How to claim under the sale of goods act 2015

HomerRamone

The forum and the MSE website have lots and lots of information about a persons right under this act. 
The internet does too.
All seem to lack one vital piece of information - how does one claim ? 

Bought a 3d printed last May and it worked for around 4 months. It hasn't worked properly since. I've been haggling with their support ever since. I got sick of all their suggestions and requests to "try this" and "replace that". I wasn't keen on some of them as they involved replacing things that I felt we beyond what should be expected of the end user - but did all the same.
Eventually I asked for them to take it away and repair it - but they said they cannot because they have no uk service centers. I then asked for a replacement or refund. They said they cannot replaces as its more than 30 days old. 
No comment RE a refund.

I've started a credit card dispute but this looks to be related to breach of contract rather than sale of goods act - doesn't seem the same ? 

Anyone offer any help please ?

Ergates

Well - firstly, it's the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you want.  

Who did you purchase the printer from?   If they don't have any UK repair centres, it sounds like it might not be a UK company.  If that is the case, then our rights are significantly curtailed.

(On paper you still have them, but it'll be very hard to enforce anything).

eskbanker

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/consumer-rights-refunds-exchange/#pay is the MSE guide to "How to make 'em pay up", and is a reasonable place to start - note that your rights are under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which superseded the old Sale of Goods Act for most consumers.

The Act allows for rejection of faulty goods if one attempt at repair hasn't succeeded, so a key question will be do 'their suggestions and requests to "try this" and "replace that"' constitute a repair in the sense envisaged in the Act?

Note also that after six months the onus is on the consumer to prove that any fault would have been present at the time of sale (even if latent), so exercising your rights may entail getting an independent technician to examine it and assess it.

However, if you've already initiated a credit card dispute then that may take the matter out of your hands anyway - do you know if this is being handled as a chargeback or a section 75 claim?  It's probably the latter if there's talk of breach of contract, but as well as the actual Ts & Cs of the purchase from the vendor, any breaches of CRA will also be covered.

HomerRamone

Its a Chinese company - they do have Creality UK on the website though of course this doesnt mean they actually have an actual UK company. I assume they do have UK warehouses because when purchasing consumables they come in 1-2 days.
I filed the first complaint about it being faulty around 4 months after purchase and the ticket is still ongoing. Though ive not really tried following the most recent instructions for the most recent issue that prevents it working as I followed the wiki on the website and it didnt resolve the issue, explained this to them and they asked for logs. I gave them logs and then they asked for a video

The credit card letter makes reference to section 75 of the consumer credit act. Not sure if something not being fit for purpose comes under misrepresentation or breach of contract. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

S75 would cover a breach of contract such as goods not complying with the SOGA or the CRA.

Is the printer for a bit of fun or do you use it to make stuff to sell OP? 

If for fun it’s the CRA, if for selling it’s the SOGA.

Seller in China is an issue, does the website have a terms and conditions page and if so does it say what laws govern the contract? 

born_again

• Phone Support: 86 755 3396 5666 China dialing code.

Online Support is using PT time zone.

The Terms shall be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of People’s Republic of China without reference to the conflict laws

https://www.creality.com/legal/terms-of-sales

MyRealNameToo

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

S75 would cover a breach of contract such as goods not complying with the SOGA or the CRA.

Is the printer for a bit of fun or do you use it to make stuff to sell OP? 

If for fun it’s the CRA, if for selling it’s the SOGA.

Seller in China is an issue, does the website have a terms and conditions page and if so does it say what laws govern the contract? 

SOGA only applies to businesses these days and so it may be questionable if the Consumer Credit Act will apply 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

MyRealNameToo said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

S75 would cover a breach of contract such as goods not complying with the SOGA or the CRA.

Is the printer for a bit of fun or do you use it to make stuff to sell OP? 

If for fun it’s the CRA, if for selling it’s the SOGA.

Seller in China is an issue, does the website have a terms and conditions page and if so does it say what laws govern the contract? 

SOGA only applies to businesses these days and so it may be questionable if the Consumer Credit Act will apply 

Good point 🙂 (although I think some parts still apply to consumers, passing of title springs to mind).

If OP is running a 3D printing business (small or otherwise) I guess they aren’t covered under Section 75.

born_again

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

MyRealNameToo said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

S75 would cover a breach of contract such as goods not complying with the SOGA or the CRA.

Is the printer for a bit of fun or do you use it to make stuff to sell OP? 

If for fun it’s the CRA, if for selling it’s the SOGA.

Seller in China is an issue, does the website have a terms and conditions page and if so does it say what laws govern the contract? 

SOGA only applies to businesses these days and so it may be questionable if the Consumer Credit Act will apply 

Good point 🙂 (although I think some parts still apply to consumers, passing of title springs to mind).

If OP is running a 3D printing business (small or otherwise) I guess they aren’t covered under Section 75.

A lot is going to depend on what exactly the retailer T/C are.

SiliconChip

Ultimately the way to make a claim is through the courts, most likely using Moneyclaim Online.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

As they're a Chinese company they probably won't bother to defend a claim, which will leave you with judgement by default. Unfortunately that's where your problem starts, if they have no presence in the UK then you can't enforce the judgement, so paying the court fees is likely to be throwing good money after bad. 

If you're unable to make a S75 claim (or it's rejected) then you can make the court claim against the credit card issuer but they may defend it if they consider the value of the claim to be worth their costs and you may need to look at what @eskbanker says in the 3rd paragraph of their post in order to convince the judge to find in your favour. 

Alderbank

SiliconChip said:

Ultimately the way to make a claim is through the courts, most likely using Moneyclaim Online.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

As they're a Chinese company they probably won't bother to defend a claim, which will leave you with judgement by default. Unfortunately that's where your problem starts, if they have no presence in the UK then you can't enforce the judgement, so paying the court fees is likely to be throwing good money after bad. 

If you're unable to make a S75 claim (or it's rejected) then you can make the court claim against the credit card issuer but they may defend it if they consider the value of the claim to be worth their costs and you may need to look at what @eskbanker says in the 3rd paragraph of their post in order to convince the judge to find in your favour. 

I agree entirely with your advice about the impracticality of recovering from a company in a foreign land 5,000 miles away.

But I can't agree with you about s75.
Normally, if someone owes you a debt you can only sue that person for the debt, you can't randomly sue a third party. An exception to that is if it was a purchase made under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, such as a credit card purchase of between £100 and 30,000, you can also sue the card issuer because under section 75 of that Act the card issuer is jointly responsible.
If s75 (or s75a) doesn't apply then you can't make any other claim against the card issuer.