Cash4phones Problem

[Speck1965]

I don't want to demoralise you but you have missed off the salient aspects of your complaint. I don't know why this might be.

 

This is mainly that the phone was in pristine condition and that they later claimed that it was in damaged condition - and then required a previously undisclosed fee for returning it.

 

I think that once the claim has been deemed served, that you should serve them directly with a more detailed particulars of claim.

 

What is the date of deemed service?

 

 

Yes, I know what you mean, but there is a limit to the number of characters, I may have to put together a detailed letter as you suggested and send it recorded delivery.

Date of issue was 1st March, it is deemed to have been served 5 days after that, although I do know they received it yesterday.

[BankFodder]

I think that the discrepancy in the condition of the phone was the essential aspect to include in your claim.

As it is they will fie on defence against your POC as stated but they will not address the real issues.

This will require you to seek leave to amend your claim and then they get a further time to defend - and it all gets very drawn out and complicated.

 

You need to send them off a further POC immediately before they have time to defend against your initial POC.

 

I'll draft an example in a mo.

[Speck1965]

Thanks

They are aware of all the details you spoke of as emails and phone calls have taken place, but certainly won't do any harm to get it all down in one traceable document.

[BankFodder]

Try this.

 

Send it special del - today if you can

Between

Specky1965 - Claimant

Claim no.3QT2XXXX

 

And

 

XXXCompany name Ltd trading as Cash4phones Defendant

 

 

Further and better particulars of claim

 

 

1. The defendant operates an on-line business and buys used mobile telephones, ostensibly for recycling
   
2. The claimant had a XXmakeXX modelXXX telephone in pristine condition
   
3. The claimant obtained an on-line valuation from the defendants of the telephone of £XX
   
4. On the basis of the valuation, the claimant sent the telephone, carefully packaged to the defendants
   
5. The defendants received the telephone and then offered the sum of £XX.
   
6. The defendants explained the greatly reduced offer price on the basis that the handset was scratched and damaged
   
7. The claimant refused this offer and asked for the return of the telephone
   
8. The defendant agreed to return the telephone on receipt of a previously undisclosed fee of £XX
   
9. The claimant refused to pay this fee.
   
10. It is the claimant's position that the telephone was sent to the defendant in pristine condition
    
11. The claimant has discovered other similar complaints involving the defendant company on the internet.
    

The claimant seeks - either the initial sum offered by the defendants - or

The return of the telephone from the defendants in the condition in which it was sent to them

 

 

I believe that the particulars set out above are true

 

Signed

 

Dated

 

 

I think that you should check with us first when drafting any more forms

[Speck1965]

Would faxing it be better?

[BankFodder]

Thanks

They are aware of all the details you spoke of as emails and phone calls have taken place, but certainly won't do any harm to get it all down in one traceable document.

 

They may well be aware - but you are conducting litigation now - and this is where you have to formally present your allegations to the other side in a way which will be recognised by the court.

You can't rely on a pile of previous correspondence.

 

The court seal and claim number are set upon your litigation documents - not on some previous exchange between you.

 

In fact, if will do harm if you don't do it correctly

[BankFodder]

Would faxing it be better?

 

Both.

[Speck1965]

Right.

That has now been faxed and I have the transmission receipt with time and date.

It will also be sent special delivery, wife will run it round post office in about half hour.

 

Really appreciate what you have done Bankfodder, many many thanks!

[BankFodder]

Running it round the post office is unhelpful.

 

You have physically to go in and post it.

[Speck1965]

Well she could do with losing a couple of pounds.

Fortunately for me she does not read this forum!

 

Thanks again.

[Speck1965]

Just logged on to MCOL website and it say "Cash4phones issued a defence on 08/03/2013" but I cannot see any details.

Will this come in the post or do I have to log on somewhere else to see it?

[BankFodder]

I'm not sure if the defence will be posted to you.

What I am sure of is that your claim is incorrect as it does not identify the issues. Therefore their defence will be incorrect as well.

Because they have already defended (this is very fast work!), you will have to issue an amended Particuulars.

 

You will have to wait until the claim is transferred to your local court. then you will have to apply using an N244 to amend your POC. This will cost you about £60. The you will serve the new POC. They will then have a further 28 days to serve an amended defence.

 

I think that you can look forward to a long delay. A great shame.

[Speck1965]

Ok, I thought that fax yesterday dealt with that. Might be time to retreat and chalk this one up to experience?

[BankFodder]

If you withdraw the claim, they could - if they want to get nasty, ask the court to award them costs thrown away. Unlikely, but you need to know about it.

Wait and see what the defence says first - but I'm afraid that as you didn't get the further details in on time and as you didn't tick the box that you would be sending fuller details separately, you have caused yourself some unnecessary problems.

