great universal & sales of goods act.help needed.

[nightsurf]

my partner chose a playstation 3 package deal from great universal on line,the description of the package deal was,160gb playstation3 inc call of duty black ops, medal of honour,a dual shock controller, blue tooth headset,and a hdmi lead. these itmes were pictured...however reading through the description and features of the console,,it stated,,,get your games off to a superb start with,,,modern warefare 2,,call of duty black ops,and medal of honour,,it then carried on about the functions of the playstation blue ray,dvd etc,,,in the key features of the playstation it said comes with fifa 10 and kill zone2.. so my partner assumed as it was written in the descritipn of the product advertised that including what was pictured and the other items,,, modern warfare2 and fifa 10 and killzone 2 would be included,, in the package,, so she ordered the console and expecting all the items listed would be included in the delivery when it arrived,,however modern warfare2 fifa 10 and kill zone 2 werent in the delivery,, she contacted great universal and was told that the package was only for what was pictured as decribed above,,, she pointed wht the decscrition read but was told that those other items are not part of the deal,, ,she has made a complaint to great universal and has more or less been told that only the pictured itmes are in the package and that the others in the descrition are an error,,.she pointed out the trade descrpitions act to them but has been told to make a complaint in writting..are we perfectly right to argue that what is written in the descrition, we were entitled to recive or can they say that it was an error ,and say as they are saying that we have had all the itmes and wont be sending us the rest..

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

you should have IMHO the items as described, the company might offer a refund, and ask for return of the goods

[nightsurf]

we dont mind having the goods,, which we have brought on bnpl,but we will pay that off before the due date,but its the princiaple of them not sending us all the itmes that were described,my partner recived an e/mail from great universal today ,and they said that, its an error and they made a mistaske, as this some times occurs in descriptions and pricing,,as a consumer thats not down to our fault, its thier own, and what you purchase should be as described,,if you take a look at greatuniversal.com and type in the search box,, the item reference pz5420,, youll see what i mean,, my question is now what should be my next approach ,would i be better off contacting trading standards,or again send another complaint e/mail to great universal.and going through thier complaints procedure.

 

many thanks

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

I looked at their site, you are correct they suggest that all these games are available in the package, you could give them an opportunity to deal with the complaint via a letter or email.

If you contact them by telephone dont waste money by using the 0844 number, find an alternative number using this link http://www.saynoto0870.com/search.php and ask for great universal customer service .

Also if you have not done this already take a copy of the web page for future reference, I would inform your local trading standards by either a personal visit or a telephone call.

 

Andy

[nightsurf]

many thanks andy.

 

i have sent an e/mail on thier complaints section. and will await a reply,as i have sent previous messages telling them about my complaint and them just telling us it was an error

should i be a bit more assertive and mention that my next course of action will be trading standards,up to and including, watchdog,this might make them give us a more posative response,, all we want is what was in the description of the package as advertised.why put this in the description and not adhere to what they state..

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

I noticed that Great Universal have not amended their site, have you been able to make a copy of the web page for future reference, I would gather the evidence, then involve both watchdog and trading standards without informing great universal.

I wonder how many individuals have purchased this package, and not felt able to take on the company.

 

Andy

[nightsurf]

hya andy

 

your right in what you say,the e/mail to customer complaints that we sent,has been replied to again they say its an error ,but doest even offer a compromise even as a gesture of good faith.

they have assured us that they have amended the website. the reference is now pz54216,i have just looked to see if they have amended the page and low and behold its still the same,lol,would you credit it,so a reply will be sent ,i,m not letting this go, as i bet there are some that will say oh well,forget it,,my partner was getting round to that thought and said to me,, you wont get any where ,they will walk all over you any way,, so thats got me more determined now,, and i have tried 4 e/mails of complaint, so i have given them the chance to deal with this, if i didnt pay for the item they would be all over us like a rash.so trading standards and watchdog will be the next approach now,i have printed both page references,and kept copies of e/mails sent and replied to..my partner seems to think i wasnt assertive enough in my e/mails that were sent, and said you need some one that knows how to word complaints so that they take notice..i think she was right as i sent the complaints as more of a general enquiry looking at it.as i,m not to great in the wording of complaints,,any suggestions would be appreciated..many thanks again andy.

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

I really think its time for trading standards,

[nightsurf]

hya andy

 

just a quick update,contacted trading standards,and they have put us in touch with consumer direct,who have told us to write to them giving them 14 days to rectify the matter

and quote sales of goods act 1979.we are to call back when we have recived a reply from great universal,the man we spoke to brought up the page and agreed they were breaching the sales of goods act.so ill be sending a letter to them tonight,would it be best to send it by recorded delivey?as proof of postage.thanks again andy ill keep you updated as to how we get on.

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

Yes I would suggest that you send it (signed for) recorded, I keep going on about copying the web page it may be of use to you later.

 

Andy

[1blonde]

My playstation 3 packed up (Green light of death) after three years so \I wrote to the place were I bought it quoting the sale of goods act (as ammended and asked for a refund because I said this 60 gig version had an inbuilt desgin flaw which they admitted in the letters to me. They first offered a repair which I turned down then they offered 180. because I had used it for a number of years. I turned them down and threatend court action in a letter and they made a counter offer of 250 plus the cost of the game that was stuck inside. I got 280. The claim on this is against the retailer that sold the item and not Sony which I personally think is wrong because I think this product was defective in the manufacturing process and when microsoft had the problem (red light of death) they recalled all theirs. Anyway if anything goes wrong you can have up to 6 years in England in which to persue a claim through the small claims court against the place were you bought it. This period covers a reasonable time (that said product should work for). Obviously it varies on the product if you bought an ice cream for example it is not reasonable that said product would last for 6 years but for an expensive electrical product this 6 years is a reasonable time.

