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Urban Pushchairs - Forced to pay for new broken pushchair wheel - AINEA INTERNATIONAL LIMITED


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Hi all,

 

I bought a new pushchair in Oct. 2019. In March 2020 1 wheel snapped off while I was out with my baby. I was informed it was not faulty, just MY fault and to pay £50 for a replacement ASAP before the factories shut for lockdown the next day, so I did.

 

In July 2020 I received a long email stating that customer's wheels had been snapping off, "please refrain from using your pushchair" and to await newly designed FREE replacements with "free delivery included."

 

I received the 2 redesigned wheels and responded with an email asking for my £50 refund for purchasing a new dangerous wheel after they had admitted fault.

 

After several weeks of being ignored and several explanatory emails to them, they now only agree to a £30 refund. Deducting £10 for delivery of the 1st (faulty) wheel and £10 delivery of the new pair of wheels.

 

I will not accept £30. I now have to sue for my full £50. I must add that as a new mum I have found this exchange to be incredibly stressful and upsetting to deal with. 

 

Please let me know if a decision will go in my favour as I need advice proceeding with a letter before action/claim.

 

Thanks for reading this far.x

 

 

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Have you got a paper trail of evidence collated?

 

Who is the manufacturer and WHO did you purchase it from?

 

How did you pay for the item, credit card?

 

 

Who ever heard of someone getting a job at the Jobcentre? The unemployed are sent there as penance for their sins, not to help them find work!

 

 

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On the basis of what you say – and with our help, it is almost guaranteed that you will win if you go to court. If more than that, once you issue the court papers it is almost guarantee that they will put their hands up and pay you in order to avoid any further cost and a judgement.

Your story is really quite extraordinary and very irresponsible of the retailers/manufacturers.

You've been asked the identity of the retailer and also the manufacturer and I'm not sure that you have given any reply yet. Please will you do that.

Also, please can you let us know something about the exchange you have had with them – is it all in writing?

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Yes of course,

 

 

(typed this way so they cannot search themselves and find this post, unless I'm being paranoid)

 Ur. ban.   Push.chairs .com

They make baby carseats under Beby. lux (all one word)

And are registered at Companies House under Ain. ea (all one word) International ltd.

 

Yes I have a paper trail (photos, all emails, never any phone calls).

I purchased directly from them online after viewing at The Baby Show.

I paid via Visa debit card for the pushchair initially.

I paid via bank transfer (as requested) for the replacement wheel.

 

I should add that they stated the words "Out of goodwill I can arrange this (replacement wheel) for £50 inclusive of delivery."

Edited by Missnka
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Thank you. You shouldn't worry about them finding this thread. As long as you are honest and straight dealing then we have nothing to hide and we don't play secret squirrel on this forum.

In fact being completely open and letting them know that they are being talked about and discussed on the Internet will help to focus them and maybe produce a solution more rapidly than they otherwise would.

I suggest that you start off by reading around this forum about bringing a small claim in the County Court. The steps are very easy but it is worth knowing what to do so that you have confidence at every stage. We will help you draft your particulars of claim and also your letter of claim if you want. If you have one already prepared then post it up here so we can have a look.

You have to be serious about doing this and that means that once you issue the letter of claim giving them 14 days, if they don't give you your money and everything you ask then on day 15 you click off the claim. This means that you will already have registered on the MoneyClaim County Court website and started preparing your claim. You can save your work as you go so that on day 15 you are ready to issue the papers.

When you receive the replacement wheel, did you fit it yourself? Have you incurred any other losses in respect of this? Presence where you obliged to take a bus or taxi because you suddenly didn't have your pushchair. Please will you tell us all the ways in which this has affected you because I think that you should add any expenses to the claim and also maybe some compensation for inconvenience – even though it would only be a modest claim.

Once again, the sum being claimed is so small and the facts are so outrageous that I think that once they realise that you are prepared to attack them, they will bottle out and pay you.

