item not fit for purpose VS damaged goods

Where'sTheJustice

Hello all,

Basically the item i ordered on EBay wasn't deemed to be fit for purpose, it needed assembly and wouldn't assemble, we'd been sent a garbage item. but in the process of trying to get on with things and follow instructions it turns out we'd 'damaged' the item. So the seller refused a refund and EBay, Paypal and my credit card company each couldn't get past the damaged item factor.

Personally i reckon them sending an unfit item in the first place should take prominence, but hey I'm biased here. Does anyone know would I still have a case in small claims court or would that be a waste of time, would it get thrown out on the same old grounds?

nb we should be speaking with a lawyer tomorrow, but maybe I can get some tangible answers before then.

Thanks in advance,

theonlywayisup

Where is the seller based?

ssparks2003

How much money are you talking about?

Where'sTheJustice

Seller & buyer based UK. item value £480.

&just to clarify, the damage to the item is superficial & isn't at all linked to why it won't assemble.

BorisThomson

Where'sTheJustice wrote: »

Seller & buyer based UK. item value £480.

&just to clarify, the damage to the item is superficial & isn't at all linked to why it won't assemble.

How have you damaged the item (what is it?), if not linked to the assembly of the item?

A solicitor is going to be very costly in comparison to the value of the item. You can go to small claims yourself, if you choose to use a sol you will not be awarded their fees.

Les79

You are perfectly entitled to approach an independent company and obtain a fault report which shows that the item is inherently faulty/not fit for purpose.

If said fault report determines that, the retailer should deal with your case. If they refuse, you can take them to small claims court (MCOL) armed with your evidence.

The goods now being damaged does throw a bit of a spanner in the works and any such fault report would have to suggest that the inherent fault was present with or without the damage you caused. If it is unclear then it will be very hard for anyone to rule out the possibility that you caused the problems here.

You could also go to small claims court without the fault report mentioned above, but I don't think you'd have a great chance of a result (maybe though, who knows).

Where'sTheJustice

The thinking is a meeting with solicitor to guide as to whether or not we have a case. to guide if small claims court might find in our favour where the other correct paths haven't. If given that green light i'd think to process the small claim myself.

The item is a shed. &the panels were illustrated in instructions to be attached. Screws were listed to be provided & were absent.. Given it's such a massive heavy item we weren't to keen on immediately sending it back at the 1st sign of a challenge.
so we bought screws ourselves and driled some holes in the apt places.

It mostly went together as illustrated, some of it measuring short.. There were still some large gaps and it was flimsy as anything. We have photos of the partly assembled item at that stage, large gaps, short sections and all. We deemed to have hit a final wall with it and had to take it down again. (&in the meanwhile, bought and easily built a different shed in the same location)

-> there are now some extra drilled holes in the edge of some of the panels where they were to be joined - by magic or something apparently. It's these holes in the item being repeatedly held up as us damaging the goods for them to not need to give a refund for.

JJ_Egan

They are saying you damaged the item by drilling holes in it .
This is after you found it not fit for purpose .

Cut your losses forget the solicitor try one of the webs legal forum for better advice or CAB .

Where'sTheJustice

No we drilled into it before we found out it was a dud item.

Where'sTheJustice

But it would have been a dud item regardless of what we'd done to it.

Where'sTheJustice

Buy something, it fails, give up. Yeah I can relate to that idea a bit after what we've been through in all this.

(after seeing the sellers reviews outside of eBay are really low and complaints aplenty and yet their eBay reputation is suspiciously flawless.) You should probably see why I might not be very keen to let them keep my money.

Yes i've seen the CAB online guidance but it doesn't address this particular nuance. I guess I could do with speaking to them too. I tried searching for web legal advice but results for that as yet looked pretty dubious. Not tried any forums like that yet, thought this place would be as likely as any..