Refund issue with part exchange bike

EnterTheDrogan

Hello. 

I bought an e-bike from Halfords 2 weeks ago and it has sadly failed. Halfords have kindly offered a full refund however that's where the issue lies.
The RRP of the bike was £2899 and the promotion at the time offered a 30% reduction in exchange for my bike, a Boardman Carbon racing bike.
I paid for the balance with finance with Klarna. 

The manager stated that I will get a full refund of any monies paid however I stated that I had also traded my bike in however they have now sold this on and he didnt know how to deal with this element of the transaction.

He said that he would need to speak to his manager for guidance but stated that he thought that I wouldn't get the full retail value of the new bike back.

My view is that in order to fulfil the offer, I had traded my bike in, which in effect was valued at 30% of the new bike price and I then funded the balance with a finance package.

I have a horrible feeling that they will offer a derisory figure for my PX bike which I would never have accepted in the first instance.

Does anyone know the exact letter of the law in this situation please?

Thanks in advance.

Clive_Woody

Could they not provide a replacement e-bike?

cymruchris

Have a look at your till receipt to see how it's recorded.

Looking at the trade-in terms and conditions there's no mentions of refunds, but, it mentions that it gives a gift card for your trade-in bike - so the receipt should say something like 'E-bike £2899' - and then see if it shows 30% discount as a discount off the price, or whether the total is sub-totalled and a gift card redeemed instead. If they've processed the discount as a gift card as per their terms and conditions, I'd expect you'd get your 30 percent off value cancelled with Klarna (with any payments made refunded by them) - and then a gift card from Halfords for the difference.

https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/bike-trade-in/bike-trade-in-assessment-485654.html

(They evidently can't put you back to the position of having your original bike back as it's been sold on - so that's the closest likely alternative)

EnterTheDrogan

Clive_Woody said:

Could they not provide a replacement e-bike?

That was the replacement bike for the original that failed when it was 5 weeks old

tightauldgit

EnterTheDrogan said:

Hello. 

I bought an e-bike from Halfords 2 weeks ago and it has sadly failed. Halfords have kindly offered a full refund however that's where the issue lies.
The RRP of the bike was £2899 and the promotion at the time offered a 30% reduction in exchange for my bike, a Boardman Carbon racing bike.
I paid for the balance with finance with Klarna. 

The manager stated that I will get a full refund of any monies paid however I stated that I had also traded my bike in however they have now sold this on and he didnt know how to deal with this element of the transaction.

He said that he would need to speak to his manager for guidance but stated that he thought that I wouldn't get the full retail value of the new bike back.

My view is that in order to fulfil the offer, I had traded my bike in, which in effect was valued at 30% of the new bike price and I then funded the balance with a finance package.

I have a horrible feeling that they will offer a derisory figure for my PX bike which I would never have accepted in the first instance.

Does anyone know the exact letter of the law in this situation please?

Thanks in advance.

I think legally the general principle would be that you should be put back in the same position as you were before you made the contract which was ownership of your P/X bike and nothing owed to Halfords/Klarna. Since they can't give you your old bike back then the closest they can do is give you fair value for the bike - which I don't think would necessarily be the 30% discount they offered you on the new bike as that would probably leave you better off than before you started. But equally they can't just say it was worth £20 and fob you off. 

If I'm in your shoes I'd definitely be pushing for all my money back plus the value of the bike at the 30% discount they gave you but I'm not sure that's realistic. I'd start seeing if you can put together your own fair value approximation of what you old bike was worth (have they sold on Ebay or online forums etc?) and use that if they try to lowball you. 

The alternative would surely be for them to offer you a replacement new bike or 30% off another bike of your choice?

Wonka_2

EnterTheDrogan said:

Clive_Woody said:

Could they not provide a replacement e-bike?

That was the replacement bike for the original that failed when it was 5 weeks old

So has the 2nd 'failed' in the same way as the 1st so it's a fundamental issue or have you just been unlucky ?

Alderbank

That bike trade-in assessment link says:

Up to £1000 Halfords gift card for trading in your old Halfords bike...
Spend your gift card on anything from a new bike to an MOT online, in store or garages. 

That looks like two transactions:

1. The OP traded in his Boardman bike and received a gift card.
2. The OP chose to spend that gift card towards a new bike.

So Halfords replacing the gift card with one of the same value puts the OP back in the position he was in before purchase of the electric bike.

I assume the offer gave the OP a better price than he could have got by selling his bike privately?

Clive_Woody

EnterTheDrogan said:

Clive_Woody said:

Could they not provide a replacement e-bike?

That was the replacement bike for the original that failed when it was 5 weeks old

Ah, I can imagine your reluctance towards "third time lucky"

tightauldgit

Alderbank said:

That bike trade-in assessment link says:

Up to £1000 Halfords gift card for trading in your old Halfords bike...
Spend your gift card on anything from a new bike to an MOT online, in store or garages. 

That looks like two transactions:

1. The OP traded in his Boardman bike and received a gift card.
2. The OP chose to spend that gift card towards a new bike.

So Halfords replacing the gift card with one of the same value puts the OP back in the position he was in before purchase of the electric bike.

I assume the offer gave the OP a better price than he could have got by selling his bike privately?

If that's the specific promotion then I'd say you are right as that doesn't seem tied to buying any particular product in Halfords.

It originally sounded like a 'get £X off this bike when you trade in your old bike' type promotion (and it may well have been at the time) in which case I think they would argue that the value of the trade in was tied to the purchase of the specific new bike.

Of course that opens another potential issue of then having a Halfords gift card you may not want but that's probably a separate matter.  

EnterTheDrogan

Thanks Chris

 

This was a time limited promotion and the receipts is shown as follows - 

30% of WY Trade in £0.00
BBL ADV8.9e £1959.30
Promotional offer -£839.70
Balance £1959.30

In effect they have given me a part exchange value of £839.70 for my bike and in the form of a reduction to the invoice as opposed to a gift card to spend on a new bike.

I work for a motorcycle dealer and we have had similar issues where a PX bike comes in and gets sold on. In the meantime, the new bike fails and is rejected and by law we must return the full retail value of the new bike to the customer as we no longer had the PX bike to return

cymruchris

EnterTheDrogan said:

Thanks Chris

 

This was a time limited promotion and the receipts is shown as follows - 

30% of WY Trade in £0.00
BBL ADV8.9e £1959.30
Promotional offer -£839.70
Balance £1959.30

In effect they have given me a part exchange value of £839.70 for my bike and in the form of a reduction to the invoice as opposed to a gift card to spend on a new bike.

I work for a motorcycle dealer and we have had similar issues where a PX bike comes in and gets sold on. In the meantime, the new bike fails and is rejected and by law we must return the full retail value of the new bike to the customer as we no longer had the PX bike to return

Yes - I thought it might show that - so a discount rather than a gift voucher equivalent. It'll be interesting to find out what they offer. I know you have to be back in the position you started in, so it might be worthwhile to see what they offer then come back. Would you be happy with a gift voucher to the value? (Are there any other bikes you'd choose instead? One bad bike/design doesn't mean they all are - and having a Boardman myself - they're decent bikes - could you choose another model?)