Delivery of damaged goods - no refund?

unholyangel

frugal_mike wrote: »

I'm not sure why you quoted that part of the Sale of Goods Act, it doesn't contradict anything I said. It's setting a lower limit for the term reasonable time as used in subsection 4, but that subsection does not apply at all unless the consumer does not indicate to seller that they accept the goods. The reasonable time could be longer than the time for a reasonable opportunity, but never less. It doesn't define what constitutes a reasonable opportunity though, so that could conceivably happen on the doorstep in some situations.

It's good to see the UTCCR's specifically mention trying to sneakily get the consumer to tell them they accept the goods by hiding the assumed acceptance in the terms and conditions. I said in my first post I thought this shouldn't be taken to be the customer telling the seller they accepted the goods, but I wasn't sure if there was any legal basis for that.

And do note my original post was just in response to someone questioning the MSE article advising to write 'not examined' on delivery notes.

But subsection 1 (about saying you accept the goods) does not apply where the buyer has not previously examined the goods.

So you cannot sign away your acceptance rights by saying you accept the goods because you havent had a reasonable opportunity to determine whether the goods conform to contract. A reasonable time passes once they have had reasonable opportunity. If reasonable time hasnt passed, its because they havent had reasonable opportunity (which comes back to the selling summer goods in winter....they wont have the "opportunity" to really see whether they conform until summer).

And i know you said you agree I was just saying there is a legal basis for it

frugal_mike

Oh subsection 1 always applies. Subsection 2 just says it doesn't apply until the consumer has had a reasonable opportunity to inspect the goods if that didn't happen before purchase. If the buyer can reasonably do that on the doorstep and then tells the seller they accept the goods then acceptance occurs. clearly there is no reasonable opportunity to inspect a big pallet full of stuff, but something small and simple might reasonably be inspected.

Thankfully just signing a delivery note can't be taken as telling the seller you accept the goods, but I wouldn't want to tell someone not to write 'not examined' just in case