Heres a story :

A customer phones a specialist supplier of parts for old Fords and asks for brake parts to fit a Mk5 Cortina axle which is fitted to a kit car, vendor says 'no problem, about £15 a side', customer gives card details and awaits delivery. Parcel arrives with some parts and bill for £75. Parts were actually £27.50 a side, plus postage, plus VAT...customer not very happy but glad to have parts as they are rare and should really have asked for a definate price on phone, so takes it on the chin, the end.

But customer trys to fit parts, they dont fit. Customer asks for help from various people, EVEN the vendor, "should fit mate dont know why they dont". Time passes and after a few days another specialist tells customer he has Mk4 parts not Mk5 thats why they dont fit...Vendor still says they should fit Mk4 and Mk5 are the same it says so in my '900 page' workshop manual. Back to other specialist who says you need to look at parts microfiche not the manual. Vendor still says they should fit. Other specialist offers correct parts for £35 including postage and VAT etc etc Time passes, vendor sends email out of the blue, offering to replace original parts, no mention that he was wrong or mention of an apology. Customer asks for a discount to meet other price to show good will and keep the business. Vendor declines, a bit of an argument ensues. Customer demands a full refund in line with statutory rights that parts were wrongly described. Vendor declines and another argument ensues, parts returned recorded delivery with demand for refund letter and court action threat. Vendor fails to respond. Another letter is sent with another deadline, no response, court action is taken. Two months after parts returned vendor denies recieving them ? After much searching and many phone calls, signature of recipient is found. After phone call to vendor its nobody vendor has ever heard of. Recipient found to be local PO lady, signed on behalf of her good friends, the vendor and his wife...she cant find them and must have given them to her friends a long time ago when she signed, vendor cant find them either ? ? how strange, PO lady is worried and upset and doesnt want to be involved and so the case continues...all legal documents supplied and hearing pending, vendors defence ? - he hasnt recieved parts yet and had he known it was an axle on a kit car he wouldnt have sold parts to the customer !? read first sentence...

Anyone any comments ? does the customer have a chance ? anyone heard of vendors not selling parts because they are for use on a kitcar ?

Thanks

James

[Edited on 2/2/05 by Jeffers_S13]

hmmm, if you got recorded delivery doesn't it include insurance, the items didn't make it to the desitnation, claim on the insurance......post woman may (will) get in trouble but thats her fault in the end.

Iteresting, this is the response the story gets from most people. But the old lady at the PO was just doing her friends a favour, like a lot of posties do, in this case it was unfortunately involved in this saga. It would be unfair and miss the point to claim against the PO in this case ? the parts werent insured over the standard £28 maximum catch all the PO apply, BUT they did reach 'a' destination, so I think the recipient is unfortunately liable.

However, I dont think they are lost, I think the vendor is not being completely honest, why would he deny knowledge of someone who in fact knows them very well to the extent of knowing the vendors mother in law and her current health ? will the vendor stand by and watch his friend, a friendly old lady, fork out (and potentially lose her job ?) for something she wasnt supposed to be involved in ?

Hmmm. sounds like the 'discusion' I had with SHELL TUNE of Northampton twenty odd years ago. " Sorry Mate, you didn't give us a written order. There's nuffin we can do."
A total of £1000 down (a LOT of money 25 years ago) the drain on an engine I built.


Buyer beware cowboys every where.

Good luck sorting it out mate.

Atb,
James

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Originally posted by James
Good luck sorting it out mate.

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quote:

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Originally posted by jollygreengiant
Hmmm. sounds like the 'discusion' I had with SHELL TUNE of Northampton twenty odd years ago. " Sorry Mate, you didn't give us a written order. There's nuffin we can do."
A total of £1000 down (a LOT of money 25 years ago) the drain on an engine I built.


Buyer beware cowboys every where.

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Anybody selling Brake parts for Fords Mk3 to Mk5 over the phone without going very carefully into all the details is fool It is just about impossible to tell which type of brakes are fitted as the permutations of axle specs and brake type fitted together with Fords mix and match parts supply make being being even 75% sure you are supplying the correct part impossible.

[Edited on 2/2/05 by britishtrident]

I think i would be rounding up some of my 'break' experts and paying the chappie a visit!

Dont know about English law, but its well worth persuing the case, turning up to court and all that as long as fees are not going to become extortionate.