[Speck1965]

OK. That was just a little wobble, these people need stopping and I am going to give it my best shot.

I made a couple of wrong assumptions,

1. Because the form only allows 1000 characters I thought I was just to outline the bare basics and the full story would then be presented to the court on the day.

2. I wrongly assumed that the tick box for sending particulars separately was just an option for me to send the form instead of the court sending it.

 

Also, their defence is dated 8th March. I have a fax confirmation that shows I sent the extra particulars of the claim on 7th March. Does this carry any weight?

 

I have made some mistakes quite obviously and damage has been done, but I really want to go ahead and make the best out of what I have.

As soon as I get a the details of the defence I will post it up.

 

Thanks for taking the time to help me, it is much appreciated.

[BankFodder]

Top marks for resilience. We'll help you to carry on. However, I think that you need to be a little more careful and measured about how you proceed in order to avoid making further mistakes.

 

Follow the link to amending your pleadings to see how it should done. Please confirm that you have done this. Amend your POC

[BankFodder]

Next thing is that the response by your defendant in filing their defence was so amazingly fast, that I expect that they have noticed this thread and are following it.

 

This is nothing to worry about and I don't think that this is any reason to start doing things off-forum. You can probably win this as long as you do things methodically and don't jump into any more mistakes.

 

Whatever Cash4phones want to do, there is no getting away from the fact that they seem to have a history of similar kinds of complaints against them and I am sure that the Court will take notice of this when deciding whether what you are saying about the condition of your phone is probably true.

 

Fo extra insurance, I suggest that you roam the Internet and try to make contact with some of the complainants - who will probably be very pleased to help you by providing you with a statement. If you can contact others, tell them about this thread. Explain to them that they can come here and we will help them try and get their money back as well.

A series of very similar complaints is a very impressive coincidence.

[Speck1965]

According to the link it suggests contacting cash4phones to ask them to agree to the amendment, seems unlikely that they will but probably worth asking do you think? If they refuse at least I will have done my bit. Also, before doing anything I think it is worth seeing the defence, if their defence raises issues that were brought up in the amendments that I faxed then surely that would indicate that they have been accepted?

Won't jump to any conclusions just yet though, thats where I went wrong last time.

[BankFodder]

Just follow the amendment instructions to the letter.

[Hammy1962]

Just subscribing to the thread, that's all.

 

H

[Speck1965]

Update..........which is, there is no update!

 

Defence still not received even though case is marked as "defence" on the MCOL website.

The £17.86 that they say they have paid into my account has still not arrived, infact no communication of any sort whatsoever.

 

Does anyone know if they have a limited time to get their defence to me, what that is and what I can do about not receiving it?

 

Thanks

[BankFodder]

You just have to wait until it arrives.

 

It is sent to you by the court.

[Speck1965]

You just have to wait until it arrives.

 

It is sent to you by the court.

 

Ok, thanks.

[Speck1965]

Received the following in the post today......

Notice That a Defence has Been Filed.

Allocation Questionaire (To be returned by 25-03-2013)

Leaflet about free mediation service (This looks good, is it worth considering?)

 

Defence is as follows.......

 

"We would like to state that the initial price we offered is a quote and not a contractual agreement. As per our terms and conditions it is necessary for us to receive and test the handset before making a counter offer. In this instance we received the handset in substandard condition as the screen was literally tearing away from the handset, our system generated the counter offer based on this.

 

Our terms and conditions also clearly state that if the customer is unhappy with the offer we will return the handset at a charge of £8.95 to ensure safe (special delivery) transit of the handset.

 

Under normal circumstances we would try to resolve such matters with the customer directly however in this case unfortunately is unwilling to work with us to a compromise.

 

We also offered to return the handset by standard (not registered) post at customers risk, but this has been refused.

 

We would propose a payment totalling £30 to cover the £17.86 plus £12.14 as a gesture of goodwill, or the phone is returned free of charge as per the conditions above.

 

We will hold all payments until we know whether to return the handsetor pay accordingly.

 

Included are the terms and conditions"

 

 

So, anyone any suggestions as to my next move?

[Speck1965]

Couple of observations of my own.....

 

They say "the screen was literally tearing away from the handset, our system generated the counter offer based on this."

This is simply not true. The counter offer was made due to excessive scratching on the screen. When I complained that this was not true they then went away for another look, this time they said the screen had been glued. Now they claim that the screen is tearing away from the handset. Its gradually getting worse! None of these are true.

 

They further say "Under normal circumstances we would try to resolve such matters with the customer directly however in this case unfortunately is unwilling to work with us to a compromise." I nearly choked on my coffee over this one, HOW DARE THEY? I have emailed and phoned so many times to try to resolve this but they just would not budge from the initial offer of £17.86.