Unfair Contract Terms – Rental Scooters Strathclyde Ltd Review under Distance Selling Regulations

CONSUMER CONTRACTS (INFORMATION, CANCELLATION AND ADDITIONAL CHARGES) REGULATIONS 2013

FORMERLY “CONSUMER PROTECTION (DISTANCE SELLING) REGULATIONS 2000”

ALSO KNOWN AS “DISTANCE SELLING REGULATIONS”

UNFAIR CONTRACT TERMS

Why Did We Make This Information Available?

We are making this information available because when we took a trader to court (and won) the Court asked if we knew of another instance of Unfair Contract Terms under the Act; we didn’t at the time. we are sharing it now in case it helps others, as you can cite this case to support your own.

Our worry all along was that this Strathclyde Mobilty Scooters business was breaking the law, and was potentially taking advantage of the elderly and vulnerable, and we couldn't let that happen.

We did all this on our own, we were lucky enough to have a sitting Scottish Judge look through the case notes for us, but he just agreed with us, we had a case.

Case Details

Sheriff Court: Lanark

Date of order: 13 May 2025

Claimant: Mr and Mrs Scaife,

Respondent: RENTAL SCOOTERS STRATHCLYDE LTD, 6 Turnpike Road, LANARK, ML11 9YD (Represented by owner Mr Lloyd Jamieson)

Case reference number: LAN-SG169-24

Note: While we ended up going to the Scottish Sheriffs Court as this case was a small claim (they call it a Simple Procedure).

We purchased a mobility scooter from RENTAL SCOOTERS STRATHCLYDE LTD (sometimes trading as MOBILITY SCOOTER / MOBILITY SCOOTERS DIRECT on Facebook and ebay) after seeing their listing on Facebook Marketplace. The sale began there and continued through Messenger. The scooter was delivered promptly to a property in Scotland for a family member (importantly none of this was done at the retailers premises, so as an off-premise sale, we were covered by the CONSUMER CONTRACTS (INFORMATION, CANCELLATION AND ADDITIONAL CHARGES) REGULATIONS 2013 (which the Sheriff agreed with).

However, within 14 days (actually day 13), we informed RENTAL SCOOTERS STRATHCLYDE LTD that the family member no longer needed the scooter. We attempted to cancel the contract and requested a refund.

Lloyd Jamieson and RENTAL SCOOTERS STRATHCLYDE LTD refused, claiming they had previously stated that no refunds would be given. We believed this was an Unfair Contract Term, and despite our efforts (including text messages, emails, a formal cancellation letter, a letter before court action, and even a settlement agreement … the seller held firm).

Eventually, the matter was taken to Court. The Sheriff found in our favour, agreeing that the conduct of Lloyd Jamieson and RENTAL SCOOTERS STRATHCLYDE LTD was indeed unfair. Trading Standards have since confirmed that their actions were not just unfair but unlawful. The contract was officially cancelled, we arranged for them to pick up the scooter, and after all that, we finally received our refund from RENTAL SCOOTERS STRATHCLYDE LTD.

This experience stands as both a legal example, and also as real customer feedback on Rental Scooters Strathclyde Ltd / Mobility Scooters Direct. If you’re checking reviews before buying, consider how other companies might responded in this situation.

It's worth noting that the seller didn’t provide us with any terms of sale, or more importantly details on how we could cancel the contract (another legal requirement), in law.

If the seller didn’t give you the required information about your right to cancel, then your right to cancel extends from the usual 14 days to a full 12 months.

That’s right – 12 months to cancel, starting from the day after you received the goods.

Now, if they eventually do give you the proper cancellation information within that 12 months, your 14-day cancellation period starts from that point instead.

So if you find yourself in a similar situation to us, feel free to use this case as an example case, to help you get your money back. 

Good luck

 

Useful Links:

Citizens Advice were really helpful and a good sounding board, they also have the templates for the formal cancellation letter, and the letter before court action. We would recommend that rather than phone them, you do the online chat thing as you can arrange to email a transcript of the chat through to yourself, we submitted all of chats as case evidence.

Settlement Agreement – this was written for us by a solicitor friend, use it before legal action, you may need to make some small tweaks and add in your own details.

Get In Touch via this JotForm if you have any further questions that we haven't answered here and we'll try to help the best we can. 

If you came here looking for a review of Rental Scooters Strathclyde Ltd or feedback on Mobility Scooters Direct, we hope this case study has given you some useful insight into their approach to customer service. We will not be recommending them and suggest you run a mile in the opposite direction rather than buy or rent anything from them.