Trading Standards vs incarexpress.co.uk

mdbarber

Got both sides telling me they are right??

Buying A car Stereo Online?

On 12/12/07 a Sony mex2500 car cd player was purchased form incarexpress.co.uk for a christmas present.

This cost approx £86 incl delivery.

This was installed a couple of days after xmas and worked fine, for less than 10mins then it died and failed to respond with any more than an occasional beep.

Contacting the support department I was given no help/support other than instructions to complete the on-line returns form and return the unit at my expense insured to the correct value is nearly £20.00 Surely this suggests they think it's faulty

I am an experienced IT field engineer and was able to test wiring voltages and continuity with a multi-meter, also luckily a friend of mine had received the same unit as a christmas present.
His was professionally fitted, so i was able to remove his unit swap the connector over to my unit in his vehicle (eliminating any wiring or car issues), still not working.
The unit remained unresponsive, yet my friends unit worked fine when replaced and refitting the original stereo to my car (a very similar unit wo bluetooth) worked ok as well.

Despite many emails and telephone calls to this firm, including management, they stand with the original instructions it was up to me to pay for return with no assurance of compensation.
This was backed up with the claim that 95% of units returned to them were not faulty on testing contradicting their instructions?, but still no suggestion as to what I might be doing wrong.

Now its bad enough receiving a faulty product, but with this companies policy of penny pinching and not caring how much distress it causes to their customer i then have to ask to what lengths will this go?

Will they take the unit back and claim its not faulty?, perhaps holding it till further payment is made "for testing"?
i have heard stories of these firms making more money from this than actual sales.

My local trading standards says i can reject the goods under the sale of goods act and am under no obligation to return goods but they say their T&C's state i must pay for this, who is right?

littlejaffa

It sounds like you think your local trading standards have told you that you can report the item as faulty and keep it, paying nothing to the company. That's not right.

If the suppliers t&c's say your responsible for returning the item should it be faulty/unwanted etc, you could have checked that before buying so can't realy blame them, it may not be nice, but it is legal. You wouldn't try and claim your bus fair back if you returned something to a high street store and this is the same - ish. The supplier are responsible only for the goods, not the royal mail and their pricing policy.

You seem to be going of on a 'worst case senario' tangent (distress?) Unless you know of a reason the company might do these things give them a chance. In the same situation i'd be more annoyed at myself for not reading the t&c's and so avoiding the problem in the first place.

I'd try and get an e-mail from them saying there's is nothing more they can sugest you try (to fix or check your unit) and they ask you to return it. That will give you more clout but still, they are in the right.

mdbarber

"It sounds like you think your local trading standards have told you that you can report the item as faulty and keep it, paying nothing to the company. That's not right."

Thats not what is being said at all,

Trading standards are saying its up to the seller to deal with faulty goods, they are trying to cop out on the basis the goods may not be faulty, (i'm confident they are)

yes i admit i didnt check out the t&c's too thoroughly but as usual rushing to live life, work and do xmas shopping assumed statutory protection was enough

amdavies

Get back to Trading Standards and get either a written explanation from them or a link to any relevant passages online.
Then quote this to the company.

rant
From my experience, Ts&Cs are rarely worth the paper they're written on. If a company is trying to use them to breach consumer law then the whole document could be null and void. Not many have anything beyond what you're legally entitled to so why have them in the first place ?
Too many companies use consumers lack of knowledge to defraud them of monies hoping that the ones who do notice and create a fuss are enough of a minority not to cost them too much profit.
Personally, I think that these companies that attempt to defraud consumers by using illegal Ts&Cs should be brought up on charges more often. There seems to be a "no harm, no foul" approach when they're caught trying to push consumers into negating their statutory rights.
/rant

mdbarber

uuummmm sounds like you've bin bitten at some stage too?

amdavies

Nah, I'm just of the opinion that a good vent against suitable targets once in a while is good for the soul.

Enterprise_1701C

I would return the item, get them to admit it is faulty, and then tell them that as it was faulty it is up to them to refund the postage. Don't quote me on this, but I'm fairly sure that if an item is faulty the return cost is supposed to be met by the supplier, but at the same time they don't want to mess about getting payment off customers who send non-faulty items to them before they can release them.

At the same time look at slightly cheaper ways of sending it - £20 does seem a little excessive but I don't know the weight. Parcelforce 48 is £14.99 up to about 10kg with £150 compensation. That's just 2 minutes of looking around.

We know you're a professional - they only have your word for that and I'm sure a lot of people tell them that.

I would get the item sorted, then sort out the postage later. What's the point of being left with a faulty stereo whilst arguing with them?

1jim

I would suggest trading standards are correct in this, if the product is faulty you should not be in a worse position that you would have been had the goods been in working order, in other words you should not be out of pocket because they supplied you with duff goods. You may need to pay initially to return the item but I would advise them that you reject the goods under the sales of goods act, add that they are liable for the costs to return the item and that you expect an immediate refund of the cost of the item + costs and if this is not recieved within x days you will take them to smalls claims court. To be honest I would not try another item from this company if this is the way they try and solve problems.

Optimist

As the item is faulty trading standards are correct although I think it comes more under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, specifically to regulation 14 which states that you may not make any charge in relation to the supply of goods under a contract whereby the cancellation of the contract is due to the breach of implied terms of the contract.

Their T&C s cannot over write your rights in law

Jack's_Dad

It may be worth a look at this site, it is independent and gives good advice. It also covers exactly what you are talking about

mdbarber

Still not sure what to make of it all and tbh not really sure i trust this lot to behave honestly after the semi threatening letter i received trying to scare me with over the top expense claims should i go to court and lose.
Have to be honest it was more of a matter of principle, whilst i could afford the cost of return i know many young lads who wouldn't be in a position to, my stepson included who lives out of his pocket lol