Reasonable lengh of time-Sale of goods act

Inverness

Your local CAB should have a Consumer expert. They will generally help you as the TV should last at least 5 years without a fault BUT you will need to try the manager at the store first. Stay calm and polite, don't assume they will be unreasonable!

happi_2

Just a thought, but what about going back to the store where you bought the tv and have a chat with the sales staff/manager as though you were a new customer. Let them give you the sales pitch for the tv you have bought and then ask them if the TV is a good investment etc - I'm sure they will tell you it will last a good few years..."funny you should say that" may then be your reply! Good luck.

Carlos~

Ok an update.

Spoke to comet.. they told me to get an engineer out to see what the issue is. They said that sometimes if it's a major fault they may do something.

Anyway as the Tv is over 22inchs £30 call out charge.. then the engineer turns up today- booked for the morning but turned up at 4pm . After a quick look he states it has 2 faults. The first (blue courner) should be cleared by a software update which they will arrange!! 2) the lines across the screen is one of two boards (or could be both) so after robbing me of another £45 to diagnose these faults he's calling me back tomorrow with the cost of the parts.. Once I have this cost I am going to speak to comet again tell them of my intention to take them to the small claims court if they don't refund me and fix this for nothing! (i've already told them to note this down before the engineer came out).

So at the moment i'm £75 out of pocket and anticipate a bill to dwalf this tomorrow..

I'll let you know the cost and what Comet have said tomorrow.

Any additional advice is always appricated!
Thanks
Carl

Steve_xx

Comet must foot the bill for all of this.

picklepick

Just a thought, but have you tried speaking to Samsung direct? If Comet are kicking up a fuss about paying id approach Samsung and see if they've had any issues.

At the end of the day, if a retailer has a faulty product they return the item to the manufacturer, in this case Samsung, and claim the cost back from them.

noratw

you are correct in that the TV should last a reasonable ammount of time, but reasonable is just not defined, I would suggest that a year is too short, ten years is a long time and maybe five years is a reasonable time. So what you need to do is divide the price of the TV by 5 and multiply that by the number of years use you have had, take that away from the oringinal price and you have a figure for the ammount of compensation that you will claim. Add a little for the time you have taken pursung the matter, then write to the retailler asking for that ammount, or a free repair. If you are unable to come to an amicable arrangement you can then sue, on line, if you wish.
Consumer Direct can help, there are template letters on their website.

nanokitten

There is case law on what a reasonable length of time is (and its pretty short in some cases ie for a new car a drive round the block). This means that you are probably not entitled to your money back.

However the law says the tv should also be 'fit for purpose' and yours clearly isn't. You have a contract with comet which states you are entitled to a working tv so it is comet's responsibility to either fix or replace the set. I would call comet back and ask where the engineer should send his invoice.

if they cannot do that I would suggest that they are in breach of contract and you will take them to court for the full amount (it wouldn't cost a lot to do and you'd get a better tv for your money now). It doesn't matter if your too nervous to go to court its unlikely theu woud call your bluff.

Carlos~

Hi,

Thanks for the advice again. I'm using Comet's specific repair service for two reasons, one they can't argue and overinflated repair cost and two so they can't say I didn't give them the oppertunity to fix it.

Well I've had a phone call from the engineer. The two parts that "may" have failed are

Main PCB board (replacement is £125.86)
Ilogik board (replacement is £126.05)

he has said that it's may only be one, but could be both so I should prepare myself for the full bill. If that is the case the total repair bill is £326.91 best case is it will cost £200.86 (if the cheapest board is required)

I'm going to give them a call in a little while. I've read a few posts on here and done some homework and I'm confident I am within my rights to get this repaired for free (or as you say a replacement or Equivalent credit etc). There is even a post about someone getting an out of court settlement from Empire Direct for a simular sort of value repair for tv that was 2.years 7 months old. So I will gather more evidence just in case they want to go to court.

Will update you with Comet's reponse.

Thanks

Carl

Steve_xx

Yes, you're right. Comet will have to pay the full cost to put it right. If they refuse to pay you then you must write to them and tell them that if the bill is not settled within 7 days of the date of the letter then you will start a claim in the County Court in order to recover it. tell them that you will seek also to recover any additional expenses that you incur in trying to recover it, ie the court fee.

derrick

Did you pay by Credit Card or on finance? If yes, then copy all correspondence to them and inform them that you will cite them as co-defendants, as under the Consumer Credit Act Section 75 they are "equally and severally liable as providers of credit/finance"