warranty and implied warranty of merchantability

[artmaker]

Hello,
I live in Michigan, I ordered a used transmition from a company in TX.
This part is used, I know it's a crap shoot as to how good it is. They gave a 90 day warranty on the part. NOT labor.
However!
AFTER my mechanic installed this thing, it does NOT work. Will not shift into second or over drive, and a hold light stays flashing.
At my request, and with me in the room, I had him call TWO other transmition specialests. (He is a general fix all mechanic, not a specialist.)
BOTH seem to agree it's an internal sencor inside this transmition.
Pro Transmition said "It's NO GOOD."
I was told BEFORE I bought this thing that it "has been tested." It never should have passed.
Now, I will have to pay the mechanic to put in, then remove this worthless part. I'll of course have to pay him again when a replacement comes. There will be several days between him getting the bad part out and a new one arriving. He needs to put the axel back on to get my car out of his way. MORE LABOR!
The company is basically telling me that's too bad. ALL they will do is send me a replacement part. (Which now I don't want. If they sent me one bad one, why wouldn't they do it again?)
I SIGNED a contract with them about this part only warranty. AND it states something about not being able to go directly through my credit card to revesrse the charges. (Yes, red flags SHOULD have gone up over that one. My red flagpole gets clogged sometimes.)

My legal question here is this.
I read that "implied warranty of merchantability" states that you are suppose to get a part that does what it is sold to do. Since I NEVER had a working part. If it worked for five minutes then gave out that would be that. But it was shipped bad! Wouldn't that preceed and therefore void the part only, no labor, no refund end of that contract I signed? I mean, wouldn't that be a breach of contract on the sellers part?
I don't suppose there is any way to make them eat the labor. Probably not worth hiring a lawyer over 250 bucks. But I DO want a full refund for their part AND shipping. I'll get a GOOD part elsewhere!

Finally, this company (who treats their customers like crap by the way) insists they want this part back to test for themself. (As they claim they already did!) They have already implied my mechanic is incompitant. Not so! IF they try and claim HE damaged this part, what can I do???
Should I pay to have it tested before I let them touch it? Sort of a CYA thing here?
Any advice is appreciated.

 

[shortbus]

The parts company gave you a warranty on the part -- not labor.

The part has been found to be defective, so they are offering to replace the part -- and not pay the labor.

In other words, they're doing exactly what they said they'd do under the contract.

 

[artmaker]

Thanks for the reply,
I actually posted my problem in two forums. A lawyer on the other one tells me I CAN reverse the charges, and possibly file in small claims.
So this is still my question.
A part is suppose to come able to do what it was sold as being able to do. If it did not COME that way, why should I pay labor to have it installed, and removed???
This doesn't seem right. And there is NO guarantee my replacement won't have the exact same problem.
NO, I do NOT want a replacement. I want a FULL refund. And if possible, they should eat my out of pocket "damages" for this as well.

 

[shortbus]

You can believe whomever you want. In my view, you have no case. A small claims judge will look at the warranty and dismiss your claim.

If you wanted a reliable part, you could've purchased a new one -- it was your choice to take the risk that it wouldn't work, and that you would absorb the labor costs. You made a bad bet. Sorry.

 

[artmaker]

Hello again,
I called my credit card company and explained this contract I signed. There IS a possibility I can reverse the charges despite their contract stating replacement only and despite their part in the contract stating not to go through my credit card company. They ask I try and resolve with the company first and I agree. I sent in the form they wanted to retrieve this part along with a letter of my disgust! I'll post what happens later...

At this point, I may just eat the lost labor but I do NOT want anything from this company. I want a full refund, including the shipping.
Been doing more checking. The fact is, they did NOT test this part, even though they claim they did. THREE mechanics tell me it's internal sencors. Two are "TRANSMITION specialists" and don't even have the equipment needed to check this forign part for this particular bug. It's not a streatch to think neither does this company.
Perhaps this is a rare enough problem that it doesn't often come up. So I got the rare one. THEY aught to stand behind their damn products don't ya think???
Bottom line is I have NO guarantee the replacement part isn't the same, or even the very same part for that matter. What's to keep them from "testing it" and telling me it's fine? AGAIN? Or that they try and tell me my mechanic screwed it up. (Which they already implied over the phone.)
NO! I DO have some recorse here. I know it! You cannot TELL a consumer a part is sold in good working order and ship a defective one. That will be what I tell a judge should I decide to try and get back my "damages" or lost labor charges. The warranty covers the part going bad in a given time period. Not being shipped that way!

Now in all fairness to you here, the other lawyer I have been talking with just gave me some terrible advice. In the contract it states any problems must be resolved through arbitration through.... (and I don't have it in front of me.) SHE stated I could still file in small claims and say this was "burried in the contract." Well not!
I read contracts. I knew that was in there. And I'm a terrible lier!
But I keep going back to the implied warranty thing. When they SHIPPED a bad part, they already voided any agreement we had about this part before I ordered it! That it was good, tested, blah blah.

OH, BTW. The company also told me on the phone that I was "offered an extended warranty" which would have covered labor. NO WAY BOY! I'd have taken that!!!! And NO mention of such a warranty appears in ANY paperwork. BS!