Nike taking me to court! (Hewitsons Solicitors)

mkr_2

Thought I'll open a new thread, so, here it goes!

I got a letter from Hewitsons today saying that I should pay £25 per trainer I sold which is above what I sold them for PLUS £350 to settle the claim PLUS a percentage of something.

I have sold about 100 pairs and stupid me probably thought they were real as I now know they arent because nike say so, and they did come from China (at first I thought thats where they were made, hence, cheap price)

I dont know what to do because 100 x £25 = £2500 add the £350 and considering the fact that they add something else which I cant remember on top of my head, total would be around £3,000. Also, I they want exact figures of trainers sold which I dont have as I can only view items sold upto 30 days or so ago not before that.

I bought information of my nike supplier of a guy on eBay who said it was the real thing and under that impression I sold these trainers.

All of a suddent today I get a letter from Hewitsons, they are eral solictors by the way and it is a formal letter. They say I have 21 days to respond or may take court action, I can no way afford this amount of money, I never even made that much from selling them.

Any advice? Would be grateful, dont get on my back as I sold them in good faith. Shall I give them a call and see if they would reduce the amount or something or let me pay in installements? I will pay £250 out of court settlement to just get this headache out of the way but no way can I afford anything more than that!

Please help!!!

MKR

James_Bond

mkr wrote: »

Thought I'll open a new thread, so, here it goes!

I got a letter from Hewitsons today saying that I should pay £25 per trainer I sold which is above what I sold them for PLUS £350 to settle the claim PLUS a percentage of something.

I have sold about 100 pairs and stupid me probably thought they were real as I now know they arent because nike say so, and they did come from China (at first I thought thats where they were made, hence, cheap price)

I dont know what to do because 100 x £25 = £2500 add the £350 and considering the fact that they add something else which I cant remember on top of my head, total would be around £3,000. Also, I they want exact figures of trainers sold which I dont have as I can only view items sold upto 30 days or so ago not before that.

I bought information of my nike supplier of a guy on eBay who said it was the real thing and under that impression I sold these trainers.

All of a suddent today I get a letter from Hewitsons, they are eral solictors by the way and it is a formal letter. They say I have 21 days to respond or may take court action, I can no way afford this amount of money, I never even made that much from selling them.

Any advice? Would be grateful, dont get on my back as I sold them in good faith. Shall I give them a call and see if they would reduce the amount or something or let me pay in installements? I will pay £250 out of court settlement to just get this headache out of the way but no way can I afford anything more than that!

Please help!!!

MKR

Whateve you do DONT ask to settle it.

I;d personally give them a call, but dont admit anything just ask for further info. Play the fool. They are likely to back down and avoid court action.

If not, then tackle the company in court.

Good luck I'm sure someone else will have better advice.

James_Bond

ts_aly2000 wrote: »

Tell em to sod off. Got lots of evidence have they?

It's a bit like me writing to you and demanding the money. A solictor is only a person, often with not much more understanding of the law than most people.

I would never buy Nike items anyway. I don't agree with their ethics. The same goes for Nestle too.

If you really want to stir them up (and they probably won't let go so prepare yourself..) then I'd tell them that I've sold 100,000 of the things. You may as well make it big!! Why not. That'd be £2.5-million. )

You're not a company. You're an individual.

Good advice there. OP, you seem worried, please don;t be. Stand up for yourself.

Avoriaz

Are you seriously asking us to believe that you bought a load of trainers from China, sold them for less than £25 a pair and you never suspected that you were dealing in counterfeit products?

At least admit that you knew or should have suspected that they were fakes.

This is a money saving site, not a “help the fraudster who got caught” site.

Hintza

I haven't a clue what the implications of this are, but I imagine they are potentially very serious.

Selling fakes as the real thing. So you will have potential claims from your buyers as well as the owner of the brand name.

There are also tax implications because you are obviously trading for a profit and have not declared it nor kept any records.

I can not offer you any advice as I don't know how actively the solicitors will pursue you but I think you should at least start doing some research into this area of the law and be prepared to talk to a solicitor.

soolin

Like Hintza says..have you made full and proper declaration to the tax man, you don't want them on your back as well.

Secondly it is illegal to sell fake goods in the UK, so you want to watch that you don't get a problem with that as well as any charges levied as well. personally I would not ignore this letter, that would be foolish. I would suggest you get yourself some real legal advice so you know exactly how to respond, at best you will get 'bar room' advice on here. Without real advice you won't know where you stand, so go and sort that out today before you do anything with the letter.

PokerPortal

ts_aly2000 wrote: »

Tell em to sod off. Got lots of evidence have they?

...

I would never buy Nike items anyway.

If you really want to stir them up (and they probably won't let go so prepare yourself..) then I'd tell them that I've sold 100,000 of the things. You may as well make it big!! Why not. That'd be £2.5-million. )

I don't think this is good advice, nor very helpfull.
I would take the letter very serious if I was the OP. Fraud is a serious matter.

annapantscats

Avoriaz wrote: »

Are you seriously asking us to believe that you bought a load of trainers from China, sold them for less than £25 a pair and you never suspected that you were dealing in counterfeit products?

At least admit that you knew or should have suspected that they were fakes.

This is a money saving site, not a “help the fraudster who got caught” site.

And didnt consider why some Ebayer decided he would rather sell supplier details than actually buying and reselling the trainers themselves? Surely if it was all above-board he would keep the supplier details, and the profits, to himself?

mrs_deadline

soolin wrote: »

Like Hintza says..have you made full and proper declaration to the tax man, you don't want them on your back as well.

Secondly it is illegal to sell fake goods in the UK, so you want to watch that you don't get a problem with that as well as any charges levied as well. personally I would not ignore this letter, that would be foolish. I would suggest you get yourself some real legal advice so you know exactly how to respond, at best you will get 'bar room' advice on here. Without real advice you won't know where you stand, so go and sort that out today before you do anything with the letter.

Absolutely, you need proper legal advice first, otherwise anything you say or do is almost bound to make matters worse.

Don't be panicked into a response yet, get a solicitor to write back to them before the deadline. They probably don't have that much evidence. I'm guessing they got a stooge to buy just 1 pair of your trainers in order to find out your name and address.

Get down to a legal advice centre, it's the only way.

frivolous_fay

mrs_deadline wrote: »

They probably don't have that much evidence. I'm guessing they got a stooge to buy just 1 pair of your trainers in order to find out your name and address.

Name, address, sample fake pair of trainers. Sounds like fairly solid evidence to me.

RoyaleMale

Get some advice from a solicitor.

What Hewitsons claims does not sound right, sounds made up. How could they have any evidence that you directly sold them?