My son bought a Hofner vintage guitar by cheque in Paris for 1400 Euros on 3rd July 2007. The owner of the shop assuredhim that the guitar he was buying was in good condition as a playable instrument. He stated that the action could easily be adjusted.
However when we brought the guitar to a guitar shop in England a number of serious problems were found;
The main points are:
1 – neck is bowed beyond repair – no truss rod to adjust neck
2 – cracks where neck meets the body
3 – pickups weak need rewind
4 – switches need rewire
This was obviously a serious disappointment for us and we contacted the Euroinformation Centre in Strasburg to support us. They attempted to contact the shop owner on a number of occasions in August but he was refused to co-operate and refund us for the instrument that is not fit for purpose. We therefore wrote to him ourselves to request a refund but he is refusing to do so.
We would be very grateful for your advise. We are aware that we are entitled to either a repair or a refund under Directive 1999/44/EC : Sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees : http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l32022.htm (english).
Unfortunately a repair is out of the question as this is a vintage instrument with no truss rod to adjust and any repair would affect the originality of the instrument. We have now gone to a lot of extra trouble to allow the shop owner a fair amount of time to resolve the issue and really need some good advice please. We've been told to get a sollicitor in the UK but does this make sense as we'll end up forking out a lot of cash and no guarantee in a French court. Any advice, help, contacts gratefully received.
Gez