Consumer Rights: MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

plombier

In a simil;ar vein, read article in mail today re; warranties,
It states that in england and wales you have a redress for a period of SIX years, in scotland FIVE years against the retailer irrespective of the warranty period at time of purchase.
This should mean that my dishwasher that blew up at 18 mths old should still be eligible for repair, even though it has a 12 mth warranty.
Does anyone have any opinions( I am sure you all have!) or practical experience of this....................I would love to know.
Le Plombier

Tozer

plombier wrote: »

In a simil;ar vein, read article in mail today re; warranties,
It states that in england and wales you have a redress for a period of SIX years, in scotland FIVE years against the retailer irrespective of the warranty period at time of purchase.
This should mean that my dishwasher that blew up at 18 mths old should still be eligible for repair, even though it has a 12 mth warranty.
Does anyone have any opinions( I am sure you all have!) or practical experience of this....................I would love to know.
Le Plombier

Bull.

Limitation Act 1980 requires claims for breach of contract to be filed within 6 years. If there is no breach of contract, your claim will be chucked out after 20 minutes, let alone 6 years.

Sale of Goods Act requires items to be fit for purpose, of satisfactory quality and comply with description for a reasonable period. Sadly, the law does not say what a reasonable period is. But, to be frank, that is right. A reasonable period for a Rolls Royce differs from a reasonable period for a pack of pork scratchings.

I find it so, so sad that yet another law is misconstrued. You do NOT have rights to a 6 year guarantee.

tbw

Tozer wrote: »

Bull.

Limitation Act 1980 requires claims for breach of contract to be filed within 6 years. If there is no breach of contract, your claim will be chucked out after 20 minutes, let alone 6 years.

Sale of Goods Act requires items to be fit for purpose, of satisfactory quality and comply with description for a reasonable period. Sadly, the law does not say what a reasonable period is. But, to be frank, that is right. A reasonable period for a Rolls Royce differs from a reasonable period for a pack of pork scratchings.

I find it so, so sad that yet another law is misconstrued. You do NOT have rights to a 6 year guarantee.

You are probably right ! But, according to various press reports over the last day or two, EU Law stipulates that items such as electrical goods (I'm not sure exactly what it covers) MUST have a 2 year guarantee ! Customers are said to be entitled to a free repair OR a replacement if the item cannot be repaired. Apparently stores have kept very quiet about this as obviously it means that customers will be able to get a much better deal when things go wrong after anything up to 2 years. It impacts on things like xtended warranties as well - these normally take effect after the first year - so customers may well have been 'done' out of a free years cover.

There is a lot in the press about aman who managed to screw Tesco into the ground over faulty equipment and get a replacement. Possibly still a bit of a grey area but it makes a change fo EU laws and regulations to actually work in our favour!

tbw

plombier wrote: »

In a simil;ar vein, read article in mail today re; warranties,
It states that in england and wales you have a redress for a period of SIX years, in scotland FIVE years against the retailer irrespective of the warranty period at time of purchase.
This should mean that my dishwasher that blew up at 18 mths old should still be eligible for repair, even though it has a 12 mth warranty.
Does anyone have any opinions( I am sure you all have!) or practical experience of this....................I would love to know.
Le Plombier

I don't think its the 6 year redress period that you need to look at - its the EU law that apparently stipulates that you MUST be given a 2 year guarantee and are entitled to either a repair or a replacement if the item cannot be repaired for any reason. On the face of it you should get a good result if you are prepared to stand your ground.

No doubt we will all end up paying for this in the form of higher purchase costs.

bookworm1363

Tozer wrote: »

You do NOT have rights to a 6 year guarantee.

To be fair, I don't think that was what OP was asking, he was asking if he had redress in the case of an 18 mths old dishwasher which failed, and to that, the clear answer must be YES.

Plombier, you need to go back to the retailer which sold you the d/washer. If they try to fob you off with the "over 12 mths old, nothing we can do, go to manufacturer" line, you need to stand firm and refer to SOGA as the d/washer not being of satisfactory quality in relation to durability/price paid and force them to uphold your statutory rights. Talk to a manager, the shop staff are usually completely unuware of what stat rights entail.

Tozer

bookworm1363 wrote: »

To be fair, I don't think that was what OP was asking, he was asking if he had redress in the case of an 18 mths old dishwasher which failed, and to that, the clear answer must be YES.
.

I was responding to Plombier's comment : "It states that in england and wales you have a redress for a period of SIX years".

This is not correct.

bookworm1363

Tozer wrote: »

I was responding to Plombier's comment : "It states that in england and wales you have a redress for a period of SIX years".

This is not correct.

But it is. the LA1980 clearly provides up to 6 yrs to seek redress. You even said so yourself in your post.

I agree that's a far cry from a systematic warranty/guarantee on goods and that people do tend to confuse the two, but strictly speaking, the statement is factually correct, even though there'll be few circumstances in reality where someone will be able to get redress in the case of breach of SOGA when close to the 6 years period.

shaggy

4743hudsonj wrote: »

Now as i said before if this doesnt work you can rely on the sale of goods act for p to 5 years, you need to email fax or write (NOT PHONE) them stating your case, but under the sale of goods act, it is only up to the company to prove a fualt up to 6 months from the start of the contract, after that it is your responsibility, this means that in order for you to get anywhere you need to prove there is a fault with the laptop by taking it to an IT specialist and getting them to run full diagnostics and provide you written confirmation of their findings.

Now, to get one of these reports i would first try dell themselves, see if they allow you to pay for this service as they cannot deny their own findings (or i hope they cant lol), if not try the tech guys at pc world, im not sure if they supply it to computers not bought at pc world etc but worth a try. if all else fails ring around the yellow pages for local it specialists seeing if they can provide you one.

then if any of them find anything send a photocopy of this in with your letter and a photocopy of your receipt and give them 2 weeks to reply, say that if they do not then you will begin small claims court proceeding.,

Warning - it might be obvious but to be sure, dont send the letter in if there are no findings in the report, or if they put it down to abuse, you will just be wasting time that way.

regards

some good advice there. I will try Dell first , lets hope i can get a decent person on the other end of the phone, like someone who's in UK or Ireland who *might* understand the law in this country.

Tozer

bookworm1363 wrote: »

But it is. the LA1980 clearly provides up to 6 yrs to seek redress. You even said so yourself in your post.

I agree that's a far cry from a systematic warranty/guarantee on goods and that people do tend to confuse the two, but strictly speaking, the statement is factually correct, even though there'll be few circumstances in reality where someone will be able to get redress in the case of breach of SOGA when close to the 6 years period.

There is a subtle distinction. The Limitation Act bars claims after 6 years.

However, it is wrong to say that there IS redress for 6 years.

If the law considers that a reasonable period has elapsed within the 6 years, then no redress is possible.

dobspoon_2

Hi
Infuriating time just spent in HMV. My wife bought an iTrip for the car and it didn't work. I took it back on my way home from work, refusing the kind offer of exchange or gift voucher as I wanted to buy one which did work from another shop (this was the only sort they sold).
The shop manager refused to give me a refund on the grounds that I did not have the card used for purchase on me. I asked for cash and was denied this. I asked whether this was policy or law and she stated it was the latter. I strongly suspect that this is not the case.
Can anyone answer this definitively for me - does the method of payment matter or am I entitled to a refund on my wife's purchase (I can see how there could be a problem in that I didn't make the purchase - but this wasn't the point being made) regardless of my not being in possession of the card it was bought with?
Best wishes
Chris