Conflict with Amazon

Impala77_2

My sister bought a new pushchair off of Amazon, although it wasn't sold by Amazon but a seller using their site to trade.
After 3 weeks a wheel fell off and she lost the spindle and split pin so couldn't reattach the wheel. She emailed the seller and asked for a replacement wheel, after a week she had no reply so she emailed Amazon, they opened a A-Z claim and promptly turned her down as she didn't return the pram within 2 weeks. They must surely have seen from the time scale that it was more than 2 weeks and in the email she stated it broke after 3 weeks so why open the A-Z thing? She replied saying that as the seller could not be contacted and the pram was no longer fit for purpose that she expected Amazon to offer a refund, they have said no because of this 2 week claim thing. They also say she must either contact the manufacturer (we can't find out who that is) or get a charge back from her card company.
Am I right in saying that goods must be fit for purpose for a "reasonable amount of time" and that her contract is with the seller not the manufacturer. As the seller can't be contacted surely the responsibility falls to Amazon.
My sister can't afford to just write off £150.
Any advice would be great.

gik

Surely she has the wheel?

wealdroam

Impala77 wrote: »

My sister bought a new pushchair off of Amazon, although it wasn't sold by Amazon but a seller using their site to trade.
After 3 weeks a wheel fell off and she lost the spindle and split pin so couldn't reattach the wheel. She emailed the seller and asked for a replacement wheel, after a week she had no reply so she emailed Amazon, they opened a A-Z claim and promptly turned her down as she didn't return the pram within 2 weeks. They must surely have seen from the time scale that it was more than 2 weeks and in the email she stated it broke after 3 weeks so why open the A-Z thing? She replied saying that as the seller could not be contacted and the pram was no longer fit for purpose that she expected Amazon to offer a refund, they have said no because of this 2 week claim thing. They also say she must either contact the manufacturer (we can't find out who that is) or get a charge back from her card company.
Am I right in saying that goods must be fit for purpose for a "reasonable amount of time" and that her contract is with the seller not the manufacturer. As the seller can't be contacted surely the responsibility falls to Amazon.
My sister can't afford to just write off £150.
Any advice would be great.

Amazon do not have the responsibility you are suggesting in your last sentence... simply because they are not the seller.

LilElvis

Impala77 wrote: »

My sister bought a new pushchair off of Amazon, although it wasn't sold by Amazon but a seller using their site to trade.
After 3 weeks a wheel fell off and she lost the spindle and split pin so couldn't reattach the wheel. She emailed the seller and asked for a replacement wheel, after a week she had no reply so she emailed Amazon, they opened a A-Z claim and promptly turned her down as she didn't return the pram within 2 weeks. They must surely have seen from the time scale that it was more than 2 weeks and in the email she stated it broke after 3 weeks so why open the A-Z thing? She replied saying that as the seller could not be contacted and the pram was no longer fit for purpose that she expected Amazon to offer a refund, they have said no because of this 2 week claim thing. They also say she must either contact the manufacturer (we can't find out who that is) or get a charge back from her card company.
Am I right in saying that goods must be fit for purpose for a "reasonable amount of time" and that her contract is with the seller not the manufacturer. As the seller can't be contacted surely the responsibility falls to Amazon.
My sister can't afford to just write off £150.
Any advice would be great.

How can she not know who the manufacturer is? Firstly, the item description on Amazon gives the brand and the item name e.g. Mama's and Papas Luna Pushchair, and this will still be shown on her order in My Account on Amazon. Secondly, the manufacturer will be named on the box the pushchair came in. Thirdly, pushchairs come with comprehensive assembly and instruction manuals which include contact details for the manufacturer's service centre.

If you provide the link to the item someone will doubtlessly be able to find the manufacturer's contact details for you. As a new member you cannot post a direct link, but you can copy and past the link into a post and just insert a space so that it will appear as text e.g. www. Google. com

jackieblack

Impala77 wrote: »

Am I right in saying that goods must be fit for purpose for a "reasonable amount of time" and that her contract is with the seller not the manufacturer.

