Question

QUESTION 5

1. Phoebe has gone to the local mobile phone store to purchase a new phone plan. She has no real intention of getting a new phone – the recent COVID-19 events have left her with no spare cash. She can afford a $40 a month plan at the moment on her budget.

QUESTION 6

1. Natalie has decided that she wants to build her own bicycle as a project to help her cope with the social isolation measures in place. She looks around on-line and decides to source her bicycle components from the famous bicycle parts store “Wally’s Private Parts”.

   Natalie makes a special trip out to Wally’s (as it is colloquially known) to pick up the bike frame, wheels and handle bars. As she enters the store, she sees a helmet on display for $10. Because she has been searching on-line, she knows that this model helmet is worth at least $90.

   She goes up to the counter and speaks with Kristin, the bike maintenance technician about the parts she is here to pick up. “Are you sure these handlebars are OK for the mountain biking I am looking to do?”

   “I’m pretty sure,” says Kristin. “In fact, I’ll stress test them myself out the back before you go so that you can be sure.”

   Just as she is about to go up to the counter a new customer, Ryan, enters the store. He grabs the last helmet on display and brusquely pushes in front of Natalie. “I’ll take the helmet – here’s my $10” he states.

   Kristin, obviously annoyed at his behaviour, says “Oh, that’s a mistake. I’ve been meaning to change that sign for some time. Wally made a mistake when he made that sign - it’s meant to be $100 – I can’t sell it to you at that price.”

   Ryan starts arguing for the next five minutes before leaving – without the helmet and very annoyed.

   Kristin apologises to Natalie and goes out the back to get her parts. Unfortunately the argument with Ryan distracted her and she forgets to stress test the handle bars.

   “Here you go,” she says. “Hope you enjoy the project and riding the finished product!”

   Natalie goes home and carefully completes the project. On the first ride on a trail, the handlebars start coming loose and bending – they were not designed for such rough terrain. It causes Natalie to come off the bike, badly breaking her arm and she is off work for 4 weeks.

   Write a memo to Wally the owner ofWally’s Private Parts outlining if the store is vicariously liable for negligence. To do this, your memo should apply the ILAC method, where possible, and it should cover:

   • all the steps required to show if Kristin is negligent ; and
   • why or why not Wally would liable for her acts or omissions .

   You do NOT need to cover defences.

Answer 1

Firslty Q5 is not providing complete information so assuming that student is looking for an answer on Q6.

Answer to Q6

Part 1 ) Based on ILAC method, Memo would be as follows:-

Issue - Negligence & incomplete or misleading information by the staff (Kristin) at the store - I was in the store looking for some parts for my bicycle project and the first thing I saw was a helmet on display for just $10.00 whereas the actual worth of that helmet was atleast $90.00. I rushed to the counter and met with one of the bike maintenance technician "Kristin" and when I expressed my requirement for strong handle bars with a purpose of mountain biking, she assured me that the handle bars the particular handle bars were quite sufficient for that and she would run a stress test by herself before I leave the store. Though, just before I could complete my purchase, there was another customer "Ryan" who rushed in and picked up that same helmet of $10.00 and approached towards Kristin for payment but Kristin refused to accept the payment stating that it was a clerical error at their end and it should be $100.00 not $10.00 so she wouldn't be able to sell it at that price, Ryan very disappointedly left the store without helmet. Coming back to handle bars, they bent & broke the bicycle on very first trail and resulted in me breaking one of my arms and getting off the work for 4 crucial weeks during such crucial times.  

Law - Law clearly states that customer should have the complete information about the product before the purchase so that customer can take informed decision and the products in display should have right information on display pertaining to product standards, price, quality etc.

Analysis - The entire incident leads to couple of things to be noted, Was Krisitn not competent enough to handle 2 customers at a time or she was an emotional person by nature who got carried away by the emotions of one customer and forgot about commitment to second customer, Was she careless or having laid back attitude towards work or did she really forget to update the price of the helmet.

Conclusion - If we consider all the facts and events as in happened then it is clearly the mistake of Kristin and her negligience towards work has resulted into disappointment for me & Ryan as far as wrong price commitment on display was concerned and for me particularly as the quality which was assured to me was never there and the handle bars were never meant to be used for mountain biking purpose. The onus of rectifying her error and repaying for the loss and damage stays with the business Wally's Private Parts and thus towards Wally

Part 2 ) By law and as well as by ethical means, the onus of correcting the errors and ommissions of any employee always stay with the business for which businesses even buy erros and ommissions (liability) insurances. In this case being a private business, the business owner Wally is in line of fire and should eat up for the loss indirectly occured to it's customers due to the error at his staff's part.