company refusing to collect faulty item from store they told us to take it to?

hels02

Hello

Does anyone know where we stand when a company in Germany is refusing to collect a faulty electric bike from a store that they told us to take it to?

We purchased an electric bike from a company in Germany but it was immediately faulty. We contacted them straight away and they told us we had to take it to an engineer at a store to see what the issue was.

The nearest store was over 30 miles away so we advised that this was difficult with no direct public transport and no car but they refused to move on this so at much time and expense we got the bike to the store. They confirmed faulty so we requested a refund. The company were not happy and agreed to collect the bike. However they are refusing to collect the bike from the store and will only collect from our home address.

Does anyone know if they can insist on this? it dosen't seem reasonable and I don't understand what difference an address makes.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated

user1977

If you bought directly from a German company then it's likely your consumer rights are probably German ones rather than UK ones - so you might need to ask somewhere which knows about German law. Getting a man+van (or similar) to take the bike back home for you might be the simplest solution though, assuming the company keeps to their word and do actually pick up from your home.

Manxman_in_exile

Just to be clear - you bought the bike over the internet or similar and you bought it direct from the German manufacturer - not from a UK based agent or supplier?  How long ago did you buy it?

As above, your rights are probably based on German law.  (Does it spell this out in their T&Cs when you purchased?).

German law is probably very similar or identical to UK consumer law because of our prior membership of the EU, but you would probably need to enforce it in Germany.

I know they asked you to bring it to a store to get an engineer's report, but did they also actually say they would pick it up from there if faulty, or did you only asume that they would do that?  They may only be legally obliged to pick it up from the delivery address

If you bought by credit card you should have a s75 claim if the bike is faulty.  s75 covers purchases from abroad.  How much did you pay?

bris

Actually when you think about it, it's not much different from what a UK company would do.

A company over here would also want confirmation of a fault before refunding so it would also have had to go to the nearest place to the buyer. Would a UK company agree to pick up from an unknown address?

What if this shop decides to have them pick up a pile of bricks, what would the OP do then and whos fault would it be? It makes sense to only pick up from the address it was delivered to. Consequential loss might be worth asking for but would be difficult to enfoce in Germany.

hels02

Thank you All
Yes purchased online from German store and I guess its true if they pick up from a store it could be anything.

Manxman_in_exile

If they did actually tell you that they would pick up from the store, I would try to get them to honour that.  If they nominated the store, I would expect them to trust it, otherwise why tell you to get an engineer's report from there!

Failing that, if you paid by credit card, raise a s75 claim.  I was surprised that s75 covered purchases from overseas but born_again (who I think must work for a bank) posted a link a few months ago to a court decision that confirmed purchases from "overseas" were covered by s75 claims.

I also agree with bris that what they asked you to do is pretty much what a UK reatiler would ask.

Manxman_in_exile

I have no idea what a "reatiler" is?  I presume retailer.      

I bought a new laptop a couple of months ago and the keyboard seems to be creating more typos than usual!!!!  

born_again

Manxman_in_exile said:

I have no idea what a "reatiler" is?  I presume retailer.      

I bought a new laptop a couple of months ago and the keyboard seems to be creating more typos than usual!!!!  

Sadly user error is not covered by S75 🤦‍♂️😜

Manxman_in_exile

born_again said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

I have no idea what a "reatiler" is?  I presume retailer.      

I bought a new laptop a couple of months ago and the keyboard seems to be creating more typos than usual!!!!  

Sadly user error is not covered by S75 🤦‍♂️😜

But buying from abroad is?