Sale of Goods Act vs. Manufacturer Warranty - think I'm being shafted by ebuyer

George_Michael

boo_star wrote: »

The OP last posted on the 13th of Feb.

It's unlikely they'll even be around to respond now.

Last posted in Feb but they last logged on to MSE only a week ago so they are still around.

boo_star

George_Michael wrote: »

Last posted in Feb but they last logged on to MSE only a week ago so they are still around.

And almost certainly won't reply.

Kushan

boo_star wrote: »

And almost certainly won't reply.

Well isn't this embarassing


So after this thread went up, I was getting nowhere with customer services. Really nowhere. I ended up emailing the CEO's office and spoke to one of his agents. Again, I was getting nowhere and being fed the same lines as the CS agents. This went back and forth for days, I persisted but they wouldn't budge.

I sent a request to Citizen's Advice and got the following response:

We understand from your email that you would like to determine what your next course of action should be after experiencing problems with a hard drive you purchased.

Your rights and obligations:

Civil law is the area of law which can help resolve disputes between parties involved in a disagreement about goods and/or services. To expand further, most simple contracts involving a trader (business) and a consumer (private individual) are governed by at least one piece of legislation which will provide the consumer with their statutory rights; or their implied rights under UK civil law.

Bearing this in mind, when a consumer purchases goods for cash; or cash equivalent (debit card, credit card etc) their contract would be governed by the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended), and it is this piece of legislation that will provide them with their statutory rights. As such, any guarantee, warranty or company policy could only offer additional rights, and they cannot affect or restrict the consumer’s implied rights under this piece of law.

Amongst other things the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) states that all goods supplied by a trader to a consumer must be of a ‘satisfactory quality’ which means the goods should be free from faults, last a reasonable time, be fit for the purpose they were made for, and should not be unsafe.



Therefore if you can demonstrate that the hard drive you purchased does not meet these requirements; you may hold the trader in breach of contract and ask them to provide a suitable form of redress.



The law suggests that if you make the trader aware of any issues within a short time of purchase, you can attempt to have the goods returned to the trader and ask for a full refund. Once this initial period has elapsed you can expect a repair or a like-for-like replacement; or if neither of these are possible, an appropriate level of refund taking into account the time you have had to use and benefit from the product.



When a consumer is making a claim under their statutory rights; or their implied rights under UK civil law it is important to note that the trader would not be obliged to place the consumer in a position of betterment. To clarify, the trader is not expected to put you in a more advantageous position than you would have been in had the hard drive not failed prematurely; or sooner than expected. To expand further although UK law allows a consumer to hold a trader responsible for up to six years after goods are sold, and whilst this applies to all goods; factors such as the description and price paid for the hard drive would have to be taken into account when considering what 'satisfactory quality' means. Subsequently if the faults are found to be due to fair wear and tear given the description and price paid, the trader would not be liable for providing any remedy.



Furthermore, due to the length of time you have had the goods, the trader may ask you to prove that the fault(s) are not due to neglect, misuse, accidental damage or fair wear & tear. As such, the trader may ask you to have the goods inspected to confirm the fault is due to the goods failing prematurely or sooner than would be expected, before they will resolve the matter.





As such, your rights under a guarantee or warranty would be determined by the terms & conditions published in it. These terms and conditions will often outline how long the guarantee or warranty will provide cover; who will provide this cover; what is covered and what forms of redress will be offered when a fault develops. Therefore you would have to read through those terms and conditions to see exactly what it entitles you to and who would be responsible for providing that form of redress.

Please note, the guarantee or warranty provider would only be obliged to offer a form of redress which is outlined within the terms and conditions of the guarantee or warranty, and it is unlikely that these terms and conditions will state that a consumer may be offered a refund. This is because a refund is a reimbursement of funds and the consumer will not usually pay the guarantee or warranty provider for a product.



You can read more about guarantees and warranties here.



Your next steps:

Bearing in mind the information detailed above; if you wish to pursue a civil claim further, you should consider sending the trader a recorded delivery letter, outlining everything to date, and giving a deadline to resolve the matter within a set period of time (e.g. 14 days). Make it very clear what you expect from the trader; why and what steps you will consider taking should they fail to comply with your request. It is also worth enclosing copies of any documentation that would help you substantiate your claim and retaining copies of everything sent, for your records.

Template letters can be found at by clicking here. In this case, the letter named ‘Letter complaining about faulty goods’ would be most suitable.

When using the template letters it is important that you follow the online instructions carefully. In addition, once the letter has been generated it may also require further editing, in order to make it clear to the trader what the nature of your complaint is.

Sending letters by recorded delivery will allow you to track the letter using the ‘Recorded Signed For’ label the post office supply you with; to make sure the trader receives the letter. As such, the trader would be unable to claim that you have never made them aware of your intentions should they fail to comply with your request, even if they fail to offer a response.