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  • BankFodder changed the title to Urban Pushchairs - Forced to pay for new broken pushchair wheel.

Either they are a new company or they are not very well established as they don't seem to have a working website. Only this https://www.urbanpushchairs.com/password

 

https://bebylux.com/pages/about-us

 

Quote

AINEA INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

Company number 11357044

Registered office address 1 Northfield Road, Harpenden, United Kingdom, AL5 5JA
Company status Active
Company type Private limited Company
Incorporated on 11 May 2018

Accounts Next accounts made up to 31 May 2020
due by 31 May 2021

Last accounts made up to 31 May 2019

Confirmation statement

Next statement date 21 May 2021
due by 4 June 2021

Last statement dated 21 May 2020

Nature of business (SIC)

  • 47190 - Other retail sale in non-specialised stores

 

Quote

1 officer / 0 resignations

SKOIEN, Yusuf

Correspondence address 1 Northfield Road, Harpenden, United Kingdom, AL5 5JA
Role ACTIVE Director
Date of birth February 1985
Appointed on 11 May 2018
Nationality Norwegian
Country of residence England
Occupation Director

 

 

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  • BankFodder changed the title to Urban Pushchairs - Forced to pay for new broken pushchair wheel - AINEA INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

Thank you for your responses so far. 

 

Urban Pushcahirs aka Bebylux aka Ainea International!!!!!

 

I didn't want to sue a small business but I have tried so hard to explain why they should refund me several times. So I am fully ready to type this letter before claim today asap between my baby napping! 

 

I do have an account on Moneyclaim.

 

I (we) fit the wheel myself, it clicks in and out quite simply. 

 

It wasn't safe to use the pushchair for 8 weeks under their advice, so few more car journeys and but also being stuck at home during the height of summer. Generally time consuming and energy sapping chasing them up and reading how little they care. Also embarrassing (informing and cancelling on socially distanced meet-ups) that it broke in the first place, as if it were cheap, old or second hand.

 

Yes I  just noticed they are revamping their website so its currently minimal. They are also on Instagram and post frequently. @urbanpushchairs

 

 

 

 

Edited by Missnka
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Okay. If you already have a MoneyClaim account then that tends to mean that you have done this kind of thing before so you have some confidence in it and that's great.

What was the cost of the pushchair when you first bought it? Not that it is especially relevant – but I'd like to know what kind of quality item we are apparently dealing with.

If you could just list by how much you are out of pocket please.

I believe that it is £50 for the original wheel
then you have incurred costs having to do car journeys over a period of eight weeks – maybe you can give a reasonable estimate of what that might have cost you. Why did you have to do car journeys? Is it because it was the only way to transport your baby? I just like to have it clear in my mind.
Also you are unable to go out during periods because it would have meant carrying your baby and nothing to used to transport him/her/it.


 

Also, what address have you been dealing with so far?

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Hi, thanks again for the responses. Please excuse any further delay as my baby is awake and I have to tend to her.

 

Many years ago I sued a landlord for withholding my deposit. I won, hence the Moneyclaim account. I definitely need help in this scenario.

 

The pushchair (travel system) cost £649.95

 

I'm not sure how much I'm out of pocket. £50? 

And yes £50 for the original wheel.

 

Car would have been the only way to transport baby, and sorting a new schedule so my partner (also inconvenienced) could take the bus to work if I needed the car. I can only carry her so far; she is much heavier and also its difficult to carry a baby AND a full changing bag with all the baby bits inside. So either stay in or drive.

 

I have been emailing [email protected] 

Its never clear exactly who I'm conversing with as they sign off  'customer service team'. 

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Okay, this will be much easier than enforcing a deposit against a landlord. However, you need to identify the correct party to sue which could be the limited liability company because apart from anything else, if it does go to a judgement then you will need to enforce.

Who did you make the contract with? Who was the money paid to?

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Another question occurs to me.

