Taking A Company to court but still need tech support from them

p4dstar

born_again said:

p4dstar said:

born_again said:

On S75 "Might be Covered" is the truth. As what is covered in the T/C & warrantee will come into play.

How do they determine this? I’ve spent my adult life using a credit card, based on Martin Lewis’ advice, for this sort of scenario. I completely understand you only have one side of the story here but taking what I’ve suggested above, does it not seem like this is the exact type of thing section 75 is designed for?

This is all going to be down to T/C & their terms with businesses.


Only way to find out is talk to your card provider & see what they say. As they will be the ones dealing with the case. 

One of the first things I did was speak to the card company. Back in November when I could see they weren't actually going to resolve anything I went to them intending to issue a section 75 on everything. This was the point I realised that it is individual items that are covered and not the entire order as a whole. This meant the only way to get the money back on the items not supplied was small claims.

The advice they gave was to ensure I had given the company a chance to resolve things. Lay everything out as an actual complaint and allow them a reasonable amount of time to resolve this (usually 8 weeks) I have followed that advice. One of the biggest things I wanted to establish was if I could contact them regarding the other issues while pursuing them for money. Essentially would this run me into trouble with the judge. No one has been clear on here or elsewhere on this but the general consensus is that I am entitled to continue to pursue the problems with my other items.

p4dstar

MobileSaver said:

Unless the contract/T&Cs/advert explicitly state that technical support is included with the purchase of each particular item then I cannot see on what basis you can claim breach of contract if support is refused.

So was technical support explicitly stated? Perhaps more to the point is what exactly do you mean by "technical support", what specifically are they refusing to do?

The terms and conditions haven't been provided to me and aren't available publicly anywhere. There are some terms in a user manual (That I wasn't supplied until I complained)

In terms of technical support I have a £1k hose reel that is faulty. It doesn't run straight which results in seals breaking and it leaking. I have sought my own tech support to replace the seals and wanted the supplier to assist with it not running straight so that it doesn't continue to happen. It is within the 2 year warranty period. I can't tell you the exact T&C's as they haven't been supplied. What I can tell you is the reel is advertised as maintenance free, just a small amount of lubricant needs to be applied occasionally.

Once I threatened to go to court for the items they hadn't sent they refused to take phone calls. They take days-weeks to respond to emails. They were dealing with the missing items and faulty products under one umbrella. Then when I pushed for my money owed they told me I had issued a charge back. This is a claim that is simply untrue and borders gas lighting. I clearly separated the problems into two. 1 - Money owed for items not supplied. 2 - Faulty items that are in warranty requiring tech support. I advised I would be taking them to court for the monies owed if they could not come up with a resolution that week (over 10 months since making payment) and that I am happy to deal with the faulty items still as I actually want them fixed. Since I applied to the court they have ignored me about the other items also.

There are other issues also, such as the failing leisure batteries mentioned above. There are also issues they have agreed need to be resolved that they are now ignoring.

MobileSaver

OK, thanks for clarifying. In hindsight you should have been more patient and tried to get the warranty issues resolved before issuing legal proceedings but I do understand how frustrated you must have been and ultimately you are now where you are.

Similarly I think you were wrong regarding the engineer's call out fee - if the engineer spends time investigating a problem only to discover the problem is of your making (for example user error) then it is right that you should be liable for at least some of that cost. A court would almost certainly find that the supplier acted reasonably in such a case so what you should have done is accept the "additional terms" but then disputed the amounts if you disagreed with an engineer claiming there was no fault. Again you cannot now undo this but I mention it because if you raise this issue in court I think you will lose on this particular point.

While technical/warranty support is good customer service, there's no overriding law saying a company must offer support and particularly for a business you are expected to know what you are doing and ordering unless support was explicitly offered as part of the purchase.

As you have no or limited T&Cs the only claim for breach of contract that may be successful is one based on the implied terms laid out in legislation:

1. Goods must be as described
2. Goods must be fit for purpose
3. Work must be carried out with reasonable care and skill and in a reasonable period of time

If this ends up in court then your main chance of success is to have a paper trail showing you being reasonable and them being unreasonable. In your shoes I would write and/or email today, listing the issues factually and concisely, without emotion or opinion, specifying the breach, suggesting how to resolve and giving a deadline. If they continue to ignore you that's good for you if it goes to court so you then send them a final "letter before action" reminder and then see what happens.

Perhaps something along the lines of:

Further to our recent correspondence, the following issues are still outstanding regarding order xxxx placed on yyyy.

As advised previously, the hose reel was described as maintenance free but despite lubricating will not run straight resulting in seals leaking and having to be replaced. This is contrary to the Sale of Goods Act 1979 which states that goods must be as described and fit for purpose. Please can you replace the item or refund me within the next fourteen days.

As advised previously, the diesel heater exhaust emits unfiltered diesel (smoke?) into the rear of the van. This is contrary to the Sale of Goods Act 1979 which states that goods must be fit for purpose. Please can you replace the item or refund me within the next fourteen days.

As advised previously, on yyyy date your engineer visited to rectify xxxx problems but these problems still exist. This is contrary to the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 which states that work must be carried out with reasonable care and skill and in a reasonable period of time. Please can you rectify these problems or refund me within the next fourteen days.

I hope we can work together to resolve these issues within the next fourteen days.

It is probably best to both post a letter with proof of posting and email a copy of the letter too so there's little argument that you tried to resolve things before issuing court proceedings. Good luck!