S75 when payment was made several years earlier?

soolin

This is a bit complicated so I'll do a short version and then a slightly longer one for the back story.

Short Canadian company that sell mainly to the UK market and took full payment in advance for products to be delivered at some unspecified time in the future. Payment made via UK credit card - can a S75 now be made after approx 4 - 5 years as company has gone insolvent?

Each item individually was over £100 and each payment was for a specific and identified widget where a mock uo and test items had been seen.

EDIT- I have removed the longer version of this as on some other specialist forums threads have got out of hand and causing admin issues.

born_again

Best to speak to CC, as this may drop out of S75 given there are no firm product details, only they are looking to make, so your deposit can be taken as a investment, which are not covered by S75.

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82036534#Comment_82036534

Each payment was taken for a particular product, one that had a mock up and had been put out on social media for comment and changes made based on responses. Each seperate payment was linked to a specific product with a specific price and as at earlier this year 'test' items for show were available to view at events in the UK.

MyRealNameToo

There is no explicit time limit on S75 itself but instead the liability mirrors the underlying liability of the merchant which would typically become statute barred 6 years after the breach of contract. The fact it's a Canadian company may mean that Canadian law applies which I believe is a much shorter window.

Are each of the items over £100 each?

Do you have evidence of its insolvency rather than just online rumour? What's the company name?

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82036577#Comment_82036577

Yes each item is around the £200 mark and paid for in full. I am hesitant to mention company name as it might be adding fuel to the rumours as it's all gone rather quiet this morning..I have tried to find the website again but it's still not there and I can't find a FB group any more. There are mentions of people local to the Canadian address planning to do a drive past to see if there is anything going on or anyone they can talk to.

As I said though, if this is just all a horrible mistake then MSE is a huge site and might easily get picked up if I post the name- and if this is all just a misunderstanding then I'll have added to the issue unfairly. Happy to share name by PM though as that won't be picked up by the bots.

MyRealNameToo

Sure, its totally up to you… it would be a little unusual for a company going bust, people losing their jobs etc to spend the time and effort on an unpaid basis to deactivate FB groups etc and normally takes longer for ISPs / web hosts etc to deactivate accounts for non-payment.

If its a tiny owner operated brand with no real staff etc then maybe, can also be they have rebranded or just given up rather than gone bust.