Section 75 advice please

jameswyper

Hi. To cut a long story short, this involves the repair of our family car (replacement diesel injectors).

We took the car to an injector specialist for diagnosis and repair. He tested the injectors and told us we needed replacements. He quoted verbally a cost of £160 + VAT to fix. At that point we paid him (not the parts supplier) for the testing and new parts on a credit card. The total cost was about £1300.

He fitted the parts and the car ran significantly worse than before. He made numerous attempts to diagnose the problem before giving up and handing the car back to us with the advice that we should take it to a dealer for servicing as he was out of ideas. His opinion was that replacing the injectors had uncovered a latent problem with the engine. He did not charge us any additional labour, so all we have is the invoice showing diagnosis and parts.

We took the car to a dealer who said that the parts had not been fitted correctly (specifically the old injector seals had not been removed). They have re-fitted the injectors but unfortunately the car, whilst running better than after the specialist's work, is still clearly malfunctioning - it is no better than it was before the whole process started. They have told us that in their opinion the new set of injectors has been damaged because the car has been driven with them incorrectly fitted. Their work has cost about £400 so far.

At no point did the specialist tell us not to drive the car.

A week ago we wrote to the specialist requesting our money back and suggesting he contact the dealer to verify the details (they were happy for him to do this). He has yet to reply. So far we have only asked for the £1300 we have paid him.

So...

1. Although we only have an invoice for diagnosis (carried out correctly) and parts, and in the end weren't charged for fitting, can we still pursue a Section 75 claim because the fitting damaged the parts?

2. Is it reasonable to add the cost of works carried out at the dealer, as they were solely in connection with the injectors, and (before the real cause came to light) the specialist agreed (without offering to cover the cost himself) that this would be the best way of resolving the issue?

Thanks

18cc

You can certainly ask for section 75 (from what you have said) in the case of the specialist.

Not for the dealer as they have not done anything wrong and therefore are entitled to the £400 you paid them for the diagnostic work they did.

What you CAN do is take the specialist to the small claims court (as easy online process) for all the money including the £400 you paid the dealer.

I would start a claim at the credit card for the £1300 and see what they say. If they don't pay, open a formal complaint with the CC company and await the result. Meanwhile, write to the specialist asking for your £1300 back plus the £400 you paid the dealer.

Depending oh what the CC company say, you might have to sue the specialist in small claims for the £1300 as well as the £400. Obviously if the CC pay up then you would sue for just the £400.

jameswyper

Thanks - to be clear there's no question of pursuing the dealer; it would be a matter of adding their costs to either the Section 75 claim (if that's reasonable?) or, as you say, a court case.

Terry_Towelling

If you have a claim against a supplier for breach of contract or misrepresentation then, subject to the normal S75 qualification criteria, you will have a 'like' claim against the credit card company. On the face of it, this looks like something that should qualify (my opinion only).

I think you should couch your claim in terms of it being an all-inclusive piece of repair work - i.e. you were not buying individual items, rather you were paying a trader £1300 to fix a problem. Whether you can claim for the cost of the diagnosis is a moot point because, so far, that seems to have been carried out correctly.

The work done since the failed repair should also be included in your claim (again my opinion only) because it is an extra cost you've had to bear as a direct result of the failed repair and it still hasn't resolved the issue, as the original specialist's work seems to have caused damage to the new parts.

You are, of course, going to have to have it all done again anyway with yet more new injectors.

I hope that does turn out to have been the problem when all's said and done.

18cc

I am not an expert but I think the way it works is that the credit card company refunds you and then takes the money back out of the Merchant 's account i.e. in this case the specialist


the reason you can't add the dealer's £400 to it is because I don't think they can take more from the specialist's account than you paid them.

born_again

18cc wrote: »

I am not an expert but I think the way it works is that the credit card company refunds you and then takes the money back out of the Merchant 's account i.e. in this case the specialist

S75 comes from the Card Provider. They could take the retailer to court .But it is not worth the costs..

You may find that the card provider contacts the person/dealer to discuss sorting the issue out.

Terry_Towelling

18cc wrote: »

I am not an expert but I think the way it works is that the credit card company refunds you and then takes the money back out of the Merchant 's account i.e. in this case the specialist

the reason you can't add the dealer's £400 to it is because I don't think they can take more from the specialist's account than you paid them.

What you describe isn't entirely accurate. Your claim from the card issuer (if that's the way you choose to take it) will be for whatever losses you have incurred as a result of the breach of contract by a supplier. Yes, it is possible that an issuer may not accept liability for everything (or, indeed, anything) you claim, but where you can demonstrate an additional loss is a consequence of the initial breach of contract, you can add it to your claim.

What the issuer then does with any losses they incur after paying you out is another matter. They may be able to raise Chargebacks to the supplier alleged to be in breach of contract and, yes, those Chargebacks would be limited to the value of the transactions received from that supplier.

Whether an issuer can take a supplier to court after making a pay-out, I'm not sure. The Act allows them to have the supplier made party to proceedings where the issuer is taken to court by the debtor but I'm not sure what their rights are when they alone have accepted liability out of court.

In fact, they may not actually accept any legal liability in accordance with the Act even when they pay out - all depends what they say in their letters to the claimant.

With this case, the issuer may contest eligibility for the inclusion of the extra £400 but such contestation won't be because the specialist didn't put that charge through.

bris

The £400 is a consequential loss so should be added to the claim.


How the CC co deal with the injector specialist is no one else's concern.


Do you have the dealers report in writing saying it was all the injector specialists fault? They will want this evidence to consider your claim.