Letter before claim

Stamarie

Please can someone help with a letter before claim.

I ordered some items from Nike back in July 2023 and paid via Klarna.  I never received the items as DPD just left them at the front of my house. I have the red card they left and the photographic evidence. 

I tried to pursue this with Nike but they were very unhelpful. As they are based outside of the UK I couldn't take it any further with small claims court etc.

I then tried to raise a dispute with Klarna but just went backwards and forwards between them and Nike.

I haven't paid the £49.95 to klarna as I wasn't going to pay for items I didn't receive.

I have had various emails from debt collections agencies and it has now been passed to AJJB law.

I received a letter before claim via email from them today. Is there anything I can do? If it goes to court do I have a case as I've got proof I didn't receive the item?

DE_612183

Did you complain to DPD?

Aylesbury_Duck

Stamarie said:

Please can someone help with a letter before claim.

I ordered some items from Nike back in July 2023 and paid via Klarna.  I never received the items as DPD just left them at the front of my house. I have the red card they left and the photographic evidence. 

I tried to pursue this with Nike but they were very unhelpful. As they are based outside of the UK I couldn't take it any further with small claims court etc.

I then tried to raise a dispute with Klarna but just went backwards and forwards between them and Nike.

I haven't paid the £49.95 to klarna as I wasn't going to pay for items I didn't receive.

I have had various emails from debt collections agencies and it has now been passed to AJJB law.

I received a letter before claim via email from them today. Is there anything I can do? If it goes to court do I have a case as I've got proof I didn't receive the item?

I presume the letter is on behalf of Klarna?

I think you made a mistake not to pay Klarna.  Had you bought directly from Nike then you would have paid Nike up-front and it would be you claiming £49.95 from Nike for non-delivery.  As it stands, you entered into an agreement to pay Klarna in return for them paying Nike, so you do owe Klarna the money.  

It's your choice how to respond to the letter.  What are they asking you to pay?  Just the £49.95?  You'll have to choose whether to pay them, or see if they take it court - they could be bluffing.  If it goes to court, all you should do is present your evidence and the court will decide if you should pay Klarna the money.

Ergates

DE_612183 said:

Did you complain to DPD?

OP doesn't have a contract with DPD, this should have been dealt with by Nike.

Ergates

Stamarie said:

Please can someone help with a letter before claim.

I ordered some items from Nike back in July 2023 and paid via Klarna.  I never received the items as DPD just left them at the front of my house. I have the red card they left and the photographic evidence. 

I tried to pursue this with Nike but they were very unhelpful. As they are based outside of the UK I couldn't take it any further with small claims court etc.

I then tried to raise a dispute with Klarna but just went backwards and forwards between them and Nike.

I haven't paid the £49.95 to klarna as I wasn't going to pay for items I didn't receive.

I have had various emails from debt collections agencies and it has now been passed to AJJB law.

I received a letter before claim via email from them today. Is there anything I can do? If it goes to court do I have a case as I've got proof I didn't receive the item?

I don't believe that refusing to pay Klarna was the right move here.  They're not responsible for delivering the items and they have carried out their part of the contract correctly.  I believe you're likely to lose any legal action from the debt collection agencies as, by the sound of it, it's a legitimate debt that you've refused to pay.

sheramber

Did you report the theft from your doorstep to the police?

Stamarie

Yes I reported to the police, I have a crime reference number. I also exhausted all avenues with Nike. As their head office is based in the Netherlands I had no consumer rights. This is one part of a two part order. The other part was £89.95 and both were delivered together. I did a cash back claim with my bank for the other order as I had used pay in 3. This part for £49.95 was buy now pay later. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Stamarie said:

Yes I reported to the police, I have a crime reference number. I also exhausted all avenues with Nike. As their head office is based in the Netherlands I had no consumer rights. This is one part of a two part order. The other part was £89.95 and both were delivered together. I did a cash back claim with my bank for the other order as I had used pay in 3. This part for £49.95 was buy now pay later. 

All you can do is decide whether to pay Klarna or risk going to court and hoping the evidence you have is sufficient.

I'm afraid I agree with Ergates.  While morally you shouldn't be left out of pocket, I think that there is a legitimate debt to Klarna.  Your dispute is with Nike.  You can't just pass on responsibility to Klarna because you've exhausted options with Nike.  It would be different if Klarna came with S75 protection and the item was £100 or more, because they would be jointly liable, but as it stands, they're not.

A_Geordie

Whilst I agree with the rest of the posters that it's not an ideal situation to be in, I'm not sure it's all doom and gloom unless you haven't given us the full picture. 

Klarna offers a 'Buyer Protection' policy and I would presume that when you raised a dispute with them, it was under the guise of not receiving the goods. According to Klarna's website, any payments are paused whilst the case is investigated. It sounds like there was some back and forth as you described but did Klarna actually pause any payments that were due or did they give any decision on whether you were eligible under the policy?

If not, then that could be one line of defence against the debt. Alternatively, if they did give you a decision and that you weren't eligible then you could still challenge that as part of your defence by suggesting that they did not exercise their reasonable discretion to determine that you never received your goods, based on the evidence. The court would then have to decide if it was reasonable for Klarna to not afford you protection under the policy on the basis that DPD left the package on your doorstep and if it can be reasonably determined that the package was received by you.

If a court finds in your favour, that would likely void the agreement with Klarna since the debt would be unrecoverable. The question is whether you are prepared to fight it and take a chance but worst case, you lose you may have to pay back the application fees and small amount of limited costs though although no CCJ will show up on your credit file if you pay within one month of the judgment. 

Ergates

Stamarie said:

Yes I reported to the police, I have a crime reference number. I also exhausted all avenues with Nike. As their head office is based in the Netherlands I had no consumer rights. This is one part of a two part order. The other part was £89.95 and both were delivered together. I did a cash back claim with my bank for the other order as I had used pay in 3. This part for £49.95 was buy now pay later. 

This is not true - you have the consumer rights as laid out the dutch law.    Given the the Netherlands is part of the EU, and UK consumer laws are also heavily based on EU consumer laws, your rights will be very similar.

It'll be a bit harder to enforce them - but certainly not impossible.

Stamarie

Ergates said:

Stamarie said:

Yes I reported to the police, I have a crime reference number. I also exhausted all avenues with Nike. As their head office is based in the Netherlands I had no consumer rights. This is one part of a two part order. The other part was £89.95 and both were delivered together. I did a cash back claim with my bank for the other order as I had used pay in 3. This part for £49.95 was buy now pay later. 

This is not true - you have the consumer rights as laid out the dutch law.    Given the the Netherlands is part of the EU, and UK consumer laws are also heavily based on EU consumer laws, your rights will be very similar.

It'll be a bit harder to enforce them - but certainly not impossible.

I opened a case with the UK international consumer centre and after nearly 10 months they closed the case as the trader didn't reply and they told me there was nothing further I could do.