Charge backs

If you bought it less than 6 months ago it's up to them to prove it wasn't faulty. Tell them you'll take them to court under The Sale of Goods Act 1979. forget about chargebacks.

Rob Graham

Thanks Rob.

That's exactly what I'm the process of doing now. I've just sent them a polite letter asking for a refund and if I don't get any joy with that I'll send another letter with a 14 day deadline, mentioning SOGA. And if I still don't any reply I'll actually start a court claim.

Having experience of doing this before I know even if you win by default and don't even need to go to court it's a long winded process where you need to give the defendant time to respond to each court letter, and when you finally get judgement by default you need to wait for a bailiff to become available, which can take months. It's a long time to get your money back.

I was hoping I could avoid all that by instructing my bank to just reverse the transaction.

If you had paid with a Visa debit card you would have had protection.

Just out of interest, what reason, if any, did they give as to why they would not pay? Were they claiming there was a valid reason or were they just saying 'come and get me'?

Rob

Seems strange I am sure that I have had money back through Master Card and that was for less than £100. Have you actually asked Master Card?

Yes, I think that's odd, too.

Rob

They haven't quite refused a replacement or refund.

But what has happened is I took it back on Wednesday and they said a new one would be ready to pick up Friday. Called Friday and was told it hadn't been ordered but would probably be ordered later today and would get a call back later, which didn't happen.

Monday I made 12 phone calls over a 10 hour period to them asking what was going on. Each time I called the person I needed to speak to was out of the office, gone for lunch, on the phone or just not answering their phone. Eventually I said I just wanted my money back and was told the refund guy would call me back. I chased it up an hour later and spoke to a new person who said they would quickly check with someone and call back

This behaviour in my eyes amounts to refusal to replace or refund.

I did eventually speak to someone who said the item had been sent away to be tested before a refund could be issued. I'm fine with them doing this and I'm fine with not being refunded if it somehow turns out that something I did damaged it. But I'm not fine with having to put so much time and effort just to extract this tiny piece of information from them. How many hours do I need to spend on the phone before I find out what the outcome of this test was?

Of course they may actually intend to comply with their legal obligations but just have horrible customer service. Which is why I've sent them a friendly letter asking for a refund with the option of contacting me about any issues.

But I fully expect them to try and make me jump through as many hoops as they can which I why I want no more contact with them other than 2 letters, after which I'll look at court action.

In message , Rad writes

You firstly need to sort this out and decide what you want but equally depending on the item they need to understand on what basis it is being returned and why it isn't working if there is a possibility that you damaged it. If it was faulty when supplied you can exchange or ask for a refund obviously if you have broken it the circumstances are different unless of course it wasn't fit for purpose to start with.

If you returned the item Wednesday and agreed to a replacement then one would expect them to replace it within a reasonable time. If it is something that needs to be ordered then they should state when delivery can be expected. Whoever said Friday may have been a little optimistic if they needed to order and get delivery in two days however if by Monday they still haven't even placed the order then a refund may be the way to go. It sound though as if they are investigating first and may be looking at repair.

I thought that you were asking about getting a charge back through the credit card company but it appears that you are still dealing with the retailer.

What I want is to have my money back and spend it with a company that doesn't f*ck me about. In fact I've already bought the item from a seller on eBay who has been excellent.

That's fine but I want it done within a reasonable time. By the time my second letter expires they will have had about 5 weeks since I reported the original fault, that's more than reasonable.

It was only because I returned it at the end of the day that it was two days. Typically car part suppliers deliver within 24 hours, sometimes same day because they're supplied to garages who need to get the part ordered and put on customer's cars very quickly.

They're not looking at repair, they're only looking to see if it's my fault or the manufacturers. I wouldn't want a repair now anyway, simply because detest the idea of a company who has provided such awful service to get any of my money.

Well, at the moment I'm giving the company reasonable notice to do something but if previous experience is anything to go by a charge back or court action might need to be looked at after 28 days is up.

May we know who this company is so that we can avoid getting the runaround like you have? I have to say, whether it's your fault or theirs, there's no reason whatsoever to treat a customer like you describe.

Rob

I'll try and do that once the matter is settled. The company already has reviews from people with similar experiences which I wish I'd seen before I parted with my cash.