Small claims court question

flower77g

I think the chance of a claim in the small claims court succeeding appears low if it is defended: the person repairing the phone could simply state that he agreed to replace the screen on a best endeavours basis (you're paying for his time, not a successful fix of the phone, no warranty). Unless there is paperwork to the contrary, he would seem more likely to win than not, with costs for his attendance at court awarded against you.

Rather than throwing good money after bad, send the phone off to one of these places that buys second hand phones, and get another one either new or refurbished that works.

Janeuk

societys_child wrote: »

You need his name, otherwise the papers can't be served.

There's no 'enforcing the judgement' if he doesn't show up at court because the papers weren't served . . .

Well, the papers could be served to the business address, could they not?

esuhl

flower77g wrote: »

I think the chance of a claim in the small claims court succeeding appears low if it is defended: the person repairing the phone could simply state that he agreed to replace the screen on a best endeavours basis (you're paying for his time, not a successful fix of the phone, no warranty).

True, but I think it would be reasonable for a consumer to expect that a screen repair would be carried out by someone competent enough not to cause other faults.

Then again, with an old phone it's hard to prove that these subsequent faults weren't "just waiting to happen".

Manxman_in_exile

Janeuk wrote: »

Well, the papers could be served to the business address, could they not?

You need the name of the person you are claiming against (this could be an individual; an individual T/A blah blah; or Blah blah limited).


You need to identify who you contracted with to carry out the repair and paid. And then you may not win.


An "address" is not going to be enough.


PS - Don't assume that if you just claim against the "shop/business" and they don't turn up you will automatically win. EDIT: Sorry - I'm assuming that if the defendant doesn't turn up and the claimant gets a default judgement, they can get the judgement overturned by saying "We didn't do the work for the claimant - someone else did". I'm assuming that can be done in small claims, but I may be completely wrong!

MalMonroe

Hi, not being funny but can you actually prove that everything that you say is now broken was working when this person was mending the screen? If so, how can you prove it? I'm not saying that I don't believe you but any judge would need to have sight of such proof. Is it just your word against this man's? You don't know his name, you don't have any proof of anything and you don't even have a receipt for the work he carried out on this phone. Even if you do have a bank statement with a £100 withdrawal, there is no proof of what you spent that money on. I have to agree with the others on here who have said you'd be far better cutting your losses now before spending another penny and trying to cash in this phone for one that actually works. It may be that you'll have to put this down to experience (bad experience, I know) and move on. I don't think that you would win any court case with nothing but your word to rely on. Sorry.

Janeuk

MalMonroe wrote: »

Hi, not being funny but can you actually prove that everything that you say is now broken was working when this person was mending the screen? If so, how can you prove it? I'm not saying that I don't believe you but any judge would need to have sight of such proof.

I can't prove that, but I thought that courts worked on the balance of probability, no?

MalMonroe wrote: »

You don't know his name, you don't have any proof of anything and you don't even have a receipt for the work he carried out on this phone. Even if you do have a bank statement with a £100 withdrawal, there is no proof of what you spent that money on.

What about my reward card that has a stamp on it? It shows that I have been to that business for something, although it doesn't specify any information. Would that not be helpful?