Rights on Refund Item

[LoungePenrith]

As a small family run hotel and bar business who have been trading for 7 years. A key card encoder which we use on a daily basis for the hotel had recently stopped working, it's fixated in the same position and plugged in by a USB port into a laptop.

 

 

The encoder was showing no life and when unplugged and replugged back into the USB port it began to give off a smokey smell as if there was a loose connection within the encoder.

 

 

From this we contacted the seller (NSP Security). We had only purchased this encoder in February. Previous to this we had the same encoder for 6 years and had no issues, the encoders have been used in exactly the same way.

 

 

Upon contacting them they refused to offer us a replacement even though we needed this on a daily basis loosing trade within our hotel. What they did offer was us to purchase a new encoder costing £575.00 and for us to send back the failed encoder and if they found a fault they would refund the money (£575.00) back to us.

We trusted the company as we have traded with them for a number of years, and were willing to do this as we were 100% sure we had no misused the encoder nor was it down to us the user.

 

 

NSP Security then came back to us with a report claiming we had damaged the encoder and have misused the device.

 

 

As previously mentioned the encoder is in a fixated position and under no reason have or would we want to damage the device as we rely on the encoder daily.

 

 

They have refused to refund us the money for the encoder/replace the device.

 

 

I would appreciate any ideas moving forward.

[obiter dictum]

Who has the encoder at this moment as it is your property?

 

You will need to get this encoder independently tested to take this further at you own expense which you can claim back if their report is in error through the county court if necessary

 

In what way are they saying you damaged it?

 

Did you report the fault in the first six months of purchase?

[LoungePenrith]

The company has the encoder as this point in time.

 

 

They are claiming it has been vandalised or misused in some way and had an impact to it severe enough to have dislodged some of the internal components.

We as a business rely on the device functioning correctly in order to operate our business and service, therefore it would be entirely illogical and counter productive to in any way damage or impede our ability to carry out our vital daily business activities and services.

The fault only development on the 29th September after purchasing the product in February.

[obiter dictum]

Then you need to ask that the alleged faulty encoder be returned to you

 

You then have to have it independently tested at your expense

 

I might be a good idea to ask rival companies who do simmilar products f they will do the test. As long as it is a major player in the door encoder field. Ask them how much they will charge for fault report and be honest as to why you want the report. They might be more linient on the charge for the report

 

If that report then backs up what they are saying you have problems, if not then a 14 day letter before action and a county court claim for redress

 

But you can do nothing without an independent report

Edited October 8, 2015 by obiter dictum

[tobyjugg2]

Does the USB port in your laptop work with other devices - ie a memory stick? Be careful - it may fry anything plugged in.

 

USB ports can be fragile things and even 5v @500ma (more for USB3) can seriously fry things plugged into it.

Another common issue is picking laptops up via one hand on one side with devices in the port which get levered against the table when the laptop is lifted unevenly, sometines shorting the USB pins in either the port or device,

 

Just some suggestions as to what can occur for you to look at.