Tesco direct - small claims court - advice / opinions please from a place of knowledge please

mrdarcy101

Hi all

I have a very long outstanding issue that has been dragging for years, partially my fault as I have been grappling with some personal issues and haven't pushed this, but now I am ready to go again and would be grateful for informed opinion and advice please on my chances of success .

I purchased an I pad from Tesco direct. a week before its 2 year anniversary it stopped charging and wouldn't work . I rang apple and they said it should be covered for repair with Tesco within the 2 years. I consequently sent it for repair to Tesco direct. a few months later they informed me it was not economic to repair and offered me £80!

I wasn't happy with this so asked them for a copy of the engineers report as I was of the opinion it was only a charging issue. They declined to provide me with a report. 12 months passed and I asked them again to give me a new replacement. Their response shocked me! They said because I had not contacted them within 6 months
they had destroyed my I pad!! . I was incensed and couldn't believe they had without my consent or any attempt to contact me destroyed it. They still however offered me the paltry £80. This in no way covered a replacement or even the second hand cost of replacing it. Now another 12 months later I am talking to a friend who used to work for Sony, and he said that when Sony were in that position , they could not legally destroy anything without contacting the owner and getting consent! so how could Tesco direct do this?!! I could have asked for it back and carried out my own independent engineers report but now I have no opportunity and I certainly was not going to accept £80 for an iPad that cost nearly £300. So today through my resolver account I gave them 7 days to respond before I submit a small claims action. I would appreciate anyones advice on this and also since Tesco direct are no longer in existence can I still take action against Tescos? if so who would I say Im seeking action against? I look forward to your replies on this thanks in advance!

DoaM

What were the terms of the warranty? If it said that a new-for-old (or refurbished, similar age) unit would be supplied then that's what they'd have to do. But I suspect the warranty terms didn't say that at all.

Edit: £80 refund after 2 years for a £300 Ipad is perhaps a little on the light side but not wholly unreasonable. (Per the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the seller is liable to provide a remedy if they accept that the goods have failed due to an inherent fault. The remedy options are repair, replace, or refund .. seller's choice. Any refund can be reduced to account for the time of ownership. If an Ipad is expected to last, say, 5 years then after 2 years you could maybe look at a refund of about 50% at best (150).

tl;dr ... don't try court - you probably don't have a strong enough case.

Aylesbury_Duck

I don't fancy your chances. As DoaM says, their offer isn't completely unreasonable. See if you can negotiate a higher sum but I wouldn't waste time and energy taking them to court.

Fosterdog

Tesco Direct is no longer trading and was a separate legal entity to Tesco PLC so there may not actually be a legal entity left for you to take to court. Even then you would have a hard time pursuing them considering £80 on a two year old iPad that originally only cost £300 is pretty reasonable, it must have either been an older model or the lowest spec iPad mini so 2-3 years would be a decent life expectancy from one. Although I wouldn't expect a charging fault to be the end of it, more just getting bogged down with apps and updates and unable to keep up with the newest releases.

eddddy

As a starting point, check the terms and conditions of the warranty.

If you don't have a copy, I guess you could ask Tesco to send one to you.

Then read through them to see if Tesco have breached any terms. (The terms might even say that Tesco can destroy items, under certain circumstances)

If you want to take Tesco to court - presumably for 'breach of contract' - you'll need to be very clear about which terms of the contract (warranty) that they have breached.


Alternatively, you have consumer rights (as per Consumer Rights Act 2015) - but that's a very different path.


Edit to add...

FWIW, emails I received from Tesco Direct always said at the bottom "This is an email from Tesco Stores Limited (Company Number 519500)" - so I'd guess that was the entity you had a contract with.

Matty36

Have you tried the Citizens Advice Bureau?

JJ_Egan

Key here is OP failed to contact them for 12 months .
Not sure a Small Claims Court is going to accept this as reasonable on the OPs part .


I would push via Resolver/ LBA for £150 .

waamo

mrdarcy101 wrote: »

Hi all

I have a very long outstanding issue that has been dragging for years, partially my fault as I have been grappling with some personal issues and haven't pushed this, but now I am ready to go again and would be grateful for informed opinion and advice please on my chances of success .

I purchased an I pad from Tesco direct. a week before its 2 year anniversary it stopped charging and wouldn't work . I rang apple and they said it should be covered for repair with Tesco within the 2 years. I consequently sent it for repair to Tesco direct. a few months later they informed me it was not economic to repair and offered me £80!

I wasn't happy with this so asked them for a copy of the engineers report as I was of the opinion it was only a charging issue. They declined to provide me with a report. 12 months passed and I asked them again to give me a new replacement. Their response shocked me! They said because I had not contacted them within 6 months
they had destroyed my I pad!! . I was incensed and couldn't believe they had without my consent or any attempt to contact me destroyed it. They still however offered me the paltry £80. This in no way covered a replacement or even the second hand cost of replacing it. Now another 12 months later I am talking to a friend who used to work for Sony, and he said that when Sony were in that position , they could not legally destroy anything without contacting the owner and getting consent! so how could Tesco direct do this?!! I could have asked for it back and carried out my own independent engineers report but now I have no opportunity and I certainly was not going to accept £80 for an iPad that cost nearly £300. So today through my resolver account I gave them 7 days to respond before I submit a small claims action. I would appreciate anyones advice on this and also since Tesco direct are no longer in existence can I still take action against Tescos? if so who would I say Im seeking action against? I look forward to your replies on this thanks in advance!

Why did you only give them 7 days to respond when you have to give 14?

custardy

mrdarcy101 wrote: »

Hi all

I have a very long outstanding issue that has been dragging for years, partially my fault as I have been grappling with some personal issues and haven't pushed this, but now I am ready to go again and would be grateful for informed opinion and advice please on my chances of success .

I purchased an I pad from Tesco direct. a week before its 2 year anniversary it stopped charging and wouldn't work . I rang apple and they said it should be covered for repair with Tesco within the 2 years. I consequently sent it for repair to Tesco direct. a few months later they informed me it was not economic to repair and offered me £80!

I wasn't happy with this so asked them for a copy of the engineers report as I was of the opinion it was only a charging issue. They declined to provide me with a report. 12 months passed and I asked them again to give me a new replacement. Their response shocked me! They said because I had not contacted them within 6 months
they had destroyed my I pad!! . I was incensed and couldn't believe they had without my consent or any attempt to contact me destroyed it. They still however offered me the paltry £80. This in no way covered a replacement or even the second hand cost of replacing it. Now another 12 months later I am talking to a friend who used to work for Sony, and he said that when Sony were in that position , they could not legally destroy anything without contacting the owner and getting consent! so how could Tesco direct do this?!! I could have asked for it back and carried out my own independent engineers report but now I have no opportunity and I certainly was not going to accept £80 for an iPad that cost nearly £300. So today through my resolver account I gave them 7 days to respond before I submit a small claims action. I would appreciate anyones advice on this and also since Tesco direct are no longer in existence can I still take action against Tescos? if so who would I say Im seeking action against? I look forward to your replies on this thanks in advance!

Do you really believe a company has to hold onto a broken item indefinitely?
If you went to court,I dont see the court agreeing with you.

davidmcn

Fosterdog wrote: »

Tesco Direct is no longer trading and was a separate legal entity to Tesco PLC so there may not actually be a legal entity left for you to take to court.

I'm still pretty sure that they weren't a separate legal entity. But happy to be proved wrong.

unforeseen

There are articles in the business news back in 2000 about demerging Tesco Direct and listing as a separate company on the stock exchange but I can't find anything on whether that actually happened