This is correct

Impala77 wrote: »

As the seller can't be contacted surely the responsibility falls to Amazon.

No, Amazon are not the seller

Impala77 wrote: »

Any advice would be great.

Avoid buying from 3rd party sellers

I've always experienced excellent customer service from Amazon, but always buy directly from them and tend to avoid 3rd party sellers

browneyedbazzi

To add to the points above about identifying the manufacturer of the pushchair - there are additional regulations that require particular labels to be attached to items like pushchairs so it should have a label affixed to it somewhere with the details of the producer. You are right that in the first instance you should usually try to get the seller to sort out a problem, but when that isn't working contacting the producer will often sort a problem.

Also, I'm not sure why you think liability passes to amazon if you cannot contact the seller. If a high street business operating out of a rented shop unit didn't respond to you would you expect to be able to claim against their landlord?

LilElvis

It's also possible that the wheel fell off not through a manufacturing fault, but due to incorrect assembly by the purchaser.

impala77

Hi, a few things, naively my sister thought she was buying it from amazon not a third party. I don't know the manufacturer because it's a cheap and cheerful pram not a mamas and papas etc, on the advert it says happy baby, is that the seller or manufacturer? All it says on the pram is "flash" which is the model name.The instructions are in German so it is obviously a German manufacturer.
To put the wheels on you push a split pin in, push wheel on shaft and release the pin and it locks on, had she not done it right it would have come off straight away, plus she checked them all before using it. She still has the wheel but when she realised the wheel was coming off the bearings had worked loose and pushed out the spindle and split pin, she retraced her steps but couldn't find them so can't reattach the wheel, hence contacting seller for a new spindle assembly. I accept then that amazon arent the seller but if the seller refuses to reply to her emails what does she do? She has asked amazon for the manufacturer details and is awaiting a reply.

impala77

browneyedbazzi, I was led to believe it was like ebay, and that amazon are responsible for the seller's using their page and believed they would chase up sellers who broke the rules or behaved badly. I now know not to buy anything off there again if I'm not 100% sure it's amazon selling it.

LilElvis

impala77 wrote: »

Hi, a few things, naively my sister thought she was buying it from amazon not a third party. I don't know the manufacturer because it's a cheap and cheerful pram not a mamas and papas etc, on the advert it says happy baby, is that the seller or manufacturer? All it says on the pram is "flash" which is the model name.The instructions are in German so it is obviously a German manufacturer.
To put the wheels on you push a split pin in, push wheel on shaft and release the pin and it locks on, had she not done it right it would have come off straight away, plus she checked them all before using it. She still has the wheel but when she realised the wheel was coming off the bearings had worked loose and pushed out the spindle and split pin, she retraced her steps but couldn't find them so can't reattach the wheel, hence contacting seller for a new spindle assembly. I accept then that amazon arent the seller but if the seller refuses to reply to her emails what does she do? She has asked amazon for the manufacturer details and is awaiting a reply.

So in your first post you say that it cost £150, which your sister can't afford to lose, yet now you are describing it as "cheap and cheerful". Which is it? Are you even the original poster as this is a different, though similar, username?

browneyedbazzi

impala77 wrote: »

browneyedbazzi, I was led to believe it was like ebay, and that amazon are responsible for the seller's using their page and believed they would chase up sellers who broke the rules or behaved badly. I now know not to buy anything off there again if I'm not 100% sure it's amazon selling it.

Amazon and ebay both offer some protection for consumers buying from sellers using their platform - those protections go beyond what is legally required and will be subject to their terms and conditions.

It is important not to confuse extra protections offered by some businesses (which differ from place to place and can be subject to terms and conditions) with statutory rights (which are the same everywhere and cannot be eroded or limited by terms and conditions).