Help on consumer rights - faulty part returned to UK shop

Hi Guys,

I am from Romania and bought myself a 2003 Discovery TD5 Auto since 4 months, and it is still at the stage where I count with it more money spent than kilometers.
Happens that in March I bought a pair of original LR height sensors from Paddocks, along with other items, and just after a week, one of them failed.
I returned the faulty sensor to Paddock, but after a month of waiting I chase them for warranty replacement.

Paddocks told me that their supplier inform them that Land Rover has 6 months waiting time for claims.
It is strange answer for me, as I am in service field (for printers), and we have 2 weeks solving time or replacement.

So here I need more info about UK regulation, for car parts, if their answer is correct, or taking advantage from abroad customers.
Do I really need to wait that long, any advice about what I can do?

Just get a refund and try else where? seems a very long wait.

No doubt that this was my initial request, I asked for a replacement/refund.
I only got explanations that warranty claims takes lot of time.

I know that online purchase can be returned/refunded without explanations within a certain period.
From 10 days to 30 days in Romania, I can get my money back, but not sure if this apply to UK, as normally online shops must post this thing visible, but not seen on Paddock site.

I can try tomorrow to ask them money back.

you are certainly entitled to more than you are getting. I would just demand it and threaten to take them to court. If you paid by credit card you have protection on your purchase.

Thanks a lot for your support.
I felt they were taking it easy, I will try be more incisive tomorrow.

UK Gov website states the faulty items within 6months of purchase must be refunded or replaced. Just demand a refund.

I'm assuming that you are not a business buying the parts but a private citizen ( a 'consumer') in which case I believe you will have rights under UK consumer law.
Hopefully you'll be able to see this link:
https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act
If it doesn't work, look up the Consumer Rights Act 2015
It's also the case that your contract is with the seller - in this case Paddocks - and nothing to do with Land Rover or whoever else Paddock's may have got it from

Agree totally with you Ratae.
Consumer Rights Act is well known to me, as those rights apply in all EU countries, with some insignificant local flavor, moreover by my job I must know and act by that law.

It is a normal habit in Romania that a shop, online or offline, to support and strongly advocate the customer in front of manufacturer, I know as a fact as I am representing a manufacturer.
Hence my surprise to see Paddock only talking nice but without result, counting that in last two months I spent 1000 pounds with them.

I sent a longer and clear mail to them, will update you with what happens.

It may be worth pointing out to paddocks that this saga is being publicised on a well known forum that no doubt many of their customers view.... that whilst failing to resolve your problem adequately they will be receiving negative publicity and that a prompt and successful resolution would be to their benefit....

I am still hoping that this issue happened because their small mistake and they will correct it once noticed it.
Still looking forward for their answer.

But of course, if they will ignore my request, hope is not the case here, I can always mention them about biggest UK LR forum.

Looks that I am unlucky with Paddock, now when more than two months passed.

From links you shown me, I sent them a letter asking them for refund or replacement.

they replied:

Hello,
Unfortunately, we are unable to do anything. The part has gone back for inspection to Land Rover as it is a genuine part.
Until we have confirmation that the part is faulty from them, we are unable to credit you or send you a FOC part.
Regards
Francesca

As I am abroad, probably I should accept their answer, but definitely they will not see any money from me.

I rate Paddock one star on Trustpilot for not solving my issue in more than 2 months.
They replied that I forgot to fill an RMA for one month. It is true, but they forgot to mention that they remember about that RMA only after my chassing mails...

This made me quite angry.
So, I announced them within 2 weeks that I need to replace/refund faulty part. By online shopping laws, they must refund without any questions.
Moreover, the part is unfit for the purpose of purchase, as it had one pin missing. they should imeddiately refund/replace for free.
Instead, after several chasing mails from me, they came with allegations that part is delayed by manufacturer, without providing any evidence for this, but I am in contract with Paddock, not any other party.

It is increddible that they are not settling this issue after more than two months, while I got instant refunds from other UK companies from ebay, without spending more than two mails/days.

So I am thinking to made an official complaint against them.
In my country there is a Cosnumer Protection Agency where we send complains.
In UK it seems there is an ombudsman, but link is not working.
Any ideea whom to contact?

Trading standards.

Your purchase contract is with paddocks, not Land Rover.

You are entitled to a refund.

Agree with you totally, I detailed to them all the above, they replied with below message followed by quoting their terms and conditions on their site.

"I'm sorry you are unhappy Florin but the terms and conditions of our returns policy are fully detailed on our website.
We have the right to get the part fully inspected under the terms and conditions of the warranty.
Paddocks will act as quickly as possible once the inspection has been completed but as mentioned in the returns policy, this can be a long process."

Looks they are abusing because I am not UK citizen, because nowhere a private company terms and conditions will be against country law, hence Citizen Rights Act 2015, this later should prevail.
Seems I can only hope that nobody will be in my position in the future, or just be warned.

The magic words you need are "Consumer Rights Act 2015" - this states that the goods must be of 'Satisfactory Quality', 'Fit for Purpose' and 'As Described'.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/consumer-rights-refunds-exchange

It doesn't matter what they say in their terms and conditions, as you're not claiming under warranty - you're claiming that the parts they sold you were not of satisfactory quality - and therefore your claim is against them, not against the manufacturer. Your statutory rights always beat their Ts & Cs

Unfortunatly it can be very difficult to get larger retailers to acknowledge or accept your rights - we had a long fight with one national brand (nothing to do with Land Rovers) to get them to replace a faults product, and even then they wouldn't acknowledge that ti was faulty, despite the local branch manager admitting to us off-the-record that they get lots of that particular product being returned!

Told them the magic words few times, seems they don't care.
This was a very bad experience that I didn't think it can be possible.

I only hope that this will not happen to somebody else and this bad experience will help others to be warned.

Bounce the payment on your card.
If you were in the UK, I'd suggest sending a notice before action.

These things are pretty black and white in law. Either they don't know that, or they're having you on.

Thanks for advice, but I don't know how to bounce a payment. Anyway I will not do it, is a about 70 pounds spare that failed, from a total of 700 pounds order.
The rest of spares were fine, I used them, so this looks an extreme measure.

I sent them clear notice, twice, like in which.co.uk link, provided by other colleagues.
Is impossible for them not to know the laws.

There is recourse in law but you have to consider the facts. You return a part as faulty. The law states the supplier yer contracted with to buy the part must refund or replace said faulty part within certain rules. Paddocks haven't disputed this. What paddocks have done so far is question if the part is faulty. Is it faulty? Do yer know it's faulty? Is it damaged due to being incorrectly fitted? We have your word its faulty but is it? They may not know themselves. For this reason they have returned the part to their supplier for inspection/investigation. The time that takes isn't defined. It will go down as what's reasonable. In this case the time frame is longer than most would think is acceptable.

As a consumer people will tell you what the laws are but yer need to reject an item in the correct way for it to work in your favour. Like emailing them photos and an explanation before returning the part for physical damage or a description of the fault if not physical. Asking them how to return the part as they will have a process to follow is always a good idea. How you interact with them on the return process makes a big difference. Not completing the RMA probably means it wasn't being followed up or monitored internally. It may have sat to one side for a while until the RMA was filled out with the fault. Do you now have an RMA number?

Yer say the part is faulty but how is it faulty and what proof do you have its faulty. What part is it? What is the part number?

No doubt the part was faulty, have a look on attached picture. Pin 4 is missing.
I did not address manufacturer warranty, only asked paddock as seller to deliver a height sensor with all 6 pins in place, like the second sensor that works fine on my car.
Basically I want only what I paid for, nothing more, and not happy to wait half a year for it.