Halfords damaged my Battery

jazzbow

A connector plug on our ebike broke so we took it Halfords for repair (it Halfords own brand) they have replaced the broken part but they are now saying the battery is ‘fried’. We know that the battery was working fine when we dropped it off because we have two bikes exactly the same and tested the battery in the ‘good bike’ before we took it in. 

Not quite sure what our recourse is, if any. BTW a new battery costs £300. 

MorningcoffeeIV

Your recourse is to either buy a new battery, ask for a goodwill gesture, or prove that Halfords are responsible for it failing (or hope a judge agrees with you on the balance of probabilities).

Aylesbury_Duck

Yes, if you can demonstrate that Halfords have been negligent and damaged the battery, you have a case.

What exactly has happened?  Have you tested the bike?  What have you said to Halfords about the damaged battery?  What was their response?

diystarter7

OP
Present the evidence to Halfords that they broke your battery and then see what they say and take it from there. IMO, once the evidence is presented, I'm sure you will be happy with the outcome.

A few years back, my car went in for a major service at 2 years old. When I got it back home as I walked away the car the dealer had also washed as part of the serie I noted a 70mm-ish horizontal crease towards the edge of the door and the highest point. I put it down to they opened the driver's door and caught it on the ramp leg. However, it could have happened when someone banged something into it but the paint was intact.  As I had no evidence and was not a hundred percent certain they did it and it could have been I had not noted it before as I rarely have the car washed and dent is only noted from a certain angle, it could have been there before. It hurt but I did not blame the dealer as I had no proof and was not certain they did it

As you are certain, by all means, pursue it and they will need evidence. Good luck

DanDare999

diystarter7 said:

OP
Present the evidence to Halfords that they broke your battery and then see what they say and take it from there. IMO, once the evidence is presented, I'm sure you will be happy with the outcome.

A few years back, my car went in for a major service at 2 years old. When I got it back home as I walked away the car the dealer had also washed as part of the serie I noted a 70mm-ish horizontal crease towards the edge of the door and the highest point. I put it down to they opened the driver's door and caught it on the ramp leg. However, it could have happened when someone banged something into it but the paint was intact.  As I had no evidence and was not a hundred percent certain they did it and it could have been I had not noted it before as I rarely have the car washed and dent is only noted from a certain angle, it could have been there before. It hurt but I did not blame the dealer as I had no proof and was not certain they did it

As you are certain, by all means, pursue it and they will need evidence. Good luck

Not sure it's as simple as you think. The OP says the battery was working before they took the bike in. Halford have tested it and it's fried. If they say they've done nothing to cause the damage then what?

jazzbow

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Yes, if you can demonstrate that Halfords have been negligent and damaged the battery, you have a case.

What exactly has happened?  Have you tested the bike?  What have you said to Halfords about the damaged battery?  What was their response?

diystarter7 said:

OP
Present the evidence to Halfords that they broke your battery and then see what they say and take it from there. IMO, once the evidence is presented, I'm sure you will be happy with the outcome.

A few years back, my car went in for a major service at 2 years old. When I got it back home as I walked away the car the dealer had also washed as part of the serie I noted a 70mm-ish horizontal crease towards the edge of the door and the highest point. I put it down to they opened the driver's door and caught it on the ramp leg. However, it could have happened when someone banged something into it but the paint was intact.  As I had no evidence and was not a hundred percent certain they did it and it could have been I had not noted it before as I rarely have the car washed and dent is only noted from a certain angle, it could have been there before. It hurt but I did not blame the dealer as I had no proof and was not certain they did it

As you are certain, by all means, pursue it and they will need evidence. Good luck

I can’t prove anything, it’s their word against mine.

Aylesbury_Duck

It's not "proof" you need, not in the legal sense.  Is it probable that Halfords caused the damage?

You haven't said if you've challenged them, and if so, what their response was?  I assume they're denying liability?  If so, one course of action would be to have someone inspect the battery and determine what exactly has happened and how it most likely occurred.  If that suggests that Halfords were negligent, then you write to them with those findings, asking them for a resolution, which might be a replacement battery or a contribution to the cost of a new one (bearing in mind your old battery is used).  You can then decide whether to try and enforce that through small claims action.

diystarter7

Aylesbury_Duck said:

It's not "proof" you need, not in the legal sense.  Is it probable that Halfords caused the damage?

You haven't said if you've challenged them, and if so, what their response was?  I assume they're denying liability?  If so, one course of action would be to have someone inspect the battery and determine what exactly has happened and how it most likely occurred.  If that suggests that Halfords were negligent, then you write to them with those findings, asking them for a resolution, which might be a replacement battery or a contribution to the cost of a new one (bearing in mind your old battery is used).  You can then decide whether to try and enforce that through small claims action.

Not so sure re "small claims.." without proof as the poster has clearly stated.

Aylesbury_Duck

diystarter7 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

It's not "proof" you need, not in the legal sense.  Is it probable that Halfords caused the damage?

You haven't said if you've challenged them, and if so, what their response was?  I assume they're denying liability?  If so, one course of action would be to have someone inspect the battery and determine what exactly has happened and how it most likely occurred.  If that suggests that Halfords were negligent, then you write to them with those findings, asking them for a resolution, which might be a replacement battery or a contribution to the cost of a new one (bearing in mind your old battery is used).  You can then decide whether to try and enforce that through small claims action.

Not so sure re "small claims.." without proof as the poster has clearly stated.

that's why they would need to get someone to inspect the battery and determine the status of it and the likely cause.

jazzbow

Aylesbury_Duck said:

It's not "proof" you need, not in the legal sense.  Is it probable that Halfords caused the damage?

You haven't said if you've challenged them, and if so, what their response was?  I assume they're denying liability?  If so, one course of action would be to have someone inspect the battery and determine what exactly has happened and how it most likely occurred.  If that suggests that Halfords were negligent, then you write to them with those findings, asking them for a resolution, which might be a replacement battery or a contribution to the cost of a new one (bearing in mind your old battery is used).  You can then decide whether to try and enforce that through small claims action.

The service we have received has been truly shocking. When my husband first stated that the battery was fine when it went in to them, their response was, oh well we’ll charge it up then! They were supposed to phone us back and didn’t. He phoned them and was told  the battery was fried but discovered that they had only tried it in our bike (which they have allegedly just fixed) so we’ve asked them to try our battery in another bike and get back to us. That was two days ago. We put the bike in for repair a month ago.

cymruchris

Could it be that the battery was low when you took it in, and then flat after sitting in their warehouse for a while? And that it got so low, that a regular battery charge didn't recover it? Rather than it being 'fried'. What made you test it in the good bike before you took it in? And how was the damage caused to the original connector?