When the original wheel broke, presumably you are without your pushchair for a while. How long?

Then you received an email telling you not to use your pushchair any more. Did you then not use it? How long for?

You talked about eight weeks of non-use – was this for the original broken wheel or for the two replacements to arrive after it was admitted that there was a design fault

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Also, you say that you bought the pushchair online. What was the address of the website that you bought it from?

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Hi, again please excuse any delay. I will respond as soon as I get a chance.

 

 

I have gone through the emails and my bank statements:

 

The pushchair payment (online Visa debit) was made to: Urban Pushchairs on 24 October 2019

The wheel payment (bank transfer) was made to: Ainea International Ltd. 1 Northfield Road, Harpenden, AL5 5JA

When the wheel broke we were without a pushchair from 16th - 24th March  (8 days)

I was advised to refrain from using the pushchair on: 10th June  

And the 2 replacement back wheels were delivered on: 3rd August (55 days later/8 weeks)

The website the purchase was made from was: www.urbanpushchairs.com

 

 

 

 

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Thanks. Firstly, don't worry about the delays. Obviously the interests of the bairn are most important.

However, you need to deal with in a fairly businesslike way and not allow delays to get in your way and eventually to dilute your energy.

From what you say, it seems that you might want to sue Ainea International Ltd trading as Urban Pushchairs.

I think you should do a little bit of looking around to see if you can tie those two in definitely. I've tried looking at the web archive and I can't see any past examples of urban pushchairs website.

You could either tie urban pushchairs into the limited liability company or into the owner SKOIEN, Yusuf.

I suppose that it's for such a small sum of money that if you get a judgement against the limited liability company, they are scarcely going to cause you any problems – and as I've already suggested, for such a small amount of money it is likely they will put their hands up.

I think you should make a reasonable estimate of the amount of money that you spent having to take car journeys and let us know what that might be. You did to keep it fairly modest because presumably you will be unable to prove the journeys and so it will have to be a reasonable sum that a judge is unlikely to deny.

Of course it may not be recoverable some anyway, but you may as well try for it. It seems to me that they have behave so outrageously unreasonably, that they deserve a little bit of a slap and you certainly deserve something extra for the time and trouble to which you been put – especially with the new baby.

Obviously, you will add interest to whatever you are claiming. It won't be very much given that the value of the claim is so little, but once again it is better in your pocket than in theirs.

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Hi Bankfodder, thank you.

 

OK so I need to write that I'm claiming against 'Ainea International Ltd. trading as Urban Pushchairs'? So that covers all titles.

 

Someone mentioned earlier a link to a template letter, this would be very helpful.

 

The invoice they provided me states Ainea (full address), has the Bebylux logo and website, and then the item for purchase states 'Urban' replacement wheels. Have they not tied their companies together through the invoice they sent?

 

Further to that, on their Bebylux (car seat) website, there is a drop down box for pushchairs. Linkedin shows his (Yusuf Skoien) name as director of Bebylux. Their Urban pushchair brand. Also, all the deliveries have been sent by Ainea, as shown by the delivery notices.

 

Also found this: https://www.trademarkia.com/uk/trademark-UK00003392053.htm

He has registered a trademark for the Urban pushchair. there is also a second address...interesting.

 

I have to talk to my partner when he gets home from work but maybe I'll add another £100 on? I'm really not sure. I don't want to be greedy but they have also caused me so much stress. If only they cared about their customers :-(

 

 

 

 

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I think first of all it would be worth just doing a little bit of research to doublecheck everything. It would be a shame if you issued the claim and then Ainea said that you are suing the wrong party. If you have a look around you might find some connections. It's a shame that we can't find some historical archive versions of the website which would help us understand the structure of the business be better – but I checked on the wayback machine which holds archival copies of millions of websites – and although it is clear that the urban pushchairs website has been called, it doesn't look as if any of it has been archived.

