Advice re hire lorry complaint please

Woogie · 10 October 2016 at 5:48PM

Hi, I'm looking for some advice re a lorry we hired recently. I hope I've put this in the right place!

My husband and I hired a lorry for 48 hrs. On our return journey it broke down at about 10pm. We spent several hours in a layby awaiting recovery and then having it fixed. A mile down the road it broke down again. Again we waited for recovery for several hours, they towed the lorry to the nearest garage and we got a taxi home. We got home at 8am. We spent the night in various laybys freezing cold, no food etc.

We're looking for full hire reimbursement (£440), unused deisel reimbursment, taxi refund, babysitter costs (we were expected home at midnight and had to pay a babysitter to sleep on the sofa and get our small children ready for school!).

The hire company are refusing all costs apart from the taxi. They say we will still get our 48hr hire when they return the lorry to us to unload.(this happened last wed/thurs and we haven't had the lorry or our goods returned yet - they're waiting for a spare part). They say this is in their t&c.

I'm gobsmacked that they expect us to pay full whack for a service that they couldn't provide, and refuse to compensate us for the massive invconvenience and discomfort caused. We also had people lined up to help us unload, fitness sessioned paid for had to be cancelled the next morning, we got no sleep so obviously couldn't work etc.

Any thoughts please? Thanks in advance.

Fat_Walt · 10 October 2016 at 5:57PM

Why did you hire the lorry?

Woogie · 10 October 2016 at 6:29PM

We had bought some new cattery units for our garden - 7.5k worth - still in the back of the lorry at the garage.

Fat_Walt · 10 October 2016 at 6:42PM

So this was a business to business transaction.

Woogie · 10 October 2016 at 6:49PM

Yes I suppose so. Although they didn't ask the nature of the hire.

Woogie · 10 October 2016 at 6:52PM

No, my husbands just pointed out that it was really a private hire under our names, not a business name. And the cattery isn't out business yet as we haven't made it our business!

Fat_Walt · 10 October 2016 at 7:18PM

You'll be bound by the terms of you're contract with the hire company as it'll be classed as business to business transaction. You'll struggle to claim you're a consumer transporting goods for your own business.

Woogie · 10 October 2016 at 7:38PM

They haven't asked what the goods are. Just a flat 'no' to any reimbursement apart from the cab. If they haven't asked is it relevant what's in the lorry? Anyway round the t&c if they haven't provided the service we paid for?

Thanks for your thought

phill99 · 10 October 2016 at 7:44PM

The Terms and conditions are limited to providing you with a lorry. They will do that once the vehicle is repaired. They have no liability for consequential losses. It could have easily been your own vehicle that broke down and you couldn't claim baby sitting costs off of anyone!!

Woogie · 10 October 2016 at 7:55PM

Yes, but it wasn't our vehicle Phil. It was a vehicle that we'd paid £440 quid for for 48hrs use. Not comparible at all.

Aylesbury_Duck · 10 October 2016 at 9:43PM

My thoughts are that you should ask for a reduction in the hire charge to reflect the poor experience you've had. Other than that, I don't think it's reasonable for you to expect full reimbursement of the hire charge and all your consequential losses. When your business is up and running, will you be willing to be liable for all of a client's consequential losses if something goes wrong with the service you provide? If you make a mistake that means you can't accommodate someone's pet and their holiday is delayed or even cancelled, would you be prepared to stump up their losses?