Faulty TV just outside guarantee period (Currys)

scottishlizzie

Does anyone have a view on whether I should accept a partial refund from Curry's? The background in brief is:

July 07 bought tv from Currys store for mother. Cost £449. Almost exactly a year to the date of purchase it broke. Had to fight to get it looked at under warranty. Eventually they agreed, took it in to workshop, could find nothing wrong with it. It then worked fine at my mum's for about another 2 months and conked out again. I asked for refund and was told that as now out of warranty I would have to get an engineer's report showing that it was faulty at manufacture. The engineer said the LCD panel was faulty and provided a report along with estimate of repair costs at £259. Curry's have now written to me saying that they accept my claim and are offering a £269.09 gift card(plus the cost of the engineer's report). This is on the basis that it is out of guarantee and that all they are obliged to offer is a repair or a partial refund. We don't want a repair as we have already bought my mum a new tv and they would not offer a repair anyway due to the age of the TV (!) making it uneconomical.

I can't understand the rationale for a partial refund or the basis of the amount. Should I hold out for a full refund or would I be wasting my time with Currys? I have spent a lot of time on sorting this out and part of me wants to give up and accept but the other part of me thinks, hang on, we forked out £449 for a tv that stopped working after 14 months - why shouldn't we get all our money back. It was bought on credit card so I know the card provider is jointly liable but would they also only offer a partial refund?

Any advice and comments would be greatly apreciated.

KILL_BILL

scottishlizzie wrote: »

Does anyone have a view on whether I should accept a partial refund from Curry's? The background in brief is:

July 07 bought tv from Currys store for mother. Cost £449. Almost exactly a year to the date of purchase it broke. Had to fight to get it looked at under warranty. Eventually they agreed, took it in to workshop, could find nothing wrong with it. It then worked fine at my mum's for about another 2 months and conked out again. I asked for refund and was told that as now out of warranty I would have to get an engineer's report showing that it was faulty at manufacture. The engineer said the LCD panel was faulty and provided a report along with estimate of repair costs at £259. Curry's have now written to me saying that they accept my claim and are offering a £269.09 gift card(plus the cost of the engineer's report). This is on the basis that it is out of guarantee and that all they are obliged to offer is a repair or a partial refund. We don't want a repair as we have already bought my mum a new tv and they would not offer a repair anyway due to the age of the TV (!) making it uneconomical.

I can't understand the rationale for a partial refund or the basis of the amount. Should I hold out for a full refund or would I be wasting my time with Currys? I have spent a lot of time on sorting this out and part of me wants to give up and accept but the other part of me thinks, hang on, we forked out £449 for a tv that stopped working after 14 months - why shouldn't we get all our money back. It was bought on credit card so I know the card provider is jointly liable but would they also only offer a partial refund?

Any advice and comments would be greatly apreciated.

you wont get a full refund because you have had use of the tv for the x amount of months

stugib

scottishlizzie wrote: »

This is on the basis that it is out of guarantee and that all they are obliged to offer is a repair or a partial refund.

I can't understand the rationale for a partial refund

It's what the Sale of Goods Act says you're entitled to in this situation. Guarantee is not relevant.

scottishlizzie wrote: »

or the basis of the amount....hang on, we forked out £449 for a tv that stopped working after 14 months - why shouldn't we get all our money back.

For the reason KILL BILL said. There's no definition I know of as to what percentage refund you're entitled to, but expect it'll depend on brand quality, price relative to the norm for that spec, etc. They're offering you 60% refund, which sounds like they're saying they expect the lifetime of the TV to be ~3 years. You've got a much better result than a lot of people dealing with Currys though!

scottishlizzie wrote: »

Curry's have now written to me saying that they accept my claim and are offering a £269.09 gift card(plus the cost of the engineer's report).

Hmmm, although I don't know whether it's specified in the law, I would expect a refund to be in cash, not vouchers to spend in store.

Can't see any harm in asking for a higher settlement and/or in cash - it's probably their opening offer, but put some thought behind it - e.g. for X brand TV paying £xxx you'd expect it to last 4 years, it lasted a year so you'd expect 75% back.

scottishlizzie

Thanks to both respondents above.