A B.C. company has lost its small claims action attempting to get a man to pay for the online purchase of a $4,500 unicycle that turned out to be defective due to software issues.
Brian McNeil bought the unicycle in August 2022 from 1077279 BC Ltd. through 107’s online store Vancouver Electric Unicycles, or vanEUC.com
McNeil charged the $4,514.35 price tag to his credit card but later said the unicycle was defective after a software update rendered the unicycle inoperable.
As such, he had his credit card issuer reverse the charge.
“I find (the company) breached the parties’ agreement to sell a functioning unicycle and Mr. McNeil was entitled to a refund,” B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal Shelley Lopez said in her July 19 decision.
The company filed the claim to get payment.
McNeil said the unicycle was defective on delivery.
The company denied that but acknowledged the unicycle became inoperable shortly after, when it said McNeil tried to install a software update.
The company said it tried to work remotely with McNeil on the unicycle’s issues but he then reversed the credit card charge.
McNeil had also communicated with the manufacturer in an effort to get the unicycle operational.
Soon, the company messaged McNeil saying it would send a pre-paid shipping label for him to return the unicycle, and that it would not subsequently challenge the credit card payment reversal.
Shortly after, the company advised that it had figured out a way to fix the unicycle but sought payment of the purchase price first.
McNeil declined, saying he needed to see the unicycle work before paying for it.
Lopez said the company did not send the shipping label.
She found McNeil would have paid for the unicycle had the company implemented its fix first and solved the issue.
