Rights regarding faulty goods.

gomer

Can anyone tell me if i have any rights in the following situation?

14 Days ago i had cable television installed by Virgin Media. Exactly 14 days after the installation the box has developed a fault and several chanells are now missing, they say it's not a fault thier end and must be the box that's faulty.

The problem is they are telling me if they send an engineer out i'll have to pay. Surely this cannot be right? If thier equiptment is faulty within 14 days of installation do i not have any rights as a consumer to expect them to pay the engineer if thier product is at fault? Am i covered by any consumer rights with this?

belfastgirl23

Hi gomer

You have no rights with virgin media, they are a right shower!

BUT the engineer thing normally means that if they come out and the problem is your stupidity (which they always basically assume is the case and they aren't too subtle about it) - eg if you've forgotten to plug in the box - they will charge you for the engineer visit. If it's their fault then you won't have to pay. And if only some channels are missing I can't see how it's your fault.

My experience has been that the engineers have been either excellent or dire. The dire ones s***w things up even more. The excellent ones fix everything and sympathise with you about how bad customer service is with virgin

Good luck!

DCFC79

Have you re booted the box eg turn the box off then turn it off at the mains then leave for 30 secs then turn it back on again

gomer

Done that about half a dozen times this weekend, they have sent out a booster signal several times as well to no avail.

Any

Hi,
I've also had to turn my box off few times... But mine is Sky. After a while that stopped working and now half of my channels are missing.
However my box is 5 years old and so I would expect that to happen. Are you sure they gave you new box and not reconditioned box? Because this fault appears with old boxes after many years of service...

boobyd

Would have thought you would have normal consumer rights?
Equipment is`nt fit for purpose, Virgin media supplied it, you brought it from them, does`nt ,matter if its Grundig etc,
I would give them a call asking for replacement

olly300

boobyd wrote: »

Would have thought you would have normal consumer rights?
Equipment is`nt fit for purpose, Virgin media supplied it, you brought it from them, does`nt ,matter if its Grundig etc,
I would give them a call asking for replacement

You have normal consumer rights.

Unfortunately all companies presume that customers particularly female or elderly ones are stupid when it comes to dealing with technology.

gomer

Thanks everyone for your input. All i need to do now is see what happens when they arrive. Being i am renting the box i wasn't sure if it was covered by sale of goods act because technically it's hired rather than bought, but either way i should expect it to last longer than 14 days even if it was a reconditioned one (which it's not as far as i am aware).

Anyway, if they try to charge me i'll bump this thread.

gomer

You are sooooo not going to believe this. When i switched the tv on this morning i discovered that all the missing channels have magically reappeared again and now work normally. !!!!!! is all that about then? After losing 7 chanells last friday for seemingly no logical reason, they suddenly reappear the very day an engineer was due to arrive.