The rubber cord was frayed beyond belief, I could see the bare tinned copper sticking out.
Now that's where you'd have a comeback if he'd told you it was perfect when it clearly wasn't (although if it was something as obvious as that, I'm sure that if it went to court it could be argued that it should have been obvious to you that it wasn't).
If some of the health-&-safety nuts got their way though, there would be laws preventing you from buying such an item even if you were told "It's not safe, needs work" and you were happy to buy it in that condition nevertheless.
Also, what does that black female connector look like from the front, by the way?
My guess would be that it's the type which has two round pins for power plus a rectangular one for the earth connection.
They replaced the 2-pin-plus-sliding-side-earth type and were very common on British kettles in the 1950s/60s/70s before the more modern IEC-type connector started to takeover.
