Rights to refund?

dmg24

As the retailer is unwilling to budge, you need to go back being fully aware of your rights. Here is an excellent link, and it would be worthwhile printing it off and taking it with you.

If he still will not refund you (and assuming that you are sure that they are faulty), then you will need to go down the small claims route. This is not as scary as it may sound, and you will find that most retailers pay up before it actually reaches a hearing.

Optimist

The law states that you have only a short period to reject goods as unsatisfactory and get a full refund. It does not say how long that period is so your 10 days might just be on the fringes of what's reasonable a judge would decide that on its merits.

The retailer was not within his/her rights to refuse because the packaging was opened it would be unreasonable for you/your brother to check the item without opening it and testing it.

If this were me and even if it was only £40/£50 I would send a letter recorded delivery to the retailer outlining everything to date mentioning The sale of Goods act 1979 as amended) and giving them 14 days to refund the money after which I would make a claim via the small claims court. This is a very easy process and can be done on-line. Your retailer would then have to decide if his.her intransigence was worth the time and cost of an appearance in court

You could also pop into your local CAB who will contact the retailer

bronzemonkey

Thanks for the advice and links. I'll pop in on Tuesday with a print out, ask for a refund, and (if they still refuse) inform them that I will make a final written request before taking the matter to the smalls claims.

Sooler

Their is a belief that headphones need to be be used for a while before they give their best performance. Probably why an old well used pair sound better than a better model straight out of the box.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/headphone-burn-faq-56744/
"Why do people choose to burn in a new pair of headphones shortly after getting them?

Fresh out of the box, a pair of headphones may not sound as good as a well used pair, as the designers have intended. Often, people want their headphones to sound the way that they are intended as soon as possible. Most people don’t want to wait for weeks or months of regular use, so the choice is to expedite burn in by getting the process over with in the first week of ownership. Others choose to listen to their headphones as they change over the burn in period."

"How much does burn in effect the sound of the headphones?

Some say burn in has a drastic effect, some say there is little effect, and some say that there is no effect. The amount of change resulting from burn in will be different for each model of headphones."

Dreamnine

Sennheiser does a 3 year guarantee on their products, anyway. Send them back to Germany.

Wig

Chester_Draws wrote: »

I dont profess to be able to quote law, and would welcome comment from those able to do so.
However, if you visit the Sennheiser website, you can see the technical data for the CX300 and the CX500.
The CX500 shows that it has a higher/lower range of frequency response.
Therefore everything suggests you have a faulty set of headphones.

I would have thought that the onus is on the retailer to prove to you that they are not faulty, or you are entitled to a refund.

I welcome being corrected if wrong though.

I was going to say you were correct, but I changed my mind, we are both getting confused about the retailers responsibility within 6 months to Prove that a fault was not present at the point of sale. The fault, however, would have to be obviously noticeable in the first place. In the OP case there is a dispute that a fault even exists. Therefore I think if the OP proceeds to court action, the onus will be on OP to show the court there is a fault or the quality is inferior - and therefore not suitable for purpose. Once that is proven the retailer has no leg to stand on.

Wig

bronzemonkey wrote: »

About 10 days ago I bought a gift, a set of mp3 headphones, from an electronics retailer. I went in there asking them for a set of quality headphones for a DJ. They told me to get the CX500 model as it was top of the range. So I did.

The recipient of the gift was a DJ who very apologetically told me that the sound quality was inferior to the CX300 model he already had. He commented on the very poor bass frequencies of the headphones.

I took the headphones back to the store today and asked for a refund.

The store assistant refused, told me that the recipient of the gift was a liar for claiming that the CX500 sound quality was inferior

I think you will have to show a fault exists or they are inferior. If the difference between the 2 pairs is audibly obvious this may be good enough for the retailer and for a court.

to the CX300, and said that I should send the headphones back to the manufacturer

Entirely incorrect you have no obligation to do so, however, the retailer can do that if they want to investigate your claim they are of poor quality. HOWEVER, if the retailer will facilitate the return at no cost, or Sennheiser will facilitate the investigation at no cost then go for it. BUT I would give the retailer a letter stating that you do not accept the goods until this issue of inferiority has been settled.

He also said that the headphones could not be refunded because the packaging was open and they were "consumables".

Completely irrelevant to the claim that they are not of satisfactory quality. It is relevant, however, in that as he disputes your claim on quality, he cannot offer you goodwill refund because the packaging is damaged.

I've had a read of some of the legal advice from Trading Standards but I'm still not sure what my options are. I was hoping to get some advice.

Have you listened to both pairs and do you notice the difference aswell? If you are absolutely sure they are of inferior quality and hence not suitable for the purpose, then you can return to the shop and ask for refund, under the sale of goods act section 14, stating that you are rejecting the goods as not conforming to contract. You don't ecven have to accept a repair or replacement because you have rejected them very soon after purchase and the goods were given to your friend as a gift only very recently, which is when the goods were opened & inspected for the first time. If the retailer does not agree, inform them that you will send in a written request shortly - or send in a written request now. then follow it up with a written warning with threat of court action. Follow that one up with a 7 day warning that you will be filing for the 1st stage of small claims action, any settle ment after that date will have to also include the £35 courts fee. and on it goes until actual court date, the retailer will probably have settled before this date

Is it impossible to get a refund simply because the packaging was open?

No, it is not impossible, it depends what reason is given for requesting the refund.

Where do I stand if the product is not defective but simply inferior to the "lesser" model?

You requested the best quality for your professional music loving friend, you were sold a pair that should have been better than the CX300 but found they were not, this is either because the CX500 are faulty or not as good as the CX300, either way you have good grounds for a refund.

Is the trader right to send me off to the manufacturer and claim that they refuse ALL refunds on all equipment in their store?

No, they are not right in this action, tell them your contract is with them and they need to deal with your complaint.


The only thing I am not certain about is whether you will have to provide some sort of engineers report to the court or whether it is entirely the retailers responsibility to prove they are not faulty. I think it would be unreasonable for all the burden of evidence to be on the retailer, you're the one who thinks there is something wrong, so I think you would have to prove this this to the court.

fruity1_2

'Wig' you're just corrected two posts!! I saw the original response you gave to Chester_Draws! Did you have to look up the answer!

Wig

I have no idea what you are on about. I changed my mind, about the chester draws reply, whilst I was writing my reply to the OP through the process of answering OP I had to consider the ramifications, and this lead me to consider that I had made a mistake on the chester draws reply, which I acknowledged within my edit to Chester.
EDIT to add: Also my seemingly incorrect fiirst Chester Draws reply led me to initially answer OP incorrectly in part. After consideration in writing the OP reply, I realised my mistake and made the necessary adjustments..... and this somehow seems to have annoyed you.

I regularly go back and edit out typos and alter things so they make more sense, in most of my posts, hence, why I have edited #18.

I find your attitude slightly bemusing since you have said in that other thread that you were fed up with the lack of actual help offered out to OPs and the in-fighting between the members of this board. With this in mind, what is your purpose of saying such a comment to me? Seeing as I am here in vent (after a long time away) I thought I'd answer a few other threads whilst I'm here. Sorry if that has somehow vexed you.

To answer your question.... No, I did not look it up, hence, why in my replies I said that I was not sure and that it was what I thought would be reasonable. Perhaps you could answer the question?

I note you edited also, it's a very common thing to do isn't it?

See, I just edited this again at 16:03 ish, edited to remove "etc" after "typos" incase you were dying to know what my latest edit was.

EDIT @ 16:04 to say, I'll be sure to keep you updated on any future edits on this thread

EDIT @ 16:10 to change "remember" to "consider" on line 3.