I dont know whether it is a good idea for me to tell you ladies this or not because there are only 2 ways you are going to see me: either as a bimbo or as an absolutely nasty total-psycho 
but I want to tell you I won a legal case against a computer repair shop today. I got back £50 (accrued interest included) but the legal cost was £4,229.10. Youve read that right it was over £4,000 ($8000+)
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So the story was this; about five months ago I went to a shop (near Oxford Street for those who have been to London) to get my notebooks DVD-RW drive changed because one-year warranty was already out. The shop quoted me a service charge of £55 + VAT which was a ridiculous sum equalling the hourly wage of a Wall Street trader. I thought it was a rip-off but I thought lets just get it over and done with. So they have asked me to get pay a £35 + VAT booking fee upfront which they said will be reimbursed if I decided to have them service my computer. I agreed to that so now and waited for them to give me a quote on the DVD-RW drive. The shop came back and quoted me £690 when I looked on eBay and found one for £275. So I told them that I am going to get the drive from eBay for you to replace. To which they said OK.
So when I went back to them with the drive, the guy repairing it said the total bill is going to be £55 + VAT but when I came to collect it, he charged me £105.63 (i.e. with the £35 + VAT as well)! I think it is because they have the intentions to extort me with the ridiculous price of the DVD-RW drive but I caught them out so they decided to do this instead. They werent willing to budge after I spoke one sentence to the manager (more is completely unnecessarily). So I turned on my ruthless streak, LOL and told them: I will pay now and expect to hear from my solicitor (US = attorney) tomorrow. Out of pure recklessness, I got a solicitor/friend who is a partner in a leading London firm to deal with this. He usually deals with $10m+ commercial contract problems but now I am asking him to deal with a £100 personal contract, LOL. Fortunately after a bit of nagging, he said OK on the condition that I cook him a Sunday lunch
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To cut the story short, the 1st time he sent a letter to the shop to notify my intentions to take them to court, the shop immediately offered to reimburse but I said no way! So it ends up at a hearing in the County/Small Claims Court (because it was less than £5,000) today. It was pretty basic because, lets say, their lawyer was much less experienced and my guy was on the top of his game. From when the judge asked whether we will want to settle this (to which my solicitor obviously says no) to the verdict of both unfair and hidden terms in the contract as well as minor fraud charge. It was over in less than an hour. But what a bonus that the judge ordered them to pay full legal costs! Guess how much it is? £4229.10 was the cost that my friend would have charged me if I was a stranger - for about 2 hours work or something - so that is the bill that they are going to be sent. So he pocketed it and I got my £50. I cant even buy the lunch with my solicitor friend with it but it is the sweetest £50 in my life!
BTW, What do you ladies think? Am I an absolutely nasty person or is it justified to take the ruthless route :?:
but I want to tell you I won a legal case against a computer repair shop today. I got back £50 (accrued interest included) but the legal cost was £4,229.10. Youve read that right it was over £4,000 ($8000+).So the story was this; about five months ago I went to a shop (near Oxford Street for those who have been to London) to get my notebooks DVD-RW drive changed because one-year warranty was already out. The shop quoted me a service charge of £55 + VAT which was a ridiculous sum equalling the hourly wage of a Wall Street trader. I thought it was a rip-off but I thought lets just get it over and done with. So they have asked me to get pay a £35 + VAT booking fee upfront which they said will be reimbursed if I decided to have them service my computer. I agreed to that so now and waited for them to give me a quote on the DVD-RW drive. The shop came back and quoted me £690 when I looked on eBay and found one for £275. So I told them that I am going to get the drive from eBay for you to replace. To which they said OK.
So when I went back to them with the drive, the guy repairing it said the total bill is going to be £55 + VAT but when I came to collect it, he charged me £105.63 (i.e. with the £35 + VAT as well)! I think it is because they have the intentions to extort me with the ridiculous price of the DVD-RW drive but I caught them out so they decided to do this instead. They werent willing to budge after I spoke one sentence to the manager (more is completely unnecessarily). So I turned on my ruthless streak, LOL and told them: I will pay now and expect to hear from my solicitor (US = attorney) tomorrow. Out of pure recklessness, I got a solicitor/friend who is a partner in a leading London firm to deal with this. He usually deals with $10m+ commercial contract problems but now I am asking him to deal with a £100 personal contract, LOL. Fortunately after a bit of nagging, he said OK on the condition that I cook him a Sunday lunch
.To cut the story short, the 1st time he sent a letter to the shop to notify my intentions to take them to court, the shop immediately offered to reimburse but I said no way! So it ends up at a hearing in the County/Small Claims Court (because it was less than £5,000) today. It was pretty basic because, lets say, their lawyer was much less experienced and my guy was on the top of his game. From when the judge asked whether we will want to settle this (to which my solicitor obviously says no) to the verdict of both unfair and hidden terms in the contract as well as minor fraud charge. It was over in less than an hour. But what a bonus that the judge ordered them to pay full legal costs! Guess how much it is? £4229.10 was the cost that my friend would have charged me if I was a stranger - for about 2 hours work or something
- so that is the bill that they are going to be sent. So he pocketed it and I got my £50. I cant even buy the lunch with my solicitor friend with it but it is the sweetest £50 in my life!BTW, What do you ladies think? Am I an absolutely nasty person or is it justified to take the ruthless route :?:
That shop totally had it coming
