lost shoes

[x minit uk]

Pay him the £150 and give him a voucher for a free repair when needed.

[hibsjo(SCO)]

Get his name and address and write him a cheque out for the replacement shoes and refund then get your solicitor to drop him a letter stating YOUR OBLIGATION under law.

dont lose any sleep over it mate these things happen.

carry on!

[elfman]

i would have offered the same as you gaz and that would be all .how ever if he came back with that attitude then i would give him a choice of

1 the first offer

2 thecost of the shoes minus the amount of the cost of the repair (which i think is what the law says you can do)which is all you need to do in law

 

then let him go and not let it worry me

[TheCustomer]

Gaz,

 

I have come across a similar situation before. You are in the realm of consequential losses, namely directly consequential losses.

If you like I can pull the books of the shelf and give you all the blurb on it if it helps..

 

To give you a quick analogy, If my newly bought TV develops a fault then I could probably charge the retailer (being that I am a consumer) the extra cost of transporting the TV set back to the shop, by reasonable means I.E car if I had one or taxi or courier or make them come and collect it themselves. I can do this as I have suffered as a direct consequence if the TV going wrong.

 

However, should I suffer torment because, I missed match of the day or suffered a massive financial loss because, I missed an important financial report on Blunderburg Channel, then I would not usually be able to claim for this. Unless of cause the retailer was knowingly contracted to provide a TV display for such time and purpose of course.

 

In the case of these shoes, the loss he is claiming for does on the face of it appear to be a directly consequential loss, however, that does not mean he gets a second new pair of shoes out of it. In the same way that if you have a car crash you dont get to keep the loan car after your main car is fixed.

 

In fact, the loan car is often some used hire car. Obviously with personal items like shoes you cant do much with them after he has returned them as nobody else will want them. If you offer him a reasonable pair of new shoes to use in that time, make him understand that thay are still your property and that he has to return them when he collects the other shoes. I would get him to sign a release form to that effect.

He also has to return them in a reasonable condition, normal wear and tear accepted.

 

This whole process may in fact put him off. but at worst maybe you can salvage some "genuine spares" from the hardly worn shoes.

After telling him all this you could offer him an alternative instead of the shoes. E.G. first two repairs free.... if he has half a brain he will take the latter.

 

In any event you will have done your job by reducing his suffering by offering him the temporary shoes

[Mick Friend]

I agree he sees the 'cash cow' have you tried to obtain the shoes yourself and verified he has to wait, its funny how customers and the truth rarely walk the same path.

I think it was said above make the offer in writing and only accept replies in writing, again its funny how memory adds a few things later.

Good luck and do keep your cool, even though I could never do that I got her thats soon to be an ex her indoors to call them

[Lee]

Do not get this case confused with the sale of goods act, this is covered under the goods & services act!

 

Not 100% sure, but I believe you only have to offer compensation to the value of the item when it was brought in, for example if you took your car in for a repair & they lost it you would only get a replacement value & not a new car.

Your offer to replace the shoes new for old (no value when they where brought in as they had worn out!) & give the repair refund, is more than fair. Further costs are unnecessary.

 

I would put your offer in writing, send it to them special delivery with a cheque (to prove the compensation has been paid) & advice them that if they wish to take the matter further they should seek legal advice (they won’t)

 

Do some searches on goods & services.

 

You might find the original shoes are returned in the mean time anyway.

 

Good luck! Let us know the outcome.

 

Lee

[discodave]

you could always look at this from a different point

 

at the moment you are only going to lose if you follow the law or compensation route, human nature is to shout about how bad people are and this will damage your business far more than having to pay out £250 and the loss of one customer.

 

so turning a negative into a positive is going to be a challenge but not an impossible one

 

i would phone up the local newspaper and speak to a journalist about how you want to retrieve your loyal and valued customers shoes and you would appreciate a little help from the paper by running a story on it offering a reward of say £100 for the safe return of shoes

 

if worded right you will be telling all your potential new customers what lengths you are willing to go to in order to look after your customers. and you might even amaze your customer

obviously you will mention what steps you have put in place to prevent this happening again like name and address on ticket or whatever else works, in the paper.

 

this will put at least 10% on your figure and keep one customer very happy with your clever way of rescuing his shoes.

 

GL.

[Lee]

rock on

[TheCustomer]

Lee,

 

My passage above is indeed in relation to the supply of goods and services act 1982.

 

There is a very useful Traders guide in PDF available from the following government website, in the public domain.

 

http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/consume ... 38337.html

You will find information in layman's terms relating to consequential losses and minimising losses on page 16 of the actual document (18 for pdf)

Damages are part of Tort Law so you wont actually find the words Consequential loss in the legislation, only referances to Damages.

of course a customer must do their best to minimise any consequential losses, so hiring a chauffeur driven Bentley to take a TV set back to the shop is probably out.

 

You can probably think of many instances of consequential losses, like badly fitted pipes leaking after two weeks and water damaging the floors. pipes need replacing, then the floor needs replacing. All part of Tort.

[Hugh-Candoit (ENG)]

I hope that the customer who owned the shoes that you gave out in mistake does not also claim for a new pair (if he only wanted them to be heeled for instance).