A WEE COUNTY pensioner was left nearly £4000 out of pocket after a solar battery system installed at his home turned out to be faulty.

Robert Fleming handed over £3700 for the alternative energy unit to be installed in September, only to find it was temperamental from the off.

In a bid to claim a refund, Mr Fleming filed a Section 75 claim against his bank – his card provider.

This process, which applies when customers use a credit card to buy goods or services, can be used to demand repayment from the card company if the goods purchased do not work.

Initially, Mr Fleming's appeal was rejected by the bank as the company who supplied the solar battery system had taken payment using another business name and had failed to provide Mr Fleming with any official paperwork for the goods.

Faced with no other options, the Clacks man contacted the Stirling and Clackmannanshire Trading Standards team, who challenged his bank’s decision not to refund him the money.

Mr Fleming said : “I don’t think I would have been able to resolve the situation on my own. I am extremely grateful for their help.

“I certainly would not have been able to battle on indefinitely. I can’t thank them enough.

"Contacting the Trading Standards team for help was the first step in me getting the situation resolved and my money back.”

He added: “My advice to anyone who finds themselves in a position similar to mine is not to struggle on alone, reach out for help.”

Mr Fleming received compensation in full for the faulty solar battery system as a result of Trading Standards intervention.

A spokesperson for Trading Standards added: “We advised Mr Fleming to raise a Section 75 equal liability claim with his card provider and when the card provider rejected the claim, we intervened.

“We outlined to them where we believed his case met the required guidelines to be successful and made it clear that if the matter was not resolved to his satisfaction that a complaint would be raised with the Financial Ombudsman Service.

"It was further to this intervention that the card provider then agreed to meet the claim in full, albeit they claimed that this was as a gesture of goodwill to Mr Fleming.”

Anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation can contact Advice Direct Scotland at advicedirect.scot or by calling 0808 164 6000.