MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG Midget and Sprite Technical - faulty parts

So here's the thing. I bought a brand new part from one of the usual suspects. Its a washer pump for a Frogeye.
It cost £19.92 incl vat plus P&P of £7.20.
Surprise surprise, it didn't work. So I sent it back, which cost me another £3.00 or so (how come I can send it for that but it cost them more than double + vat).
They promised me a refund. However, the refund turns out to be just the value of the item £19.92.

Because of their substandard item, I'm out of pocket by over £10.00, let alone the inconvenience.
Is that right? Can I claim the postage cost back (at least from the original invoice)?
It's not the money, it's just the principle that a £20 item has cost me an and extra 50% and I've still got nothing to show for it.
Gary London with Gapless

Can't answer your question but can make you feel better; is the Frog item the same as later Spridgets? If so I will send you a couple of s/hand ones, I have loads of them....
David Smith

Did you use PayPal or credit card? Surely you will have some comeback?
Karl Bielby

Debit card, but I'll call them tomorrow
Gary London with Gapless

IIRC the card companies won't get involved below £100 but there is a chargeback procedure which can be used for less under the right circumstances if the vendor is deficient. I ordered some brass plate for about £35 and the vendor supplied it 2.5 months later after saying a couple of times it would be with me the following week and not replying to email requesting delivery information, it wasn't worth the hassle for the money involved but on principle I went ahead I won the point and got my money back and the vendor will have a black mark on his details and I won't ever deal with him again.
David Billington

Not fair the buyer gets short changed when everyone else makes a pound or a buck.
Got screwed on a purchase from Evilbay and I was the loser. Just because it wasn't a big enough loss for others to get involved in still didn't make it right. For a pound or a hundred pounds, the loss and principle is the same yet the buyer gets the shaft while everyone else makes a profit.
Sold something on Evilbay many years ago. Got the postage rate from the post office and told the buyer. He sent the postal order payment and the rate was double what I had been told when I went to post it. They had made an error!! Couldn't really ask for more from him. I would have made it right with the seller if it was me when I saw the postage as it was at cost. To top it off, his postal order was non negotiable here, something I did not know in advance. Did not know there was 2 kinds in the US, international and domestic. People in the US do not think of Canada as international. He got the item for free in the end and I was out the cost of the original item plus postage.
He never sent the correct replacement postal order for the same price like he said he would even though I told him I could not cash the original one he sent here and I would send it back for a refund when the correct one arrived. I guess he didn't trust me to send it back, and I never heard from him again. Never again would I sell on Evilbay.

Clive from Canada
Clive from Canada

Hi Gary,

I have had a similar experience. I expect the seller and everyone else will refer you the terms and conditions which will probably contain reference to everything as it happened (apart from saying they supply non working parts!). However, there are some good suppliers. I recently made a purchase which arrived with missing accessories. I contacted the supplier who said the wrong version had been sent and, by return, sent the correct one and said don't worry about returning the original one. Although the money involved was less than 10 pounds it did restore my faith that there are good sellers out there.

Ray
Ray Rowsell

Apologies for replicating this reply on technical and General boards but i thought it important information.
I just spoke to the company and the immediately agreed to refund the postage costs. Good result. Thanks for your input.
Just for the record, I did some online checking before calling and the Distance Selling Regulations have been superseded since 2014 by the "consumer credit contract". There is an additional act "CONSUMER RIGHTS ACT" regarding faulty goods which states amongs other things
"Any terms and conditions that say you must cover the cost of returning an item wouldn't apply where the goods being returned are faulty"
So it looks like all P&P charges (Both ways) are to be refunded by the vendor
G Lazarus

Not bought anything from MGOC for a while but on a couple of occaisions I have returned things and had a full refund and return postage at their cost. One time it was becuase I had ordered in error!
If the part is genuinely faulty (and not a "yes it is/no it isn't" issue) morally the vendor should cover costs both ways, surely.
Graeme Williams

This thread was discussed between 21/06/2018 and 22/06/2018

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS now