned by accident and when i phoned to report it no-one told me to keep it safe and the driver did not take it back when i offered. The advisor on the phone said to leave it i with him and he would check what their procedure is.

Today i have received a letter from them instructing that as per the terms of the conditions of my contract i need to pay them £600 as compensation for the lost terminal and this should be paid within 7 days or solicitors will be instructed.

I completely accept it is our fault in binning the terminal and rather silly but £600 is a complete exaggeration in the cost of the machine and will be very difficult for us to pay as a small business in difficult trading conditions. I also think i should have been told when i phoned originally to report the faulty terminal that the old one would be collected by Cardsave so i would have made a special effort to put it to the side and left my staff member know.

I accept a charge is perfectly appropriate but within reason - i have found the same terminal on ebay for 99p! (albeit used). I am also annoyed as when i signed up the rep told me i would get the latest terminal but the machine was actually really old and clunky and is now out of production.


As far as i can see i have 3 options:

1) I have phoned the legal dept from the Federation of Small Businesses and they have advised they are valid to argue for a charge as it is their property and advised me to write to them to put the ball back into their court by stating i was not told about the collection of the machine initially, the machine was defective anyway and how have they come to this figure of £600. Also my contract will be up in Feb 2014 so advise if they want to keep me they will need to waive or reduce the charge.

2) Ignore it. I know of shopkeepers who have been threatened with charges for terminating contracts early (e.g., cancelling payzone contract or terminating a spar contract to move to londis) and have been threatened with charges but the companies have never actually made a move to claim these fees and the lawyer on the phone said this is quite common.

3) Buy a terminal from ebay and tell them i phone it and chance my luck, i t does have different branding on it (e.g., barclaycard) so i would have to scrape it off or something.

Any thoughts welcome

bris

Make a counter offer of a token amount of around £50 to cover the admin costs involved,

If they refuse then tell them to take you to court and you will obide by the courts decision.

To defend the charge in court find evidence of working terminals on ebay etc and print out their selling price for comparison, then tell the court it was faulty and so worthless. The courts will not allow the company to charge you for betterment which would be classed as a penalty.

martindow

I think the problem will be that the Cardsave agreement will have clauses requiring you to pay the price of a new terminal. Unfair clauses do not exist in business to business contracts unlike protection given to individual consumers. Would this be covered by your insurance?

sniper786

For anyone interested, cardsave wrote back today in a very short letter (2 paragraphs).

First one apologizing for their service falling below acceptable standards and the second apologizing for not telling me to keep the terminal safe originally when i phoned to tell them it was faulty and they have cancelled the invoice. :money: