Legal advice regarding faulty goods needed.

kapow

Hi guys, I would like to know where I stand on this.

Yesterday I purchased 20 euro phone credit in a shop (which I'll leave un-named).

When I tried to put the credit into the phone (3 times) I found that it would not work, so I promptly took it back to the shop which I had just walked out of.

The manager (she), who had served me the faulty credit, rang meteor. Meteor said that the phone credit I had been given was a week old (14th October) and when I told him that it had just came out of the machine a moment ago he said that it was impossible, as it was dated the 14th, and the machine 'never makes mistakes'. I began to suspect that maybe I had been given old credit, although both I and the manager could remember it coming out of the machine.

The store manager checked her till, and has no record of any 20 euro cash purchase in that timeframe. She accused me of walking outside the store, switching the new credit with an old one, and walking back in with the old one asking for a refund. I told her to please check her cameras and spent approx. 50mins talking with her. She said that someone would come in tomorrow to check them. Eventually she gave me new credit,which worked and off I went.

This morning she rang me, stating that I am indeed on camera, and it shows me giving her 20 euro for phone credit which definitely came out of the machine. She then said that ' you owe me 20 euro' which I of course denied.

Her argument is obviously that the machine cannot make mistakes.

What I am wondering is:

1. Why is there no record of my transaction in the til even though I am on camera handing over 20 euro for the credit.

2. What are my legal rights here, as she said that she is happy to take this further (which to be honest, so am I)

Just to be succinct.
a) I buy credit, comes out of machine.

b) Credit is already used up a week ago.

c)Camera evidence of me buying the credit AND the credit coming out of the machine.

d)No evidence of the transaction taking place in the til.

Thanks for any and all help on the matter.

drunkmonkey

What date was on the receipt that came out of the machine. I know you said someone in meteor said it was sold the 14th so then the top up voucher should have said the 14th.
I'd guess the mix up was when you rang meteor, they could have been wrong.

kapow

drunkmonkey wrote: »

What date was on the receipt that came out of the machine. I know you said someone in meteor said it was sold the 14th so then the top up voucher should have said the 14th.
I'd guess the mix up was when you rang meteor, they could have been wrong.

Date was 14th October 2011 @ 11pm ish. Credit was bought yesterday (20th) at around half 4pm. I'm thinking that the machine must have reprinted an old ticket.

NuMarvel

If the shop is going to take this further, the burden of proof falls to them, and they seem to have a flimsy enough case as it is (from my POV). They have CCTV footage of you paying for the credit in a transaction that isn't recorded in their own till. They seem to be saying that you swapped the phone credit slip with an old one, but the only proof they can offer is that "the machine can't be wrong".

I'm not exactly sure HOW they're going to take it further. They may request a refund from Meteor, but it's debatable if Meteor will then turn around and take that from your credit.

As it stands, from a consumer point of view, you don't have any further to do here. The first ticket didn't work, you got a replacement, and that's that. Anything else is more in the realm of the Legal Discussion forum.

One thing I will say is that if you think it will go further, you can request a copy of the CCTV footage under the Data Protection Acts. See here - http://www.dataprotection.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=242.

foggy_lad

kapow wrote: »

Date was 14th October 2011 @ 11pm ish. Credit was bought yesterday (20th) at around half 4pm. I'm thinking that the machine must have reprinted an old ticket.

Some time ago my silly teenage niece bought €10 o2 credit in her local shop and later that day she tried to load the credit on her account and it would not work. the date on the credit was almost a full year previous and o2 said the credit had been sold almost a full year before in the same shop and the shop was adamant that there was no issue with the machine.

Everyone was insistant that they were in the right and several days later the shop were going to give out the credit again as a goodwill gesture as the family spend a bit of money in there, just before that I asked my niece if she had searched her room and she swore she had searched every corner and nook and cranny etc.

I went into her room with her and had a quick look around and after clearing her bed of rubbish I looked under the bed and there staring out at me was a fresh clean o2 top up voucher unused along with several other used vouchers! she had went home thrown the unused voucher onto her bed and it must have fallen on the floor where she then picked up the wrong one.

Mistakes can be made very easily op so I would suggest you check your pockets/bag very carefully and try all used credit vouchers and throw them away if they are used already.

ScouseMouse

Be advised if you go looking for the CCTV, the store may not have it.

My system automatically writes over itself every 14 days so unless its copied to dvd, it could be wiped.

kapow

Thanks very much to everyone who replied.

I just received a phone call from the manager saying that she was in the wrong; meteor rang back and said that the machine had in fact made a mistake. Pretty lousy apology all the same, but at least its over.

Now I know that credit machines are far from perfect!