Tell Apprentice
a week ago
So......If you do decide to go to court here is the checklist of things that you need to have prepared:-
1. Before you can file the Court Papers you need to send a 'Letter before Action' RECORDED delivery to the registered office of the company you intend to issue proceedings against. When you send the item recorded delivery take a photo of the envelope address and then the receipt and E-Mail them to yourself so you cannot then accidentally 'lose' them.
2. Your letter before action should lay out your argument along the lines of....
I purchased Samsung Model KSxxxx TV from yourselves serial number yyyyyy on DATE via Online/InStore, the invoice number you issued was zzzzzz and I have attached a copy of the invoice as attachment number one in the document bundle.
I was informed that this model would support XYZ features (do a list here of features, each one on a separate line) by phone/your website/in store before purchase. (If from the website) I have attached the relevant pages from your website as attachment two in the document bundle, these pages are available online to view at (give Wayback machine web address). If by phone or instore if you can remember who you spoke to (it may be on the receipt) and the approximate date you had the conversation.
As at this date these features have not been implemented and indeed on DATE Samsung announced they would not now be providing this functionality, therefore while it is clear that Samsung have let you down it is also clear that I was sold an item that was misrepresented to me at time of sale.
(If applicable) While Samsung have offered me a Smartthings Hub as a resolution this does not provide the same functionality as the TV for the following reasons (now list, one item per line).
Therefore as the item is not as described I wish to be fully refunded for the item to stop me issuing court proceedings.
I am willing to pursue an ADR resolution to this issue, if you are willing to commit, in writing, for it to be a binding resolution on both parties before commencement. I would draw your attention to the fact that I will also (if the forum member is willing to do so) provide to the court an existing ADR resolution for this issue which happened to Mr FRED SMITH (change as appropriate) who has provided an affidavit for same which I have attached the details for as attachment three in the bundle. (The forum member who the ADR was done with will have to write (type) a statement of exactly what happened, sign and date it and send it to the person who will be sending the Letter before Action, the following is the preferred layout and once done it's usually easiest to turn it into a PDF for emailing)
https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/standard-directions/general/witness-statemen...
I will also provide to the court (if the forum member is willing to do it) E-Mails that have been sent by your organisation to Mr JOHN DOE (change as appropriate) accepting that the item was not as originally described, Mr JOHN DOE has provided an affidavit for same which I have attached the details for as attachment four in the document bundle. (The forum member who the E-Mail(s) were sent to will have to write (type) a statement of exactly what happened, sign and date it and send it to the person who will be sending the Letter before Action, the following is the preferred layout and once done it's usually easiest to turn it into a PDF for emailing)
https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/standard-directions/general/witness-statemen...
I have thus far spent xxxxx hours as per the schedule which I have attached as document five of the attachments bundle, I will be looking to recover my time spent on this at £xxx per hour as I believe the facts of this case are prima facie based on the evidence including your own E-Mail(s) (if provided by other forum member) but you are unwilling to settle requiring me to pursue action through the courts and wasting valuable court time. I will also be adding to the claim at time of hearing for all extra time I have spent on this before the court makes a judgement.
Now you want to list your time spent and attach the schedule I referred to in my earlier posting and attach it as attachment five to the bundle.
I will also look to recover interest at 8% per year from this day forward on the total amount of my claim. I have included a complete breakdown of all the parts of my claim as attachment six in the attachments bundle.
So the claim should now be broken down similar to this....
The original amount of the item. Including all shipping charges BUT NOT including any accessories you bought at the same time unless you can prove they were specifically only for the TV you bought.
The amount of time you've spent in Total to date, as shown in the schedule attached as attachment five in the bundle.
The costs you have incurred sending documents recorded delivery and ALL the court filing charges if you get to that stage.
The interest at 8% per year.
So for example.....
Lets say you spent £2000 on the TV
Let's say you spent 10 hours at £35 per hour so £350
Let's say you spent £10 total on postage and stationary costs.
Let's say the 'expected' costs of the court filing if you get to that point will be £75.
So add up all the costs (except the court filing as you haven't done that yet)
TV £2000 + Time £350 + Post/Stationary £10 = £2360
£2360 / 365 (days in year) = £6.47 * 8% = 52p per day interest.
So now you should state your claim is....
£2360 which consists of
£2000 for the TV including shipping charges.
£350 for your time spent on this.
£10 for postage and stationary.
If you do not provide a full refund by (DATE 14 days from 3 days after you actually post this letter) then I will have no option but to file court proceedings which will incur extra costs of £75 (CHECK THE AMOUNT) for filing the appropriate paperwork, together with my extra time and interest charges from todays date until the court makes a judgement.
Now clearly attach all the attachments and clearly mark their number (it's 'good practice' to staple each document 'set' together...so staple all of attachment one together, then all of attachment two together and so on) and then write which attachment number it is in pen on the first sheet of that document set, then get a fluorescent marker (YELLOW is usually best) and overmark the attachment number. While this may all appear a bit an*l you want to make it all as clear as possible for the judge who has to go through these things, they're not renowned for their patience so when preparing the documents think of it as laying it out for a five year old.....really keep it that simple, so for example, if you end up with six attachments do a cover sheet for the attachments which lists their number, how many pages in that attachment and what that attachment is for and put it as the first page of the attachments, as I said, try to make everything simple for anyone reading this, judges don't want to have to d*ck around trying to find out what you mean so lay it all out as clearly as possible so even a child could find it.
Now when you've done all this......put it to oneside and don't look at it for three days.
Now pick it up and read through it, slowly, looking for typing errors, grammatical errors and logic errors.
If you're still happy with it put it to oneside again. Now find a friend who doesn't know what this is about and ask them to read it but they CANNOT ask you any questions while reading it and give you their HONEST opinion, not about the arguments of the case but the way you've laid it out, is it easy to understand and does it make sense? If they need to ask you questions about something they've not understood you need to revisit that and rework it.
Once you've gone through this process a couple of times and you're happy you're probably now ready to post it.
Good Luck.