Legal Question in Consumer Law in Pennsylvania

Re: Damage to goods on delivery

The bottom line is you need to make a determination as to the value of the item and how much you want to spend in legal fees....call up the shipper and the store and see if they will trade it in on another piece, if that doesn't work ask for a discount....if that doesn't work you are going to have to sue them.

Sincerely,

Marc V. Taiani, Esquire

412.731.0865

Re: Damage to goods on delivery

It depends on the terms of sale which would be contained in the sale slip and any other agreements.

Very generally you have three days from the date of sale to revoke a sale.

While the store could claim that the damage was made at a later time it is just as likely that the piece was damaged before or after being wrapped. Two situations there, it was damaged and then wrapped which would be an intentional concealment and not only a civil action but also potentially a criminal act. Or the damage could have happened after it was wrapped and been intentional.

In either case the burden is on you to prove that the damage was caused at or by the shipper. This wouldn't be difficult but it depends on the value of the piece. Legal costs could easily exceed the value of the item.

You may try making this claim in small claims court but you would need to have actual or testimonial evidence of who or how the piece was damaged.

This is just another example of why you must always use a credit card to make purchases. Yes I know there are reasons to avoid that, such as cash discounts or the fact that card issuers are money grubbing slime. But the card issuers rules would have protected you in this case.

Good luck.

Regards,

Roger Traversa

[email protected]