So doublecheck and let us know what you find. It's worth taking your time over it. Search the business, the limited liability company, and the owner of the company – as well as the address and see what you can find out.

Then we will figure out who to address the letter of claim to.

The letter of claim will be pretty simple. See if this addresses all of the issues or if there is anything you want to add or if there is anything which is wrong

 

Quote

Dear Sir/Mdm



Letter of claim


On XXX date you sold me a pushchair model number XXX for £XX sales reference number XXXX. As you know, a wheel broke off on XXX date and although I informed you about this, you told me that it was my fault and insisted that I purchase a new wheel from you for £50. Because I was a mother with a new baby, I really had no choice and I paid the money.

On XXX date I received a communication that apparently the manufacturers were acknowledging a design fault and that the wheels of the pushchair were likely to break and could cause injury. I was then advised not to use the pushchair any more until replacement wheels were provided.

I eventually received the replacement wheels and as you know I then approached you for a refund for the wheel which had originally broken and in respect of which you said that I was to blame. Clearly I was not to blame and this was a manufacturing fault.

You have refused to refund me the money which I paid to replace the original broken will even though it is clear that this was a manufacturers defect and that you are in breach of contract by selling me an item which was not satisfactory quality.
I should inform you that during the eight week period during which I was unable to use the pushchair because of the manufacturers advice, I incurred costs having to use vehicular transport in order to move my baby around.

I am proposing to sue you in the Small Claims Court for the refund of the money which I paid you for the broken wheel – £50 plus the cost of petrol which I would not otherwise have had to use unless I receive payment of the sums in full within 14 days.

Yours sincerely



 

 

But get the address and the identity of the business first and come back here before you send anything

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I think you need to be very careful about how much to add on. In the letter of claim I proposed above, I was originally going to put in a claim for inconvenience – but I think that by and large it will just complicate the issue and may not be achievable.

I think it's important to stick to achievable objectives and I think 50 quid for petrol is probably realistic – unless you say that it is clearly too much or it is clearly too little and you have evidence that it is too little.

I think that you could claim for inconvenience if you could show that in some way it interfered with going to work or in some other way interrupted your ability to earn money so that you can demonstrate a pecuniary loss. Otherwise I think it's best to leave it

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Good morning,

 

Ok so, I have emails from the pushchair company that refer to themselves as 'URBAN by BEBYLUX pushchairs'. So they confirm that Urban is a (sub)brand under Bebylux and I have an invoice from them clearly showing 'Bebylux (+ website), Ainea International Ltd.(+ address). Its like Dairy Milk being a brand under Cadbury's. They have put this in writing to me themselves.

 

I will actually ask for the postage costs along with the £50 wheel cost since its further money I was forced to spend because of them. If it goes further is that where I would add £50 petrol costs plus 8% interest? (please help calculate). 

 

As evidence I have emails and invoices I can print out plus photos for the new and broken wheels.

 

'Ainea' have an address and I found another address for Yusuf Skoien from where he registered the URBAN trademark, but I guess one is a personal address and one is business?

 

Edited by Missnka
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Okay draft I suggested as a particulars of claim – then modify it to suit. Or else prepare your own one which you prefer.

And from now on I suppose that you will be addressing them as urban pushchairs – or whatever the trading name is – trading as blah blah Ltd.

So 14 days to cough up or else you issue the claim.

In case you need to refresh your memory, look around this website for information on how to bring a small claim in the County Court. Start preparing it on your MoneyClaim account – and you might want to post up your suggested particulars of claim here so we can have a look.

It really needs to be very short – with a minimum of detail – and do not click any checkbox which says that you are going to send further particulars. You won't need to send anything else.

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Hi there,

 

Firstly, I have read your post on going to small claims court. Thank you!

 

 

I've been working hard and  have finished the letter of claim. Is it too detailed? (see below). I believe this is what will be posted by special delivery tomorrow to arrive on Friday 24th. So I put on MoneyClaim 'date of issuing claim' 24/10/2020? 