My girlfriend and I had a dispute with a landlord over non return of deposit, he wasn't disputing the case he just wasn't paying up, the case was won in our favour because he didn't turn up to court, but then it was our responsibility to get the money out of him, back to square one then as it was going to cost a fortune to perform a poinding, a lot less to send someone round with a baseball bat and take it out of his jaw, but thats not exactly in the spirit of the law so we just left it. However out of the blue one day we got a call, he wanted to pay up and quick styley, we got the amount plus costs, plus interest, and a wee bit added on for our inconvienience, he was desperate for a letter saying he had discharged the debt. we recon he wanted to get a loan or such and couldn't because of the court injunction against him.

So it may be as well to start procedings then just wait. It may be slow but it sure is satisfying in the end when the money you've written off is handed back to you.

off thread, but in a similar vein...

I have just had a customer fail to pay for £4ks worth of goods. The company was put into voluntary administration 2 days after the goods were delivered and immediately despatched to their customers. I am now left chasing the administrators for money I will almost certainly never see

In the meantime the company has been bought via the administrators by another company. They are of course not responsible for the first company's debts, but now want to continue purchasing the same products at the same price. Fortunately I have persuaded them to pay a higher price as it's the products are bespoke and managed to recover some of the lost money.

What really p1sses me off is that the MD of the first company must have known full well that he was never going to pay for the goods he received and that I'd have no way of getting it out of him W8NKER

RANT OVER

James,

I would think claiming from the PO in this case would be the best way of recovering money, but I do admire those that take a stand when they believe something is wrong! Good luck to you (or friend)

Nick

if you paid by credit card you can get a full refund from the car company. saves a lot of bother!

You should have just faxed the proof of postage to your credit card company and they would have refunded you. No need to wee away good money after bad with the court thing. Always always always buy on your Mastercard/Visa and try to avoid using the pin. That way you can pretty much always do a chargeback on the supplier if they try and fleece you. If you still have prrof of posting back to them then it's worth calling your card company now and asking them to do a charge back. At least you'll get your £75 back.

...and, if successful, puts the vendor in bad grace with the card companies. Too many of those and they'll withdraw his card privileges.

David

talk to trading standards and let the company know you are talking to trading standards. My dad once got a refund on a car bought privately and sold as seen - trading standards got him a full refund because the exhaust fell off the day after collection.

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Originally posted by andyharding
You should have just faxed the proof of postage to your credit card company and they would have refunded you. No need to wee away good money after bad with the court thing. Always always always buy on your Mastercard/Visa and try to avoid using the pin. That way you can pretty much always do a chargeback on the supplier if they try and fleece you. If you still have prrof of posting back to them then it's worth calling your card company now and asking them to do a charge back. At least you'll get your £75 back.

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On the original subject I'd say it's the PO lady's look out if she signed for the parcel. If the chap selling the parts is getting her to lie about what happened he should really own up to get her (his friend) out of trouble. Either way, it's not your problem.

Chris

The parts were paid for by switch and the pin wasnt given out over the phone.

I dont think the vendor is getting the old lady to lie, she is just in an awkward position and doesnt want to upset anyone, especially her friends I imagine. The customer asked her to write and sign a statement saying she had given the parts to the vendor but she declined following advice from her husband.

They will all be taken into account in the court hearing. The customer has done evrything reasonably epected of him/her and as such has a very strong case. The goods were mis-advertised and wrongly supplied. There is no reason I can see for the customer to in the wrong.

If a Postie has signed for a parcel, they have broken the LAW - this is the queens mail and is not to be messed with. It's her own stupid fault and maybe she will learn from her mistakes if she is punished.

I personally say take it to court and fight every inch of the way - if he gets away with it this time, what stops it happening again?

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Originally posted by locogeoff
NEVER EVER give your pin over the telephone!

The POS (point of sale) terminal needs the ICC card to verify the pin, if the card is not present in the terminal as in the case of a remote sale it wont ask for PIN ever! If they do then give them a false one and report them to the card company imediately, they're at it. Very shortly it will be impossible to use an ICC card without entering PIN when the card is present at the POS

Dont confuse this with the three digit code on the back of the card (CV2 data) this is specifically designed for the purpose of remote selling

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I suggest sending chrisg round there to put the frighteners on the old post biddy...

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Originally posted by nick205
off thread, but in a similar vein...

I have just had a customer fail to pay for £4ks worth of goods. The company was put into voluntary administration 2 days after the goods were delivered and immediately despatched to their customers. I am now left chasing the administrators for money I will almost certainly never see
W8NKER

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If the person who signed for is not the person who it's address to then you claim from the Post Office or whoever sent it. I send stuff out all the time, and this does happen occassionally - Parcel Force always pay up no problem.