expensive guitar not as described - my rights

[FEvans]

I recently bought an expensive guitar from a store online (it has a physical shop as well). The store was selling a limited edition fender guitar £50 cheaper than its competitor. It was wrongly described as having a special set of pickups which was the reason i wanted this guitar. When it arrived it did not have these pickups. (they sold me a cheaper guitar with lower specified pickups) The store has offered me a full refund but it will now cost me another £100 to buy the correct guitar (which has the correct pickups).

 

I also entered into a credit arrangement with the stores credit agency to buy the guitar so cancelling the contact and then taking out another credit arrangement will leave a nasty credit trail on my account.

 

Am i only entitled to a refund or could i push for something else. I did ask the store for a discount so that i could keep the guitar and buy a set of pickups and fit those to the guitar making it identical to the one that was described but they have refused.

[unclebulgaria67]

Under SOGA you are entitled to be put back into the same position as you were before the failed contract. So either they provide the guitar as advertised/sold covering any cost incurred or they refund you fully, cancel the credit and cover any costs you have incurred.

 

You cannot ask them for the additional cost of buying the guitar elsewhere or any other option.

 

This shop could always purchase this guitar you have seen being sold by this other business on a trade basis and then sell it to you. But if you have not inspected the guitar you could end up with another guitar with the wrong pickups.

[FEvans]

are you therefore saying that i could demand that they sell me the correct guitar at the price i paid for the wrong specified guitar. The actual guitar that meets the description on the website (the guitar i thought i was buying ) is an additional £100. They told me they would not agree to swap for this guitar unless i paid the balance

[unclebulgaria67]

are you therefore saying that i could demand that they sell me the correct guitar at the price i paid for the wrong specified guitar. The actual guitar that meets the description on the website (the guitar i thought i was buying ) is an additional £100. They told me they would not agree to swap for this guitar unless i paid the balance

 

No. They either supply the guitar that you ordered at the price agreed or they take the guitar back, refund the money and cancel the credit agreement.

 

Remind them that credit agreement means that the credit provider is in a three way agreement to provide the guitar that they were contracted to supply.

 

If you want to speak to the Citizens Advice helpline on behalf of Trading Standards, here is a link.

 

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/extra/contact.cfm?frmAlias=/contact/

[FEvans]

I am getting confused now - I have actually received the guitar but it was not the same model as the one advertised. Basically Fender have a limited run of 2 types guitars being sold through this shop. The guitars are identical apart from one model having better pickups and being priced £100 more than the one with the different pickups ) . They sent me the lower specced model despite advertising that the guitar i was buying had the better pickups.

[Peterbard]

Yes send it back and get a refund, the credit agreement should automatically be cancelled under distance marketing guidlines.

 

When you get your money back buy a Gibson Les Paul, far better.

[unclebulgaria67]

I think they are saying that you did not order the one with the better pickups. Do you have proof of the exact model you paid for and this definitely is the one with the better pickups ?

 

You are definitely entitled to what you paid for or a refund. If the shop are saying that they advertised the guitar wrongly they should have just cancelled the order, rather the sending the cheaper spec guitar. There have been many cases of online retailers making mistakes and I believe that the law as it stands allows the retailer to void a purchase order if the mistake is an obvious one. e.g I think Argos advertised a item for £1.50, when the actual price was £150. It was an obvious mistake and therefore the retailer could not be expected to honour any online purchase at £1.50. This is different as it relates to the spec, rather than price, but the law does allow for the fact that mistakes can be made.

 

I would suggest that you phone the helpline I linked to earlier, as SOGA in these situation is not very clear.