Being threatened by vendor - empty threat or not?

Tossaway90

Looking for opinions on this as I'm not sure how to proceed. I'll lay out the background to this situation first.

- Vendor offered to send people a product in return for a review and testing/feedback.
- I took them up on this offer through PM on another forum
- Testing this product would involve me altering my existing model in order to install. I made them aware of this fact before they sent it to me.
- Installed the product, sent them feedback via email and gave them a review through some social channels. Also filled out a full feedback form that they provided.
- Couple of weeks later, they send me an email saying thanks and that I can now avail of a 30% discount for the unit! Their product is grossly overpriced and is at least double all their competitors similar products. In fact it is possible to find the product 50% cheaper than their RRP on a 3rd party website, but their 30% only applies to RRP.
- I replied that this was never stated up front and that I would never have agreed to take their product and pull my own apart if I knew it wasn't in return for a free product. I never signed for anything or gave an agreement to any terms or conditions when taking the product.
- They are demanding I send it back and I agreed as long as they reimburse me enough to bring me back to my original setup.
- He agreed but said he needs to get his product back first. I obviously have zero trust in them so I asked to be reimbursed first and then I will send it back
- After I said this, they threatened legal action against me
- I considered it an empty threat and ignored it, but he has been harassing me via email since then.

- Fast forward to today, they have found my name, workplace and hometown (likely through social media) and are threatening to take me to 'EU small claims court' (they are based in the UK)

My only question is do they have any standing here at all? I've tried to resolve this but they are not willing to compromise and quite frankly I have lost all trust in them. I contacted the CCPC looking for advice but they told me since no money passed hands, it falls outside consumer legislation.

Any advice would be much appreciated

nuac

Mod
You should be advised by your own solicitor. Meanwhile leaving open for general discussion subject to forum rule on legal advice

charlietheminxx

I saw someone else mention a similar situation recently. A computer component?
I'll see if I can find where I saw it.

EDIT: Unfortunately I can't find it, but maybe if you do a google search for the item and the retailer or the item and the discount, it'll throw something up. I've definitely seen something similar in the last while, I think it was either for a graphics card or a processor.

Tossaway90

charlietheminxx wrote: »

I saw someone else mention a similar situation recently. A computer component?
I'll see if I can find where I saw it.

Could have been me on reddit a few months ago. Was advised to contact the CCPC on that thread, which I did. Nothing came of that and I ignored the emails until now they are threatening legal action again, so wanted to get advice from here too. Threads tend to die very quickly on reddit.

I don't have a solicitor. Is getting one involved even necessary with a threat of action in the small claims court? The cost of a solicitors advice would surely leave me out of pocket more than the cost I want reimbursed..

charlietheminxx

Ah it might have been. Sorry about that! Would you consider contacting FLAC for some free advice?

Darc19

Simple

Reply to them asking for where it stated prior to them sending it that a cost would apply.

Create an invoice for the hours you have worked testing their product. (€55/hour min)

Request payment from them and inform them that you will enforce payment through the UK county courts

Let them know that if they intend taking a European small claims court action, that they would need to hurry up as the UK leaves Europe in a few weeks time.

Inform them that any commencement of legal action will be published online to ensure others are not caught out by their scam.


Basically, call their bluff.

PukkaStukka

In any email correspondence with the other party, open it with the words "without prejudice"

bigslick

PukkaStukka wrote: »

In any email correspondence with the other party, open it with the words "without prejudice"

This is a common misconception. Using the words 'without prejudice' will not automatically render a communication privileged from production in court. It is more the content of the correspondence, or nature of the letter or its purpose, not the use of the words themselves, that would dictate whether it can not be used against the writer or the writer’s client.

GM228

bigslick wrote: »

This is a common misconception. Using the words 'without prejudice' will not automatically render a communication privileged from production in court. It is more the content of the correspondence, or nature of the letter or its purpose, not the use of the words themselves, that would dictate whether it can not be used against the writer or the writer’s client.

+1, the common law without privilege or litigation privilege as it is known will basically only apply when the correspondence is a genuine attempt at settling a dispute, it does not need to specifically state "without prejudice", however even when genuinely used privileged documents can still be used in court in certain circumstances such as where failure to lift litigation privilege would be damaging to the administration of justice or for example to show evidence the defendants should not be allowed to maintain their plea.