Started court action to get refund on faulty goods

marliepanda

I doubt you can ask for he court fees as you could have mitigated your losses by starting a PayPal claim. Court should be used as the final option and the judge (if you get that far) will probably feel it is a waste of time

Watergirl

How many times do I have to explain that I couldn't predict that I would have any losses until they messed me around, by which time I'd already sent them 5 letters/emails and been let down when they were meant to pick it up? I'm not going to start a PayPal claim the second I receive faulty goods!
I gave the company the benefit of the doubt, as they'd given me no reason not to, until the point they said they weren't turning up to pick the sink up. I am claiming for the letters sent and time wasted, which was the point at which I knew they were messing us around. As far as I a concerned, court is the final option. You are missing the fact that I have done quite a bit to avoid this!!!! 5 letters, phonecalls, been more than accommodating about when they can pick the sink up, sent them a LBA, given them 14 days to pick it up and make a refund and they still have the time from when I started proceedings to now, to do that. ALL they had to do was send a delivery person to get the sink and refund my money. Am I the only person who thinks they are the ones wasting everyone's time? I don't want to go to court! IF I had a time machine and could have foreseen that they would massively mess me around AND I knew about PayPal, then I would have happily done that, rather than have all of this hassle.
However, as I've explained, I had no way of knowing that this would all happen and that I'd waste time trying to get them to simply abide by their legal obligations as a retailer.

marliepanda

But your letters and phonecalls could have been avoided in the most part by a paypal claim (which gives you at least 45 days to raise a claim, possibly 180 now as they were changing it)

You are claiming for 'lots of wasted time' but all of that could have been avoided had you researched or even looked at the paypal terms and conditions.

I am not trying to be obtuse, I am just saying IF it gets to court and you start claiming for all this wasted time, theyre going to say that all of it wasnt necessary had you looked into paypal for a second or even asked on a forum such as this about paypal payments. The company will also know this.

Honeslty I would take the refund, but thats just me, and write up the court costs to not doing my research.

Watergirl

I can't; I've already rejected it, hence me asking what to do now.
They have said they can try to pick up on Wednesday. In the offer they said they'd pay it back today anyway and haven't.

Quentin

Watergirl wrote: »

I can't; I've already rejected it, hence me asking what to do now.....

Accepting a payment whilst pursuing a debtor via the small claim court doesn't affect the court case, which continues (though obviously the amount already paid is deducted from the total amount being claimed)


(Unless the payment is an offer made subject to you dropping the claim)

Watergirl

Think it was. The accepted a partial amount of the claim. Will see if they pick up Wednesday and then issue the refund. Thanks

unholyangel

marliepanda wrote: »

But your letters and phonecalls could have been avoided in the most part by a paypal claim (which gives you at least 45 days to raise a claim, possibly 180 now as they were changing it)

You are claiming for 'lots of wasted time' but all of that could have been avoided had you researched or even looked at the paypal terms and conditions.

I am not trying to be obtuse, I am just saying IF it gets to court and you start claiming for all this wasted time, theyre going to say that all of it wasnt necessary had you looked into paypal for a second or even asked on a forum such as this about paypal payments. The company will also know this.

Honeslty I would take the refund, but thats just me, and write up the court costs to not doing my research.

I don't think realistically that any court would penalise OP for not using Paypals protection. For a start, paypal protection is not the same as your statutory rights - therefore they'd effectively be penalising OP for wanting to use their statutory rights instead of abiding by the terms and conditions of a third party.

Indeed, if a retailer had a clause stating customers must file a paypal claim before filing a claim in court...it would be an unfair term - therefore I think it would be highly unlikely that a judge would penalise a consumer for not complying with a clause that wouldn't be legally enforceable even if it was an express term the consumer had agreed to.

Watergirl

Thanks for keeping an eye on this and coming back on, was hoping you would. It would seem unfair as I genuinely didn't know about that option. It might be naive, but I didn't. Mentioned it to Husband and he didn't either, so we just did what we thought was best.

He thinks we should just carry on with things. Let them pick it up, see if they pay us, but wait and see what happens with the court option, as I've sent back the letter rejecting the partial payment now.

unholyangel

Watergirl wrote: »

Thanks for keeping an eye on this and coming back on, was hoping you would. It would seem unfair as I genuinely didn't know about that option. It might be naive, but I didn't. Mentioned it to Husband and he didn't either, so we just did what we thought was best.

He thinks we should just carry on with things. Let them pick it up, see if they pay us, but wait and see what happens with the court option, as I've sent back the letter rejecting the partial payment now.

There's nothing stopping you writing to them saying that you've had advice (not legal advice, just advice) on the situation and have now sent a revised breakdown on reasonable costs incurred due to their breach as a counter-offer. If your costs are quantifiable and reasonable, they'll be more inclined to settle (there are exceptions but the company do seem like they're willing to negotiate so thats a good sign).

Watergirl

Done. Have requested the cost of the sink, the £35 cost for starting MCOL and £50 to cover letters, emails, call etc. Taken out storage cost of sink and time off work from Husband. I'm not sure they are willing to negotiate, as they said they'd pay today and haven't, but worth a try as you suggest. Thanks again.