 

Or is this the info that I put for 'Particulars of claim' on Moneyclaim, or is it both? Or should the Moneyclaim particulars be much more brief?

 

I paid £50 for the wheel on 20th March. For Moneyclaim is this 'the date money became owed' to me?

 

Please check claim amount. Wheel£50/petrol£50/postage£6.70 = £106.70

Interest from (day money left my account) 20/03/2020 - 24/10/2020 (day letter will arrive) = £5.12

Court fee £25, total £131.70

 

 

 

LETTER OF CLAIM

                                                     Ainea International Ltd. trading as Urban Pushchairs

Ainea International Ltd.

1 Northfield Road

Harpenden

AL5 5JA

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

On 24th October 2019 you sold me pushchair model Urban P1/3:1 Travel System, order number #WB1104UP for £649.95.  As you know, a rear wheel broke off on 16th March 2020 and although I informed you of this, you told me that it was “not a warranty claim” and rushed me into purchasing a new wheel from you for £50. Because I was a new mother with a newborn baby, I really had no choice so I paid the money.

 

On 10th June 2020 I received a “product update” where you admitted receiving complaints from customers regarding the rear wheels being “noisy”, wobbling “on rotation” and customers having “broken wheels.” Knowing the design fault meant the wheels of the pushchair were likely to break and causing possible injury, you advised me to “please refrain from using” the pushchair until “free replacement wheels” were delivered with “free delivery included”.

 

I eventually received the replacement wheels and as you know I then approached you for a refund for the wheel which had originally broken and in respect of which you said that I was to blame. Clearly I was not to blame and this was a design fault.

 

After several explanatory emails on my part, you have refused to refund me the money which I paid to replace the original broken wheel, even though it is clear that this was a design defect. You are in breach of contract by selling me an item which was not satisfactory quality and not fit for purpose.

I should inform you that during the eight week period during which I was unable to use the pushchair because of the manufacturers advice, I incurred costs having to use vehicular transport in order to move my baby around.

 

I am proposing to sue you in the Small Claims Court for the refund of the money which I paid you for the broken wheel plus the cost of petrol which I would not otherwise have had to use, unless I receive payment of the sums in full within 14 days. Defective wheel replacement £50, Petrol costs £50, Letter postage £6.70.

Total payment due within 14 days - £106.70

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Letter of claim is fine – in fact it's pretty good. The particulars of claim will be very much briefer. I'm not sure what you mean by putting on MoneyClaim – 24th October.

Send this letter and we'll take it from there

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Ah, thank you! So I will print out and sign the letter of claim for special delivery. It will arrive on 24th October so I think that is the date I am issuing the claim? Since that's the day it will arrive at the address. (Unless I'm supposed to just put today's date.)

 

Next break I get I will work on a super brief particular of claims letter.

 

Thanks Bankfodder! x

 

 

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See if you think that this covers everything, and that you are prepared to sign it is a statement of truth. Tell us if you need anything else.

 

Quote

The claimant purchased a pushchair from the defendant supplier on XXX date. Within XX weeks, a wheel snapped off. This was due to an inherent manufacturers fault but the defendant denied any responsibility and oblige me to purchase a new wheel. Some time later the claimant was contacted by the manufacturer with a defective product warning and told not to use the pushchair for a weeks while new wheels were being supplied. During that time, the claimant was obliged to use vehicular transport in order to transport her baby at extra expense. The pushchair was not satisfactory quality. The claimant seeks £XXX refund of the cost of a wheel. £XXX petrol costs being unable to use the pushchair plus £XX delivery cost of new wheel – £total plus interest a section 69 County Courts act 1984.

 

On the MoneyClaim site you will find that there is a checkbox which you should tick if you're going to send further details. Do not tick the checkbox. You don't need to send anything else.

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Just send the letter of claim off – leave 16 days to be safe and then if you don't hear anything click off the claim on the MoneyClaim website.

So

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