united-kingdom ownership warranties
Refusal to Transfer Ownership of Laptop
<p>I have purchased a laptop, but the company from which I bought it is refusing to officially transfer the ownership. It's a Dell laptop and Dell have a form for transferring ownership.
I am based in the UK, but bought this will the UK was in the EU.</p>
<p>My question is simple.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Can a seller legally refuse to transfer ownership of a laptop?</p>
<p>If they are legally required to but still refuse, what recourse do I have?</p>
<p>I still have the receipt from the laptop and the company does not dispute the fact that I bought the exact machine from them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Points for clarity.</strong>
The seller does not dispute that I bought the laptop in question. I have seen other questions, eg <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/56977/how-does-legal-ownership-work-with-second-hand-goods-e-g-sold-on-ebay-facebo">this one</a>, saying that ownership transfers at the point of sale. Dell have a <em>transfer of ownership</em> form for the purchase to be registered. The company are refusing to <em>register</em> the transfer of ownership to me.</p>
<p>According to Dell, the laptop is still not registered to me. As such, they are refusing to service it under its warranty. They do not accept my receipt as evidence. I guess this is fair from their point of view: it doesn't say the service tag, so it really could be <em>any</em> laptop of that model.</p>
<p><strong>Extra details.</strong>
It is a company who have their own website but also trade on eBay, not a private seller; they still trade both on eBay and their website. They are simply saying that they do not transfer ownership. They <em>claim</em> that this was in their listing on eBay, but I have no recollection of this---and likely would not have bought if I had seen it, since it sounds super dodgy---and the eBay listing no longer exists. Further, they claim that the transfer is not necesssary since Dell will service without this. I have not found this to be the case, nor have many others; see below.</p>
<p>Specific pointers to UK law would be appreciated, rather than general references. I'd like to go back to the company armed with facts, not merely opinions, as well-informed as those may be.</p>
<p>I hope that this question will be helpful for others. It appears that proof of ownership is a big issue for Dell laptops. See the image at the end of the question, arising from a search for <em>refusal to transfer ownership laptop</em>, for evidence of this!</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3vw74.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3vw74.png" alt="Google Search" /></a></p>

<p>You have no relationship with Dell.</p>
<p>You bought the laptop from the seller. I am not intimately familiar with UK Law, but assuming they implemented EU directives correctly while they were still in the EU, then you have a 2-year warranty <em>from the seller</em> for any defects that existed <em>at the time of sale</em>. (Where a defect is defined as anything that makes the laptop not fit for its agreed-upon purpose if you defined a specific purpose in the contract, its advertised purpose if the seller advertised it, or the purpose that a reasonable member of the public would commonly expect, if nothing was advertised.) Furthermore, during the first 6 months, there is a reversal of the burden of proof, where the seller has to prove that the defect did not yet exist at the time of sale – as a general rule in civil law, the person making a claim (in this case, you would be the one claiming that the defect existed at the time of sale) has the burden of proof, so after 6 months, the burden of proof is on you.</p>
<p>Note that warranty entitles you only to repair or replacement, but not return.</p>
<p>Of course, you can <em>also</em> buy <em>additional</em> warranty from a third party. For example, Dell sells extended manufacturer warranties. But you didn't buy an extended manufacturer warranty from Dell: the seller did.</p>
<p>You <em>can</em> buy warranty from anyone you want. E.g., for my bike, I bought a warranty from a third party, neither the seller nor the manufacturer. In your case, you didn't buy any warranty, but obviously you still have the default warranty by the seller.</p>
