Are there any solicitors that know about libel here please?
Discussion
I don't want to put specifics about a situation on here but is there anyone that could help with some advice.
My wife bought a product (cheap - approx £15) which then failed on its second use. We wrote to the retailer explaining what happened and sent pictures of the failed part. They asked us to send it back, so we did. Both parts. When they contacted us next they said the failed part had not been sent back despite signing for it and acknowledging they received one of the bits, so they couldn't help. So now it is our word against theirs and they have half of the broken product. All we have are the photos of both pieces.
After 8 days of not hearing anything my wife then left essentially nothing more than a bad review of their product and customer service on facebook, more to warn others than anything spiteful as we have no real reason to wish anything bad upon the company, we do not know them, and have no axe to grind. At the end of the day the product is cheap and we'd just by another if it came to it. But.... Now the company has said it has taken legal advice and is threatening to sue us for three things (basically we have ruined their reputation) because of the bad review on facebook. Are we in trouble? Nothing we wrote was untrue and in my limited understanding could be understood to be "fair comment".
We have seen other correspondence (the company involved discussed our issue with someone (who we don't know) who saw the review on facebook and took it upon themselves to contact the company direct without our knowledge and then showed us what their conversation said which differs from our side of the story as they are claiming to have sent an extra email that we never received).
The company are adamant that there would never be a resolution as both sides will not agree as they are sticking by the fact that the item was never returned to them even though we put it in the same bag which they agreed was undamaged when they signed for it.
We appear not to be able to email them further to keep discussion lines open as they have written without prejudice on their last email and have said because they have taken legal advice they cannot discuss the matter any further.
We have contacted trading standards as the item failed within 30 days of purchase.
All we wanted was a replacement item for the faulty one as the product appeared nicely made and the failure was probably only a manufacturing fault.
My wife bought a product (cheap - approx £15) which then failed on its second use. We wrote to the retailer explaining what happened and sent pictures of the failed part. They asked us to send it back, so we did. Both parts. When they contacted us next they said the failed part had not been sent back despite signing for it and acknowledging they received one of the bits, so they couldn't help. So now it is our word against theirs and they have half of the broken product. All we have are the photos of both pieces.
After 8 days of not hearing anything my wife then left essentially nothing more than a bad review of their product and customer service on facebook, more to warn others than anything spiteful as we have no real reason to wish anything bad upon the company, we do not know them, and have no axe to grind. At the end of the day the product is cheap and we'd just by another if it came to it. But.... Now the company has said it has taken legal advice and is threatening to sue us for three things (basically we have ruined their reputation) because of the bad review on facebook. Are we in trouble? Nothing we wrote was untrue and in my limited understanding could be understood to be "fair comment".
We have seen other correspondence (the company involved discussed our issue with someone (who we don't know) who saw the review on facebook and took it upon themselves to contact the company direct without our knowledge and then showed us what their conversation said which differs from our side of the story as they are claiming to have sent an extra email that we never received).
The company are adamant that there would never be a resolution as both sides will not agree as they are sticking by the fact that the item was never returned to them even though we put it in the same bag which they agreed was undamaged when they signed for it.
We appear not to be able to email them further to keep discussion lines open as they have written without prejudice on their last email and have said because they have taken legal advice they cannot discuss the matter any further.
We have contacted trading standards as the item failed within 30 days of purchase.
All we wanted was a replacement item for the faulty one as the product appeared nicely made and the failure was probably only a manufacturing fault.
Their approach seems a little heavy handed for a £15 product. It would have been far cheaper and more effective to send you out a replacement product than obtain legal advice (if indeed they have?)
I'd suggest ignore them, continue with trading standards and potentially do a chargeback on your credit card? (let the bank / credit card company deal with them)
I'd suggest ignore them, continue with trading standards and potentially do a chargeback on your credit card? (let the bank / credit card company deal with them)
chrisga said:
But... Now the company has said it has taken legal advice and is threatening to sue us for three things (basically we have ruined their reputation) because of the bad review on facebook. Are we in trouble?
No. They're trying to put the frighteners on you.chrisga said:
We have contacted trading standards as the item failed within 30 days of purchase.
All we wanted was a replacement item for the faulty one as the product appeared nicely made and the failure was probably only a manufacturing fault.
Save your breath. Just buy an alternative from somewhere else and move on with your life.All we wanted was a replacement item for the faulty one as the product appeared nicely made and the failure was probably only a manufacturing fault.
Truth is a defence to defamation, the law was changed in 2013 to make it a statutory defence (see http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/26/sectio... ). You can thank the British Chiropractic Association for prompting cross-party agreement on getting the law changed.
I'm certainly not a solicitor, so you should probably talk to one of them, rather than relying on some bloke on the Internet.
I'm certainly not a solicitor, so you should probably talk to one of them, rather than relying on some bloke on the Internet.
Communications only benefit from without prejudice privilege if they are genuine attempts to settle a matter. I cannot see an offer to settle mentioned in your post and so I suspect cloaking their email in legalese like this is, as TooMany2cvs says, just scare tactics.
If you do still wish to communicate with them to resolve this, I would ask them for the contact details of their legal advisors and their matter reference, so you can discuss this further. If they really had taken legal advice, I suspect you would have had a solicitor's letter rather than an email from them, so you may call their bluff.
If you do still wish to communicate with them to resolve this, I would ask them for the contact details of their legal advisors and their matter reference, so you can discuss this further. If they really had taken legal advice, I suspect you would have had a solicitor's letter rather than an email from them, so you may call their bluff.
onomatopoeia said:
Truth is a defence to defamation, the law was changed in 2013 to make it a statutory defence (see http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/26/sectio... ).
It was also changed at the same time so that to claim for defamation a for profit body must show that the statement caused them serious financial loss.http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/26/sectio...
Good luck to them if they're going to try to prove that a Facebook review of a £15 bit of tat has caused them serious financial loss.
RobinOakapple said:
chrisga said:
Just hope we don't get a solicitor letter.
You should also hope you don't get stepped on by a pink elephant.JQ said:
Personally I'd now be tempted to put a copy of the letter on their Facebook page to highlight how they deal with customer complaints.
Probably not the best idea from a dispute resolution point of view, but certainly deeply satisfying.
This.Probably not the best idea from a dispute resolution point of view, but certainly deeply satisfying.
They can't sue for libel if what you have said is true.
In order to sue, you have to show damages.
The £15 is gone. Sounds like you're dealing with an idiot.
You have POD for the returned item, so as long as you have said nothing more than "I returned the item, I have POD, the vendor is claiming he did not receive it and is refusing to replace the item." then there's nothing they can do.
Similarly, there is nothing they would be able to do if you were to publish a copy of their letter to you on facesbooks or anywhere else. Just don't make any subjective or inflammatory remarks.
IANAL.IAJABOTI.
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