I think you should go for it. Make sure the court hearing is a local court for you, not Machine Mart.
I think you should go for it. Make sure the court hearing is a local court for you, not Machine Mart.
In the grand scheme of things, you have come this far, you may as well press on I would say.
Quite. And check if they have a Facebook/Twitter page. And give the facts on that.
You might want to try getting a local newspaper interested.
Do it.
Mostly the other side simply doesn't turn up.
Oh, that does it. They can go and f*ck themselves as far as I'm concerned. This intransigent and stupid attitude of theirs will lose them many times more than a simple replacement or refund would have cost them.
+1 Hopefully you won't be out of pocket when (not if) you win
Ditto. Since this was first mentioned in here they have lost over 900 quid a year repeat business (just one product line)
The catalogues they send now go straight in the bin.
On Thursday 01 August 2013 08:47 The Other Mike wrote in uk.d-i-y:
You really should write that down and send it to the head office, CC'd to the branch.
If anybody wanted to tell them they have lost business ... The email address is snipped-for-privacy@machinemart.co.uk
Just contacted Court .. case was already scheduled for 14 Aug, so paid £25 and said proceed.
bravo! bring it on ;>)
Jim K
Quite but let's see the outcome of the case first..
If .. they had any sense they'd give you a few quid as compensation and apologies.
It's typical useless management. This has cost them business as people here now perhaps won't go there human nature being what it is.
Now what do you remember more?.
The 364 times your car started OK, or the one time it didn't?..
They are bluffing! Pay the £25 as you have a good case.
OK ... Small claims court hearing was today ...
Judge ruled simply on point of Law that as I had accepted the Credit note I therefore accepted the T&C's for them. There is no need for them to be explained.
The fact that it was returned as 'Unfit for purpose' entitled me to a refund, and Judge advised I should have pushed for that, accepting the Credit note was my undoing. Therefore he dismissed my claim.
The Judge did however make a statement that Machine Mart could have dealt with this simply and amicably, and retained me as a customer, for much less cost that coming to court.
Machine Mart then asked for their Travel Expenses to be awarded (£380) ... this was rejected in full as they could have sent local branch manager. Machine Mart were not happy about that. I feel slightly better that at least they did not get that.
However be warned ... They have no duty of care to explain time limits on a Credit Note. The can offer a credit note (even when you are entitled to refund) if you accept it, you accept conditions that go with it.
Machine Mart have lost all future business from myself, and my family.
Caveat Emptor
Hmm The Ryanair school of customer care then ?
As I advised you back in April:
"You weren't obliged to accept a credit note but having done so you have waived your rights to compensation or replacement of the original goods. Lack of knowledge of your rights under law is not the court's problem or in fact the seller's. As to the small print on the credit note, again you should have read it carefully first. I'm afraid you therefore don't have a claim against them.
I suggest they may well succeed for reasonable out of pocket costs against you although time away from office is not normally something allowed in the Small Claims track.
I would think carefully about continuing with this. So far all you have lost is the filing fee if you discontinue the claim."
20 years of experience in county court civil litigation and consumer rights advice made this a very simple judgement for me. County court judges are in the law business - not the right and wrong business. They will rule on the law and not how hard done you felt yourself to be be. The fact that the judge disallowed costs and made a statement about MM's behaviour showed how strongly he felt about how you were treated but there was nothing he could have done in law to help you further.Unfortunately most of the advice you received on here was based on complete lack of legal knowledge and just how people felt about the matter which motivated you to waste even more money on the claim. This is irrelevant advice and drowned out the correct advice which was to swallow your loss. Signal to noise ratio etc or to put it another way, free advice from non experts is generally worth exactly what you paid for it. Sorry you lost the filing fee in addition to the cost of the goods. As you say, caveat emptor and there's no substitute for knowing your rights. A minimal amount of Googling "before" going back to them to complain would have avoided the whole mess.
I was one of the herd, as you put it, who advised going ahead with the claim. That was based on my personal experience that large companies such as this often do not want to spend time and money defending claims, even if they reckon they can win them. It's a commercial decision, and I think MM made a poor one.
Of course, my advice was based on a gamble that MM would not defend the claim, but I stand by it.
And from me. Sorry to hear it was thrown out.
I shall continue to remind people to avoid Machine Mart.
Disappointing to hear that, although reading between the lines a little one gets the feeling that the judge was on you side even if the technical detail of the case had to decide the outcome.
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