Faulty item bought at Auction

llandyrnog

Hi everyone. I would be grateful for your advice please.

I recently bought a battery operated Strimmer from Supreme Auctions through the I bidder site.  There was no mention that the item was not working. When I received the item a couple of days later i found that it had a note inside saying that the battery charger was not working and indeed the strimmer will not operate. On the Strimmer there is a batch no which ends with 08/2024 which I am guessing is the date of manufacture and so within a warranty period. I have contacted the manufacturer to mention this but they say I have to contact the seller. Is Supreme Auctions duty bound to help me ?.

fwor

No. Manufacturer warranty is not a statutory right. If the terms of the warranty say that it is not transferable then that's the end of the line. It's not uncommon for manufacturers to allow warranty to apply only to the first buyer, and to insist on them supplying a receipt to show that they are the original buyer.

The auction house has no responsibility for warranty at all. 

You may have some recourse under your statutory rights, as defined under the Consumer Rights Act, but that is completely separate from warranty. I assume that any auction house will make clear in their guidance for bidders that a buyer should make no assumption that an item is working unless the listing says so, but I've never used Supreme Auctions, so that's just a guess.

TELLIT01

From my understanding of auctions, the warranty expires when the hammer falls unless otherwise stated.

Debbie9009

Looking at the t&c’s of another auction on ibidder from supreme auctions, it does state that all sales are trade to trade and no checks or tests are done on any vehicles, we cannot guarantee the functionality.  Not sure why it states vehicles on an auction for a strimmer, but I don’t think you will get any help from supreme auctions.

Okell

llandyrnog said:

Hi everyone. I would be grateful for your advice please.

I recently bought a battery operated Strimmer from Supreme Auctions through the I bidder site.  There was no mention that the item was not working. When I received the item a couple of days later i found that it had a note inside saying that the battery charger was not working and indeed the strimmer will not operate. On the Strimmer there is a batch no which ends with 08/2024 which I am guessing is the date of manufacture and so within a warranty period. I have contacted the manufacturer to mention this but they say I have to contact the seller. Is Supreme Auctions duty bound to help me ?.

I would have thought that the seller and/or the auction house would be jointly liable for selling an item that was not of satisfactory quality.  If the item contained a note that it was faulty then the seller is obviously in the wrong and - arguably - the auction house too.

Debbie9009 said:

Looking at the t&c’s of another auction on ibidder from supreme auctions, it does state that all sales are trade to trade and no checks or tests are done on any vehicles, we cannot guarantee the functionality.  Not sure why it states vehicles on an auction for a strimmer, but I don’t think you will get any help from supreme auctions.

If Supreme Auctions don't take appropriate steps to ensure that bidders are "trade", then it is arguable that the OP is a consumer and Supreme Auctions cannot exclude liability - if indeed they are liable.

Browntoa

I just checked the terms and conditions 

Standard auction terms of "sold as seen " 

Okell

Browntoa said:

I just checked the terms and conditions 

Standard auction terms of "sold as seen " 

I might be mistaken but unless the OP had the opportunity to physically attend the auction and to inspect the goods, that term might be unenforceable.

(If the item is admitted by the seller to be not working and this rather important fact isn't disclosed in the online description, I would be amazed if the OP had no remedy against the seller and/or auctioneer.  But I'm not a lawyer so I may be wrong...)

Alderbank

Small retail businesses selling items like this strimmer inevitably get customer returns because the occasional product is found to be missing parts or doesn't work.
The retail business has neither parts nor skills to fix them so just throws such items to auction at one of the sites like Supreme Auctions. The seller has no interest in the contents of the box which will be offered for sale 'unchecked and untested'. It might fetch a couple of pounds compared with £75 or so if it was new and perfect.

Supreme Auctions description of such sale items is:

Note: All items within this sale are grade B or UNCHECKED & UNTESTED RETURNS

Grade B: Items may have damaged packaging, missing packaging, ex-display or be missing accessories such as fittings. Items may have cosmetic damage or have been used.

Unchecked and untested items can include faulty goods which can also be missing parts or accessories.

We highly recommend viewing and offer appraisals on all our sales.  Please contact the office to arrange this as all our auctions are sold as seen and images are used for catalogue purposes only. 

Example: https://supremeauctions.atgportals.net/past-auctions/suprem15337/lot-details/ae08dea7-a799-4a4c-b03b-b2b3010c7c79

To me, what is obvious is that the original retail purchaser of this strimmer discovered that the charger was faulty and returned it to the shop for refund, helpfully enclosing a note about the fault. The retailer just put it in for auction, probably without even bothering to open the box, as an unchecked and untested return.
The auctioneer's description was accurate. If the winning bidder has a suitable charger they might now have a nice strimmer for a fiver.

Jumblebumble

Okell said:

Browntoa said:

I just checked the terms and conditions 

Standard auction terms of "sold as seen " 

I might be mistaken but unless the OP had the opportunity to physically attend the auction and to inspect the goods, that term might be unenforceable.

(If the item is admitted by the seller to be not working and this rather important fact isn't disclosed in the online description, I would be amazed if the OP had no remedy against the seller and/or auctioneer.  But I'm not a lawyer so I may be wrong...)

It is a stretch to assume that the  seller had any idea about the note as they may have bought the strimmer from someone else as a "returns package"
I have my doubts that seeking any remedy is going to be anything other than a complete waste of time
In my view the OP bought a strimmer and that is what they have received.