damaged/dented fridge freezer on delivery, plus courier scratched our flooring

pete1975

A_Geordie said:

Some points to note:

1. Have you sent Appliances Direct a letter before action? If not, you need to send that before you issue a claim. 
++I have sent them an email once they declined the £300 final offer i suggested. I stated that I will proceed with the small claims to which appliances direct responded '' I understand your position
2. On this statement

should i not press them on a copy of the waiver

The answer is no. If you know you never signed a waiver, why are you wasting your time asking for a copy that doesn't exist? It's not your job to do their job and if they want to produce evidence to support their defence which includes a waiver, that is up to them, but you'll know that it is not a waiver you signed. If the signature produced on the damage waiver is a fake, then you must notify the other side in writing you intend to challenge the authenticity of the document. The Civil Procedure Rules presume that a document submitted for evidence is deemed to be authentic unless notice is given to challenge it. However see #3 below. 

++I was asking because of the fact that the delivery crew have already lied twice, one saying the damage was already there and two there was no floor protection my biggest concern was they create a fake signature and even though i know its fake i can’t prove i didn’t sign it and i lose. 

How do I challenge the authenticity, do I do that now before the hearing because they haven’t actually said they have a signed waiver, they have alluded to the T&Cs but they haven’t said they have it or produced it?

3. I would not be too concerned with the Arrow T&Cs because as a general rule of law, any terms that are incorporated into the contract must be brought to your attention before the contract is entered into. If they are provided afterwards, they do not apply unless you agree to them. But that's an argument you have to make to the judge, don't assume it.

+I was sent the T&Cs by text message which had a clickable link the night before the delivery 

4.I don't think your evidence is slam dunk so you have to be open to the fact that a judge could say that because you didn't produce before and after photographs, it is not conclusive that they caused the damaged, or that there could have been at least some pre-existing damage. On that basis either your claim will fail or you will have a reduced compensation amount. Have in the back of your mind your absolutely minimum amount you would settle for, and be prepared to offer that as way of settling the dispute when you get to the mediation stage. 

+I have offered to accept £300 and I pay £100 of the repair which as you say need to have it in my mind but still frustrating I have to pay to repair something I didn’t do. 

5. Make sure in your claim form you specifically state you are also seeking costs. Otherwise if you are successful, you may not be entitled to your application fees, cost of attending a hearing and other recoverable costs.

+ great thank you so much,  I don’t have to list the costs, such as loss of earnings and the cost of the submission of the claim or just state i will be seeking costs. 

6. Appliances Direct does not have any registered solicitors in their company so there's a good chance that if they are going to defend the claim, it will be handled in-house by someone who is not a qualified lawyer with legal knowledge or someone with limited legal knowledge. The other option is for them to instruct an outside law firm to assist but the costs of doing that is likely to exceed £400 very quickly. For example, a rate for a junior lawyer is £288+VAT per hour and a paralegal is £198+VAT per hour so from a commercial standpoint, it's not viable for them to take it all the way.

So there may be a chance that if you hold out, you could get full payment but do not assume to be the case. Some companies defend out of principle every single dispute and settle very little claims, but you will only really be able to gauge the situation once legal proceedings are underway. 

7. Make sure your particulars of claim stick to the necessary facts and are succinct. Do not rely on AI because you will find that if there are any non-existing references to the law or court cases, you will find yourself in hot water with the judge. I wouldn't advocate using AI at all because this is a straight forward dispute but if you must use it to help support you, please validate it by doing your research. If you can't validate using a viable source, don't put it in. 

+ thank you so much, for replying and spending so much time on a detailed reply

I've just asked some additional question, apologies for keep going on

Boohoo

Any update on this issue?

Did you go to leaglebeagles website for advice?