Faulty Boots from Sports Direct

Troytempest

Mrs Tempest bought a pair of walking boots from Sports Direct in November. They were for a 10 week touring holiday to Australia.

After a weeks wear in Australia the cloth lace loops broke making it impossible to lace them securely. Taking them back to SD at this stage was obviously not possible. With a further 9 weeks of holiday we were forced to by another pair of boots and did not have enough space to cart a broken pair around for 9 weeks so ditched the Sports Direct pair.

We took photo's of the faulty boots but now back in the UK, Sports Direct are not interested in refunding as we can't provide the faulty boots.

Do we have any recourse without the shoe - is a chargeback on the credit card possible as they were clearly not fit for purpose.

Thank you.

TadleyBaggie

Without the boots, you are pretty much stuffed with regards to SD. If SD had allowed a refund/replacement, they certainly would have wanted the faulty item back. The chargeback may fail due to no "hard" evidence of fault.

DullGreyGuy

With neither the goods for inspection nor an independent expert's opinion you are really going to be relying on goodwill as you have deprived the vendor an opportunity to inspect the boots and make sure they were faulty and not user error, missuse or deliberate action. 

screech_78

Troytempest said:

Mrs Tempest bought a pair of walking boots from Sports Direct in November. They were for a 10 week touring holiday to Australia.

After a weeks wear in Australia the cloth lace loops broke making it impossible to lace them securely. Taking them back to SD at this stage was obviously not possible. With a further 9 weeks of holiday we were forced to by another pair of boots and did not have enough space to cart a broken pair around for 9 weeks so ditched the Sports Direct pair.

We took photo's of the faulty boots but now back in the UK, Sports Direct are not interested in refunding as we can't provide the faulty boots.

Do we have any recourse without the shoe - is a chargeback on the credit card possible as they were clearly not fit for purpose.

Thank you.

Absolutely not. 

born_again

Sadly not. 
With hindsight you should have mailed them to yourself.

Skiddaw1

In all honesty, speaking from the point of view of someone who walks a great deal (including a lot of fell walking) I'd not consider buying a pair of boots from Sports Direct. I'm sure they'd be fine for local walks around the block/potter around town but for anything more challenging it really is a case of getting what you pay for. Not that it's any help to you now but for future reference...

SiliconChip

Skiddaw1 said:

In all honesty, speaking from the point of view of someone who walks a great deal (including a lot of fell walking) I'd not consider buying a pair of boots from Sports Direct. I'm sure they'd be fine for local walks around the block/potter around town but for anything more challenging it really is a case of getting what you pay for. Not that it's any help to you now but for future reference...

While I wouldn't buy anything, let alone walking boots, from Sports Direct, it's unfair to suggest that they don't sell any that would be fit for a 10 week trip to Australia - they stock boots that cost more (current top price is £240, reduced from £300) than I ever paid for a pair and I've done 140 Munros. It may well be that the boots bought by the OP's wife were less expensive and not robust enough, but I'd have though that anything at the upper end of the price range should be good enough.

Troytempest

Thanks all, we will put it down to experience. SD off our list of places to shop.

The_Unready

A tad petty, I feel. I'm sure that the vast majority of shops wouldn't refund if you weren't able to provide them with the faulty goods!

Are you going to stop buying from every shop on the High Street?

Troytempest

The_Unready said:

A tad petty, I feel. I'm sure that the vast majority of shops wouldn't refund if you weren't able to provide them with the faulty goods!

Are you going to stop buying from every shop on the High Street?

You have obviously chosen to miss the point that the product supplied was of a poor quality - fine, you have too much time on your hands.

The_Unready

Oh dear - I haven't missed any points. As a previous poster pointed out (which you may have missed) SD also sell higher quality boots which may have been more suitable for your intended use.

Your gripe was clearly related to your original question of "Do we have any recourse without the shoe?", and the answer to that is no.

The comments about the quality of the boots you bought were merely a side issue.