What we’ll do:

We will inform Trading Standards of the trader's activities in this situation for further consideration regarding any enforcement issues. Whilst this is unlikely to help with your own civil complaint, Trading Standards can take into consideration such complaints when prioritizing their activities.

It would be helpful however, if you could provide the full details of the trader? Ideally we would need the trader’s full trading name and postal address including postcode. If this is possible, you can provide this information by return email or using the telephone number detailed below.

If you require any further advice or information about this case, please do not hesitate to contact the Citizens Advice consumer service by return email or on 03454 04 05 06 quoting the case reference number.

Thank you for your email.

So, I felt the next step would be to send them this letter. I replied to the CEO's office asking for the address of their legal department, stating that I had received legal advice and will be pursuing the issue further via legal means.

When ebuyer received this, they finally relented and offered me the full refund of what I paid - highlighting that this was a one-time only thing and they would not be doing it again. It took a few days but a cheque came in the post.

Looks like if you're struggling to get anywhere with them, they'll hold out until the last possible moment.

I have not bought anything from ebuyer since

Zandoni

Ebuyer must be losing a lot of customers with their poor customer service.

scrabble123

I am having this exact same problem with a Corsair Power Supply Unit purchased from ebuyer.

It's still advertised with a 3 year guarantee:
278634-corsair-cx-500w-fully-wired-80-bronze-power-supply-cp-9020047-uk

Ebuyer are stocking these still so they are able to provide a replacement, however they are only offering a 75% of the money back after confirming that there is a fault with the original item. They are stating that the value decreases after 6 months.

I've spent so much time talking to their returns department today that it must have cost them in wages the amount that they are disputing.

After sending the item back to ebuyer and they confirmed it had a fault they were unable to send it back to me as they "recycled" it.

I've never heard of a company guaranteeing a product and then only giving you a partial amount back, what's the point of the guarantee?

I feel like pursuing this on principals alone!

I'm going to write a letter to the company's legal department, does any one have any templates or guidance they could provide?

Zandoni

scrabble123 wrote: »

I am having this exact same problem with a Corsair Power Supply Unit purchased from ebuyer.

It's still advertised with a 3 year guarantee:
278634-corsair-cx-500w-fully-wired-80-bronze-power-supply-cp-9020047-uk

Ebuyer are stocking these still so they are able to provide a replacement, however they are only offering a 75% of the money back after confirming that there is a fault with the original item. They are stating that the value decreases after 6 months.

I've spent so much time talking to their returns department today that it must have cost them in wages the amount that they are disputing.

After sending the item back to ebuyer and they confirmed it had a fault they were unable to send it back to me as they "recycled" it.

I've never heard of a company guaranteeing a product and then only giving you a partial amount back, what's the point of the guarantee?

I feel like pursuing this on principals alone!

I'm going to write a letter to the company's legal department, does any one have any templates or guidance they could provide?

I'd be tempted to send them a letter before action then go to the small claims court, simply because they destroyed your property.

Kushan

scrabble123 wrote: »

I am having this exact same problem with a Corsair Power Supply Unit purchased from ebuyer.

It's still advertised with a 3 year guarantee:
278634-corsair-cx-500w-fully-wired-80-bronze-power-supply-cp-9020047-uk

Ebuyer are stocking these still so they are able to provide a replacement, however they are only offering a 75% of the money back after confirming that there is a fault with the original item. They are stating that the value decreases after 6 months.

I've spent so much time talking to their returns department today that it must have cost them in wages the amount that they are disputing.

After sending the item back to ebuyer and they confirmed it had a fault they were unable to send it back to me as they "recycled" it.

I've never heard of a company guaranteeing a product and then only giving you a partial amount back, what's the point of the guarantee?

I feel like pursuing this on principals alone!

I'm going to write a letter to the company's legal department, does any one have any templates or guidance they could provide?

I would suggest emailing the CEO's office asking for the legal department's address, after explaining your issue. That seemed to be enough to get a refund for me and if nothing else, you'll get the legal department's address.

cinereus

Kushan wrote: »

Well isn't this embarassing


So after this thread went up, I was getting nowhere with customer services. Really nowhere. I ended up emailing the CEO's office and spoke to one of his agents. Again, I was getting nowhere and being fed the same lines as the CS agents. This went back and forth for days, I persisted but they wouldn't budge.

I sent a request to Citizen's Advice and got the following response:



So, I felt the next step would be to send them this letter. I replied to the CEO's office asking for the address of their legal department, stating that I had received legal advice and will be pursuing the issue further via legal means.

When ebuyer received this, they finally relented and offered me the full refund of what I paid - highlighting that this was a one-time only thing and they would not be doing it again. It took a few days but a cheque came in the post.

Looks like if you're struggling to get anywhere with them, they'll hold out until the last possible moment.

I have not bought anything from ebuyer since

Thanks for confirming the suspected: that they are chancers without a leg to stand on!