 

I bought a new slim, design playstation move (happy days)

 

Hope this helps.

[nightsurf]

appologies for the delay in getting back to you about the above,with great universal,,i posted the original complaint by recorded delivery ,how ever royal mail failed to deliver my letter of complaint,confirmed by them over the telephone,so i had to re send the letter,,how ever the time limit of 14 days in which they were given to reply to my compliant expired ,3 days ago and to date they havent even had the decency to respond,,i have been trying to find the customer services manager of great universal to re direct my complaint to them and ask why they didnt have the decency to respond.. or there is the option of county court action..however i will fire off another letter again tomorrow this time ,i will give them a further 7 days to respond.then go down the court action route..well done 1lawyer getting your playstation sorted out,i will certainly remeber that for future reference.kind regards.

[1blonde]

They should give you a refund if the goods are not as described (if that is what you want)

Catolougue companies can be a pain to deal with but keep up with it . If you do have to make a claim it looks bad on them that they never responded to you if it does go to court.

 

Ask them for their address for service in the next letter and see what happens.

I must afmit it is a bit easier for me when complaining about a service not being right but everyone should be afforded the same effort in reality because of forums like this one making us more aware as consumers. Good luck...

[phoob]

Hi nightsurf,

 

I was actually just browsing the web looking for something else and came across this post. This sort of complete disregard for the law and for the customers' rights really gets my goat so I decided to register and offer my advice based on a lot of experience dealing with this sort of thing. I have NO qualms about taking on ANYBODY (and have won every time) - if they are in the wrong, they are in the wrong. The law is the law, no matter what 'policies' or 'procedures' or opinions companies may have. They have to obey the law no matter who they are.

 

So, the important thing to do when making a complaint is firstly to put it in writing, which you have done. Within that letter, you need to state what the problem is, what you want done about it and then the key point - give them an ultimatum, stick to it and follow up on it. So, for e.g., if you wanted a full refund for, say, a faulty item by a given date, that is what you need to state. If, upon reaching that date the matter isn't resolved and your decided course of action is then to take certain legal action, then do it. It would be pointless to pussy-foot around and start arguing the toss with them again. They've had the opportunity to resolve it, if they ignore their obligations in this area then hard luck. Let whichever legal departments handle it. So, in your case, if you have not yet issued an ultimatum with a cut-off date and a statement of your follow-up course of action then I would suggest that you do that. Otherwise just don't bother wasting your time trying to reason and discuss with them or ask them why they haven't responded, etc. They've had more than enough opportunity to sort it and they clearly, up to now, have no intention of doing so.

 

One thing that I think you will find very useful in this case is contacting the Direct Marketing Association. I don't know whether or not GUS have the DMA stamp, but if they have then the DMA will take a very, very dim view of their actions and, in my experience, will usually follow up on this sort of complaint very swiftly, definitely and harshly! Oh and I also find that threatening to take the issue to the national press works wonders ;-) But again, whatever you tell them you will do if they fail to comply, do it.

 

I hope that helps!

[nightsurf]

i have found the name of the customer manager for great universal, emma thorpe,and have sent her a recorded delivery letter and a copy of the original one i sent

previously,i have asked for the address for service in the letter,,if this fails to get thier attention and or no response then its off to the county court,seems the only way,

now they have been given yet another chance to look in to my complaint,ill keep you posted, as i will need advice on how to approach when i come to dealing with applying through the courts,once again thanks to all of you for your advice.

[phoob]

To be honest, I don't see any need to make things any more complicated and stressful than they already are by taking court action off your own back. Just send all the relevant info (ie details of your complaint, evidence to support your complaint and copies of what you have already sent to GUS and their responses) to both Consumer Direct and the Direct Marketing Association. They should hold enough clout to make heads roll at GUS without you needing to really lift a finger other than to give them the relevant info and let them act on your behalf. It could be that they then advise you to take it to Small Claims Court but I would be very surprised if that becomes necessary, I have never ever had to do this. Trading Standards, the DMA or Consumer Direct have always handled things for me (except for when my own liasing has been sufficient ). Basically they will tell GUS to stop being naughty and to get their act together or else! Make use of them, that's what they're there for

[nightsurf]

great universal have finally sent us a letter regaarding our complaint,and have passed this to thier customer excellence department,shop direct for them to deal with

we reccieved a letter from them saying that they will look in to our complaint and will contact us again shortly,,this was on the 7th feb,and still we have heard nothing,,seems they like to drag thier heels doesnt it,we contacted consumer direct about this and all they said was to take it to the small claims court, howwever this could be a costly thing to do,and would they even bother to respond to this or even attend the court,,so back to square one,,suprised at consumer direct not getting involved as i thought that they would do,re breach of the sale of goods act,,iam not letting it go and just forget about it ,after all if i didnt pay them for the goods they would soon be sending me letters and threat o grams.should i go back to consumer direct and see if they cant put on pressure on them or do i go down the small claims route .thanks for your support in the past8-)

[nightsurf]

:lol:thanks to every one for thier help regarding the above post,,i sent a final letter before action toshop direct and was suprised by the amount of telephone calls i recieved from them,3 calls in 2 days ,the last call was to say that they had looked in to our complaint and admited what we were complaining to them about was true

and will send us the missing games in due course..result..thanks again to every one for their help..