Reasonable Time?

getchin

Hey,

I was hoping to get some advice and clarification on an issue I'm having with an online retailer. Basically I bought an expensive, high end piece of DJ equipment for my job (as a DJ!) in December - it's on finance with Barclays and everything has been fine until it started developing some rather strange faults that cut the audio out in the middle of my sets - not good if you're a DJ!

I sent the goods back to the retailer on 15th July and was advised it had been forwarded for repair; in the meantime I've been using my old piece of equipment which last week decided to give up the ghost (it was 4 years old!). Anyway I rang the repair centre direct as they had been communicating with me prior to last week, and they advised that they are now looking to secure some parts from Japan and they expect it to take a further 2-3 weeks.

Obviously this is a problem as I'm now without the piece of equipment I need to do my work, so I wrote an email to the retailer stating that the repair centre had advised me of the extended delay and that I wished to explore getting a refund/agreement cancelled so I can source a new unit asap. I then received a rather rude phone call from the owner/manager of this retailer berating me for quoting Sales of Good Act obligations and saying that he wasn't willing to refund as he doesn't agree that 6-7 weeks repair is unreasonable.

I'm obviously losing money and missing great gig opportunities without having this unit and he's told me that if I took it further "i'd lose" and that the unit's 8 month age makes it reasonable for it to develop faults - I don't agree as my previous far lower budget unit lasted 4 years!

Can you advise as to my position?

shaun_from_Africa

One important thing to remember is that as the purchase of the item in question was a business to business transaction, an awful lot of the Sale of goods act won't apply.
The section that states that a repair must be carried out without significant inconvienence to the buyer is one of the sections that doesn't apply to B2B contracts. (it is section F40, and is in the section "Additional rights of buyers in consumer cases", so the time taken for repair is something that should be agreed between you and the seller.

getchin

Hi,

I'm not a registered business as such; I have 2 DJ residencies a week and had worked until recently as a paralegal (on personal injury) as my main job - I fill out self assessment to declare my earnings obviously but up until 2 months ago wasn't my main career as such as I had gone to law school whilst working part time as a DJ.

Also, the main contract was in my father's name? (as I didn't have much of a credit history and so didn't want to risk a rejected application)

soolin

getchin wrote: »

Hi,

I'm not a registered business as such; I have 2 DJ residencies a week and had worked until recently as a paralegal (on personal injury) as my main job - I fill out self assessment to declare my earnings obviously but up until 2 months ago wasn't my main career as such as I had gone to law school whilst working part time as a DJ.

Also, the main contract was in my father's name? (as I didn't have much of a credit history and so didn't want to risk a rejected application)

You are a business so it was a B2B transaction. I run several businesses and am not registered anywhere with an official body only with HMRC to pay my tax and NI.

ThumbRemote

Any remedy mustn't cause you 'significant inconvenience'. It's debatable how this would be interpreted as your main use for the product is business use.

In any case if they refuse to refund, you'd have to buy elsewhere then use the small claims court to obtain your refund. You'd have to persuade a judge that the delay did cause you a significant inconvenience.

It's your call whether to try this, but you're moving beyond strict consumer rights here.

getchin

Thank you all for your advice; I'll seek some advice from Citizens Advice or something and see where it falls

Thank you again!