Liberty Consumables took a liberty when describing my HP cartridge

In November 2010, I bought an HP colour ink cartridge from Liberty Consumables, on Amazon’s Marketplace. I paid £9.99 plus £4.13 postage and the delivery note stated this cartridge was ‘Old Stock’.

It went on to say that the cartridge was fine to use and there was a 100 per cent money-back guarantee if not satisfied.

At the beginning of July this year I needed to install this cartridge but found it was faulty. I contacted Liberty Consumables for a replacement but heard nothing.

Amazon said that it was too late to use its A-Z guarantee and I had to deal with Liberty myself.
Don Pearson

Mr Pearson was not really worried about the money he had lost buying the faulty cartridge, but felt that Liberty Consumables had acted “dishonourably”.

The company was clear in the delivery note about the cartridge being ‘old stock’ but this should also have been clearly shown on the website so potential customers were notified before placing an order.

Not doing this would be a breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations for misrepresenting goods. It would also be a breach of the Sale of Goods Act for goods not being as described.

But the customer’s contract is with the trader that is using Amazon Marketplace and not Amazon itself. Amazon merely acts as a conduit, offering a trading platform for which the seller pays a fee.

Our investigations reveal Liberty Consumables may not be trading any more. The phone isn’t answered and there has been no feedback for more than 90 days.

Amazon will try to help buyers who have problems with traders, which is why it has put in place its A-Z buyers protection programme. This guarantees a refund to buyers of up to £2,000, including delivery charges, for physical goods bought from third-party sellers.

Protection ranges from faulty or damaged goods, those not as described and the wrong item sent, to non-delivery. However, there are some conditions. The purchase must have been made through the Amazon website.

The buyer must first try to rectify the situation by contacting the seller. Then the buyer must file a claim within 90 days of the order date.

If a claim is denied by Amazon, the buyer can appeal the decision within 90 days of receiving notification of this refusal.

However, as Mr Pearson discovered, once outside the time period, the consumer has to deal with the matter without Amazon’s help. This is perfectly legal as there is no contract with Amazon and the guarantee is a goodwill gesture.