ordered online £600 Dyson V12 got £30 vacuum argos dont even sell in the box! now refusing all responsibilities

[BankFodder]

23 minutes ago, Ethel Street said:

Another thought, do make sure if you speak to them by phone that you record the call. It seems to me that the only way they could attempt to deny liability is by claiming that you are attempting to defraud them, ie you did receive the Dyson but you switched it for the R Hobbs. Absurd, I know, but if they are foolish enough even to hint that might be their rationale they are in a difficult legal position. But evidence is everything, a recording of the conversation is essential.

 

Read our customer services guide and implement the advice there

[BankFodder]

Your problem here is going to be that it is your word against theirs. Even with the credit card company, if you try to make the claim then Argos will simply say that you are trying to rip them off by substituting a cheap vacuum cleaner for the one which you ordered and which was actually delivered.

What will help you here will be to look around the Internet and try to find similar stories and to collect them up as screenshots and also the Internet links. If you are able to contact any of the people who have this experience then that would be very helpful to you as well. You may eventually find that you will have to threaten and then bring a court case. For this kind of money and for these circumstances I can imagine that Argos will be prepared to meet you in court which means that they will defend the case. Because it is your word against theirs, you will have to persuade the judge that it is more likely than not – 51% or better that you are telling the truth. If you can find similar stories and print them out and include them as part of your evidence – and particularly if you can persuade people to give you statements as to their own experience then this will probably swing it for you.

I have a feeling the on this forum we've had one or two similar examples although I don't know if it was from Argos or from other suppliers. I think you need to search the forum and see what you can find. If you do find threads with similar issues then please post the links here for everybody else to see.

Although you have the right to reject the goods within 14 days for any reason – assuming that you are purchasing is a consumer – or because the goods were not as described you have a right to reject the goods out of hand in any event, you may as well write to Argos and reject the goods formally and tell them the reason why. At least you have a paper trail and you can show that you've taken all reasonable steps to bring the problem to the notice of Argos and to assert your rights in the matter.

I suggest that you take photographs of the cleaner and also the packing and also try to put the cleaner back into the package in the way that you found it so that you can demonstrate that it fits correctly and that it was apparently securely packed.

If you find links to stories elsewhere on the Internet about similar problems then please post those links here

[BankFodder]

Sorry, that had passed me by.

I don't really understand why they have gone ahead to collect an item which they say they have no knowledge of. Have you had any further feedback about it? Have they offered to return it to you?

I think my main advice still stands that you should gather as much information as possible – as quickly as possible – relating to other similar instances especially to Argos – but in fact to any kind of online store and then use that as the basis of evidence for your claim. I think it's a very difficult situation

 

 

[BankFodder]

How long ago?

[BankFodder]

1 minute ago, Nomso said:

It is part of Argos operating polices not to check returned items at the point of collection. I guess they find it cheaper. Or failing that, they find it easier to deny any wrongdoings. They are the big multi-million £££ institution anyway, out to trample innocent civilians

 

If you have evidence of this policy then it is extremely helpful to you. How do you know that this is their policy?

[BankFodder]

This is very interesting of course but it is not the kind of hard evidence that you can use in court particularly and certainly not the kind of hard evidence which would make Argos put their hands up in order to avoid a legal action.

I think your position here is to gather as much information as possible and then if you feel that you are prepared to bring a small claim in the County Court, you should send them a letter of claim giving them 14 days to reimburse you money or else you will sue. On day 15, issue the claim. Don't bluff. Only make the threat if you are prepared to carry it out.

Unfortunately the newspaper article – which is helpful – is dated 2014. The case on this forum which I referred you to is later than that and that will be helpful to you as well. As I have said, you should look around the Internet and see if you can find other people complaining about the same kind of thing. Have you done this yet?

You could also read our customer services guide and then call them and engage them in conversation where you suggest that they must be fairly familiar with this kind of complaint – and if you're lucky a customer services person will make an unguarded comment that this is certainly true.

This kind of evidence will help you.

Although what you're saying is completely credible – your problem is to persuade a judge. For 600 quid Argus might decide to make a go of it and in which case I would reckon your chances of success at about 75% which is okay – but I normally prefer higher odds when I recommend people to take a legal action.

The risk for you is that you could lose your 600 quid, the claim fee, the hearing fee – and possibly the reasonable costs of travel if Argos decided to send somebody out.

The risk for Argos is that they will get a professional to do this so they will incur a load of costs which they won't be able to recover under the small claims rules and of course they risk losing. Only Argos will know the extent of this kind of fraud problem within their ranks – and it is unlikely that you will ever find out how bad that problem is. If they turned up in court then clearly you would ask them whether they are familiar with this kind of fraud – because you know the answer would be "yes". It would then be nice to ask them how many times a week to they get this kind of incident – but the problem is that you don't know the answer so it could be risky to ask them. The general rule is that you only ask questions that you know the answer to already. If they were to respond that they only get this kind of thing once a year then it would be very unhelpful to your case.

On the other hand, the only other explanation is that you have substituted the vacuum cleaners and you are trying to steal from them. This would be a serious thing for Argos to be suggesting. In a court case in front of the judge I would certainly ask Argos if they were suggesting that you were attempting to steal £600 from them. I can imagine they would be reluctant to answer and it wouldn't be worth pressing the question – but the point would be made in front of the judge.

I think you are going to have to make a personal assessment of the pros and cons of bringing an action. I'm sure these frauds go on and of course it would be very nice to see Argos taken down on this and the story published on this forum and also over social media and to your local press. You could make it clear to Argos that if they force you to bring a legal action then when you get your judgement – as you surely will – that you will make sure that the story is published in the papers.

This is an additional risk factor for Argos and they might prefer to settle.