Refused a refund of broken item

Birdcake

Hi all,

I purchased a skateboard for my nephew as a Christmas gift. Instead of buying a complete board, he chose the individual parts (wheels, board etc) and I ordered it that way. It arrived, I put it together and wrapped it up for him.

Come Christmas day, he unwrapped it stood on it (Indoors, on carpet) and said that it felt odd. Then it started to make a slight grinding noise when balancing on the board. His dad had a look and found that some very brittle rubber had broken off causing the issue.

I contacted the company I bought it from and sent them a few pictures. They said what the problem was caused my a broken rubber cup. The offered to send me a replacement part and told me how to repair it.

I explained that as I bought it as a Christmas gift and that it wasn't fit for purpose, I had no other option than to buy him a replacement skateboard from another company. I said that I didn't think it was right for them to ask me to repair something that was brand new.


I emailed them to say that there was no other option than for me to return the whole skateboard and for them to issue me with a refund.


I received an email today from the company, giving me 3 options:


- 1) The repair the skateboard, "Free of charge" (Wow, thanks for nothing!) but I would have to arrange for a courier to collect it at my own expense.


- 2) They don't repair it and I have a courier collect it and return it to me, again at my own expense.


- 3) They "dispose" of it



I feel that if a company sells something and it's not fit for purpose, then they should be more apologetic and offer a refund.


Sorry for waffling, i'm just really enjoyed with this whole mess!

vuvuzela

Birdcake wrote: »

Hi all,

I purchased a skateboard for my nephew as a Christmas gift. Instead of buying a complete board, he chose the individual parts (wheels, board etc) and I ordered it that way. It arrived, I put it together and wrapped it up for him.

Come Christmas day, he unwrapped it stood on it (Indoors, on carpet) and said that it felt odd. Then it started to make a slight grinding noise when balancing on the board. His dad had a look and found that some very brittle rubber had broken off causing the issue.

I contacted the company I bought it from and sent them a few pictures. They said what the problem was caused my a broken rubber cup. The offered to send me a replacement part and told me how to repair it.

I explained that as I bought it as a Christmas gift and that it wasn't fit for purpose, I had no other option than to buy him a replacement skateboard from another company. I said that I didn't think it was right for them to ask me to repair something that was brand new.


I emailed them to say that there was no other option than for me to return the whole skateboard and for them to issue me with a refund.


I received an email today from the company, giving me 3 options:


- 1) The repair the skateboard, "Free of charge" (Wow, thanks for nothing!) but I would have to arrange for a courier to collect it at my own expense.


- 2) They don't repair it and I have a courier collect it and return it to me, again at my own expense.


- 3) They "dispose" of it



I feel that if a company sells something and it's not fit for purpose, then they should be more apologetic and offer a refund.


Sorry for waffling, i'm just really enjoyed with this whole mess!

You don't say specifically, but I assume you just sent the skateboard back ? When did this happen and how long was it after purchase ?

Personally I think you have over-reacted about this. You did have a choice not to buy him another skateboard - he wouldn't have expired without the use of one for a couple of weeks until they sent a replacement part.

Birdcake

vuvuzela wrote: »

You don't say specifically, but I assume you just sent the skateboard back ? When did this happen and how long was it after purchase ?

Personally I think you have over-reacted about this. You did have a choice not to buy him another skateboard - he wouldn't have expired without the use of one for a couple of weeks until they sent a replacement part.

Sorry, yes I returned it to them.

It broke within 5 minutes of him unwrapping it. I contacted the company as soon as I found out (around the second week of January). They took an age for them to reply though. I felt like they just wanted me to give up and go away.

I don't think there has been any over-reaction. I felt sorry for my nephew that he couldn't have what he wanted at Christmas. It had been a tough year for him as his mother (my sister-in-law) had passed away in the November and I just wanted to treat him. Hence why I bought him a replacement.

The issue I have with them sending me a replacement part is that it isn't an easy thing to fix. It means i'd have to pay someone locally to replace the part and at my expense. They just doesn't seem fair to me. Please remember that this is a brand new item.

Cornucopia

I can see this being a struggle. The issue being that you bought a set of parts.

societys_child

In the first post you said

I put it together

but then you say

It means i'd have to pay someone locally to replace the part

can you not diy, as you assembled it in the first place?

maninthestreet

You didn't buy a skateboard, you bought a number of parts that can be used to construct a skateboard. One of those parts broke - the supplier has met their legal obligations to you by offering to send you a replacement part. How difficult can it be to replace this part, given that you managed to assemble the parts into a skateboard yourself in the first place?

Birdcake

societys_child wrote: »

In the first post you said


but then you say
can you not diy, as you assembled it in the first place?

maninthestreet wrote: »

You didn't buy a skateboard, you bought a number of parts that can be used to construct a skateboard. One of those parts broke - the supplier has met the legal obligations to you by offering to send you a replacement part. How difficult can it be to replace this part, given that you managed to assemble the parts into a skateboard yourself in the first place?

I did put it together in the first place but the part that needs replacing is an internal part. I'm not confident doing something that involved.

maninthestreet

Birdcake wrote: »

I did put it together in the first place but the part that needs replacing is an internal part. I'm not confident doing something that involved.

How involved is it? This is just a skateboard, after all.

Birdcake

maninthestreet wrote: »

How involved is it? This is just a skateboard, after all.

It's involved enough for me to not want to attempt it.

The point is, they sent me a faulty item and instead of just replacing that part, they wanted me to carry out the repair myself. If they had got back to me quicker than the 6 weeks that they did, and said that if I returned the broken part, they would send a replacement. I would have been happy to do so.

k3lvc

Birdcake wrote: »

It's involved enough for me to not want to attempt it.

The point is, they sent me a faulty item and instead of just replacing that part, they wanted me to carry out the repair myself. If they had got back to me quicker than the 6 weeks that they did, and said that if I returned the broken part, they would send a replacement. I would have been happy to do so.

The original seller has no responsibility for consequential loss (i.e. your purchase of a new board) but have agreed to replacing the broken part - unless it's a single bearing that's broken in a complex assembly I'm struggling to understand how it can be any more difficult than the work you carried out when you put it together.

Maybe if you're bought a comlpete unit to start with their response might be different but they appear to be working in both the spirit and wording of their responsibilities

bod1467

Sounds like it's a rubber bush that's part of the "steering" mechanism of one of the wheel pair assemblies. Whilst it's not too hard to take apart, you need to be mindful of the order of disassembly (thus assembly) of the individual parts, and also the required torque once reassembled.

Not something for the uninitiated to try.