I recently signed up to rent a franking machine to reduce the postage costs in my small home based second business.
I rented a "Mymail" machine designed for low volume small business use (estimated usage up to 50 items a day)
I entered into a 1 year rental agreement with FP (Francotyp Postalia) who have been trading in the UK for 20 years so I thought they would be reliable
delivery was set for friday 8th July and i was told i would need to be home as an engineer would need to install it so took the day off work. The company took £200 from my bank account to ensure I would have my monthly postage credit ready to download (i had set a £200 per month limit)
the equipment never turned up - I phoned and was told the item would be delivered the following monday (11th july)- and would be by courier as it was a self install item after all.
The machine turned up, I couldnt get it to work on the monday as the phone number set in the machines modem to obtain postage credit was incorrect - customer support supplied the correct number the next day (12th July) where i proceeded to download £200 of credit onto the machine.
weds 13th july after printing just 5 postage labels the machine packed up and stopped printing correctly, I spoiled £2 worth of postage which i will need to claim back from royal mail. It was out of hours so the support desk was closed. I emailed them.
thurs 14th july I phoned customer support who said i needed to bend a metal clip in the machines ink cartridge holder - this got me another 2 postage labels before the machine stopped printing again. out of hours so customer support emailed
fri 15th july I phoned customer support who said they would send out a new ink cartridge by courier for monday as the cartridge must be faulty
mon 18th july - no cartridge, phoned them, said courier delayed will be here tuesday - company deducted another £200 from my account, phoned and told first £200 was a pre delivery credit and todays £200 was this months payment
tues 19th july - cartridge arrived by royal mail not courier, machine working ok, printed 8 items
weds 20th july - 2 more prints - machine packs up again, out of hours so emailed customer support.
thursday 21st july phoned customer support, told the machine would have to be returned for replacement, told they would send out a new machine machine.
When I asked what would happen to the £181 of credit still sat on the machine I was told I would have to claim that back from royal mail which would take 4-6 weeks, in the meantime I would have to download further credit to use the replacement machine. So i would be out of pocket by £181 for at least 4 weeks due to their inability to supply a working machine
I stated this was unacceptable, that I wanted to cancel the contract as they had failed to provide the service / equipment in a usable condition and that I wanted a full refund of all monies outstanding. Was told no problem and someone from customer accounts would phone me back within the hour.
They never phoned back.
In the period that the machine was not working I have had the additional expense of having to buy £100 of postage by other methods (smartstamp online postage)
now to the question.
What rights do I have to cancel my contract and demand my money back. Is it for me to claim back the outstanding credit sat on the broken machine from royal mail or should the franking machine company refund that immediately.
sorry if the post is a bit long winded but typing it has helped me to calm down a bit
I rented a "Mymail" machine designed for low volume small business use (estimated usage up to 50 items a day)
I entered into a 1 year rental agreement with FP (Francotyp Postalia) who have been trading in the UK for 20 years so I thought they would be reliable
delivery was set for friday 8th July and i was told i would need to be home as an engineer would need to install it so took the day off work. The company took £200 from my bank account to ensure I would have my monthly postage credit ready to download (i had set a £200 per month limit)
the equipment never turned up - I phoned and was told the item would be delivered the following monday (11th july)- and would be by courier as it was a self install item after all.
The machine turned up, I couldnt get it to work on the monday as the phone number set in the machines modem to obtain postage credit was incorrect - customer support supplied the correct number the next day (12th July) where i proceeded to download £200 of credit onto the machine.
weds 13th july after printing just 5 postage labels the machine packed up and stopped printing correctly, I spoiled £2 worth of postage which i will need to claim back from royal mail. It was out of hours so the support desk was closed. I emailed them.
thurs 14th july I phoned customer support who said i needed to bend a metal clip in the machines ink cartridge holder - this got me another 2 postage labels before the machine stopped printing again. out of hours so customer support emailed
fri 15th july I phoned customer support who said they would send out a new ink cartridge by courier for monday as the cartridge must be faulty
mon 18th july - no cartridge, phoned them, said courier delayed will be here tuesday - company deducted another £200 from my account, phoned and told first £200 was a pre delivery credit and todays £200 was this months payment
tues 19th july - cartridge arrived by royal mail not courier, machine working ok, printed 8 items
weds 20th july - 2 more prints - machine packs up again, out of hours so emailed customer support.
thursday 21st july phoned customer support, told the machine would have to be returned for replacement, told they would send out a new machine machine.
When I asked what would happen to the £181 of credit still sat on the machine I was told I would have to claim that back from royal mail which would take 4-6 weeks, in the meantime I would have to download further credit to use the replacement machine. So i would be out of pocket by £181 for at least 4 weeks due to their inability to supply a working machine
I stated this was unacceptable, that I wanted to cancel the contract as they had failed to provide the service / equipment in a usable condition and that I wanted a full refund of all monies outstanding. Was told no problem and someone from customer accounts would phone me back within the hour.
They never phoned back.
In the period that the machine was not working I have had the additional expense of having to buy £100 of postage by other methods (smartstamp online postage)
now to the question.
What rights do I have to cancel my contract and demand my money back. Is it for me to claim back the outstanding credit sat on the broken machine from royal mail or should the franking machine company refund that immediately.
sorry if the post is a bit long winded but typing it has helped me to calm down a bit