Defective car parts...

MrKieron

Hello everybody! I hope this is the right place to get some feedback on this.


TL:DR can I claim labour costs removing a faulty turbo from an Ebay vendor and refitting an alternative unit?

I recently had a major fault with my car engine so I decided that, for the money, a replacement engine would work better for me that getting a replacement car.

So I got the engine installed and bought a reconditioned turbo from a dealer on Ebay and had to send them my old unit in part exchange.

So as soon as the engine was started up for the first time there was a litany of errors that we traced back to the turbo. It turned out that the turbo, during the recon process, had been assembled incorrectly and could never have worked properly in its current state. It was also apparent that it could never have passed any kind of quality control process as it was so badly misaligned. The car would go into limp mode as soon as revs went over 2k so I was constantly stopping and starting to get anywhere. The company who sold ime the turbo just would not accept that their unit could have any problems and blamed everything else. They wanted me to just drive it around and see if it cleared up. My thought was that they wanted me to go over the 30 day return window. I have 2 children and I live out in the countryside so you can imagine the inconvenience, anxiety and distress this caused not having a functioning car for over a month, plus the stress of trying to deal with an often incommunicative and persistently intransigent Ebay vendor..

I decided to get the thing out and replace with a turbo from another source at my own cost and return the misaligned turbo. Luckily, I was just in time to get the unit back to the Ebay vendor within the 30 day period so I have received my old unit back and a refund for the faulty unit.

This is the nub of it: I have tried to message them about trying to reclaim labour costs as it was definitely their unit that was at fault. My mechanic realised the problem once he'd taken the thing out and was comparing it with the new unit I bought. On close inspection  it seemed, even to me a layman, what the problem was so we videoed it. The unit had to be sent back to the vendor so there is now no way to verify this as I doubt they will keep it around as evidence. It's cost me nearly £300 to get the old unit out and the new unit put it. Car works perfectly now so at least on that front I'm happy.

Do I have valid grounds to pursue a case for compensation for labour costs for removal of their faulty unit and refitting of a good one? They're claiming that the Ebay listing states that no labour costs will be covered but as this was a faulty unit in the first place I don't see how that can apply. I would also like to reclaim the costs of postage of my part exchange unit to them and some kind of compensation for inconvenience and distress caused by their unwillingness to support their reconditioned turbo.

Currently, they ignore all my requests for information. I'd also like to point out that I've been perfectly civil and professional throughout. Even when they delayed sending back my old unit for nearly 2 weeks after saying they'd send it within 3 days of receiving their unit back. It's fair to say I wish I'd never crossed their path.

What do you guys think? I'm sorry this is so long.

Best regards, and thank you,
Kieron

SaverRate

Their contact is for parts only. They don't have to pay for the labour.
if you wanted labour covered you should have brought parts via your mechanic then any costs associated with changing the faulty turbo would have to be paid by the mechanic. 

MorningcoffeeIV

MrKieron said:

 They're claiming that the Ebay listing states that no labour costs will be covered but as this was a faulty unit in the first place I don't see how that can apply. 

It applies because they weren't fitting the part.

You arranged that separately.

MrKieron

Seems pretty unfair that you can sell any old junk and not take responsibility for it! How can this be?

MrKieron

SaverRate said:

Their contact is for parts only. They don't have to pay for the labour.
if you wanted labour covered you should have brought parts via your mechanic then any costs associated with changing the faulty turbo would have to be paid by the mechanic. 

surely if the fault was due to the fitting then I would understand that but he part was faulty in the first place. No fault of the mechanic. The mechanic fitted it perfectly, well as best he could given that the part was faulty...

MrKieron

MorningcoffeeIV said:

MrKieron said:

 They're claiming that the Ebay listing states that no labour costs will be covered but as this was a faulty unit in the first place I don't see how that can apply. 

It applies because they weren't fitting the part.

You arranged that separately.

but the part they supplied was faulty. No amount of fitting, correct or incorrect is going to fix that

MorningcoffeeIV

MrKieron said:

Seems pretty unfair that you can sell any old junk and not take responsibility for it! How can this be?

It can't be, because it isn't.

They took responsibility and refunded you.

MorningcoffeeIV

MrKieron said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

MrKieron said:

 They're claiming that the Ebay listing states that no labour costs will be covered but as this was a faulty unit in the first place I don't see how that can apply. 

It applies because they weren't fitting the part.

You arranged that separately.

but the part they supplied was faulty. No amount of fitting, correct or incorrect is going to fix that

That's why they're not responsible for the fitting. You asked them to provide a part, not fit it.

The part is defective so they refunded it. 

RefluentBeans

It’s called consequential damages - and in UK law it’s generally not really seen that people and companies can be held to this. It’s only very negligent behaviour that can penetrate and allow for consequential damage. 

It’s the reason that people are recommended to get the part and fitting by the same company (as if the part is bad, then there was a whole failure of service). This is, however, normally more expensive as the parts used are normally good and new (or second hand parts from reputable companies, not just eBay). Buying parts and getting them fitted relies on the fitter knowing if the part is good or bad. Arguably, there’s a fitting claim against the mechanic for not knowing the part was bad as there is an expected level of competence which the mechanic has failed to show. 

In any case, faulty parts are limited to the cost of the faulty part. Unless you can show there was extreme negligence and even then you’d have to claim through small claims more than likely. 

MrKieron

so what's the chances of a small claims court backing me up on ths?

MrKieron

MorningcoffeeIV said:

MrKieron said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

MrKieron said:

 They're claiming that the Ebay listing states that no labour costs will be covered but as this was a faulty unit in the first place I don't see how that can apply. 

It applies because they weren't fitting the part.

You arranged that separately.

but the part they supplied was faulty. No amount of fitting, correct or incorrect is going to fix that

That's why they're not responsible for the fitting. You asked them to provide a part, not fit it.

The part is defective so they refunded it. 

Ok, I get that but fitting their defective part cost me time money inconvenience distress... and the agro of dealing with a company that didn't want to take responsibility for the fact they they're selling defective parts...