Electric Saw Bought on Ebay

[BenFitz]

Hi All,

 

I'm new on here so I'm hoping I have found the right place to post this.

 

I bought a brand new SIP mitre saw on ebay July 2012. The model in question has now been dsicontinued. This was a 'buy it now' transaction if that makes any difference, and payment was sent through PayPal, direct from funds in PayPal account (i.e. not credit card unfortunately).

 

Saw was apparently fine, but soon developed problems. The saw works by driving a circular saw blade by motor. The motor transfers power to the blade via two pulleys and a drive belt. One pulley is bolted to the motor, one is driving the saw blade. There are bearings at either end supporting the axles between motor and pulley, and pulley and blade.

 

Basically what's happened is, the bolts holding the pulleys to their axles have come loose during use, this has caused excess vibration, knackering the bearings and causing catastrophic failure of the belt, resulting in damage to the plastic cover housing all these works, completely destroying one of the bolts that was holding one of the pulleys on, and damaged pulleys.

 

I contacted tool_stop (the eBay seller) on ebay in September to see what they would do about it, to which they replied it was outside of their 30 day warranty for a replacement, but they could get it picked up and sent to SIP to be repaired.

 

I contacted SIP myself, and they collected the saw, and returned it to myself repaired in November. The saw has now failed again due to the same reasons. This time the belt has worked its way off and rubbed the casing, melting its way through before failing catastrophically. The casing is there partly to protect the user from such failures hurling high speed debris/pulleys at the user, which could result in severe injury if not worse.

 

I really don't want to be using this saw anymore, because such catastrophic failure could result in injury or fire, so I would like a refund instead of a repair.

 

I assume it's the seller I need to contact about this, not SIP. Do I have the right to demand a refund? I think I read somewhere that I could refuse the contract of sale or something, even having used it, but I'm not sure what exactly my options are or how to go about them.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers,

Ben

[ericsbrother]

30 day warranty my a**e. Under the Sale of Goods Act the item must be fit for purpose and of merchantable quality. An item such as this will be expected to last at least a year before it can be considered worn. Becasue you have had the same problem recur I would contact the seller and remind them they are responsible for the repair/replacement under SoGA and ask them what they intend to do. Trouble is many ebay stores are drop-shippers who know nothing about their stock or obligations so you may need to follow this up with stronger letters. As it is 6 months old it is unrealistic to expect a full refund but if the seller is unwilling to make any sort of attempt to put right your problems (equivalent money off a decent one would be good) then you can claim for the expected residual value for the goods., ie: if the saw has an expected working life of 3 years then you would be due a refund of the price less 3 months wear or1/12th. If they point you to the mfr remind them that your contract is with them, they have your money.