Cost of returning faulty goods

gaz wac

Hi

I bought a car seat from the UK seven months ago. The release handle snapped off so I contacted the seller. They said I would have to pay to ship the seat over and I would also have to supply the packaging.

I looked on UK & Ire sites and I thought I was covered by the Distance Selling Regs so I quoted the following:

Where goods are returned as a right due to a breach of a term implied by statute (specifically s. 14 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979), the rights, given by r. 14(5), of a seller to require the buyer to bear the cost of a return is dis-applied. As such, the cost of bearing the return lies with yourselves.

They came back to say :

I have checked and after six months this charge may stand. Within six months we do not and are unable to make a charge. If you check our competitors websites as well this is also their standard practice. Therefore unfortunately we would be unable to waive this charge.

I even offered to drive to the manufacture in Dublin to cut down on time / expense but this was also refused. So where do I stand with this ?

Cheers Gaz

Sorry for the cut and paste job !

dudara

Both sides are somewhat correct here. Generally, suppliers are obliged to cover the cost of return when goods are faulty.

Under EU law, if a fault appears within six months, it is deemed to have existed at the point of manufacture. Outside of the six month period, retailers can take action to determine if the goods really are faulty, or if damage has occurred due to misuse. Once it is established that the goods are indeed faulty, then they should indeed cover the cost of return.

Perhaps see if you can reach a comprimise, perhaps where you initially cover the cost of return, but once the goods are established as faulty, then they reimburse you for the cost of return.

gaz wac

Sorry for delay. Thanks a mill for your reply. They wont budge on the charge. I rang the Dub office and when I asked the bloke how much it would cost me he just said "ahh sure will can sort somthing out"...so im thinking its good news . Thanks again

borderlinemeath

This is why I always make sure to purchase larger expensive items from local retailers rather than online. There's always the danger that a fault will occur and it will have to be returned and there may be an issue with it. Does the seller have a bricks and mortar presence in NI that you could possibly return to?

Have you googled the make and model of car seat to see if it is a known fault with the particular one? Car seats are very very tough and rarely develop faults and bits tend not to snap off unless over exerted or dropped. If yours snapped then it's highly likely others did as well so you need to look for other examples to back up your claim.