Panasonic Microwave - faulty but out of Warranty

babsfan4ever

I have a Panasonic Microwave that is just over 2 years old and has stopped working. I paid nearly £200 for the unit and to be honest it doesnt really get used an awful lot.
It now stops working after about 20 seconds which I have now found out is a common problem with the Inverter models.
I bought it from Argos with the standard 1 year guarentee.

Question is - Where do I stand in terms of my rights/ sales of good act as I believe that for an electrical applicance to breakdown after this short amount of time is not acceptable. I called a local repairer who told me that is quite a common fault and I would be looking at about £100 + .

Someones advice would be most appreciated.

samhardy

Because it's such an expensive item, and outside the standard year's free repairs, Argos will probably send out an engineer to take a look at it and fix it and possibly charge you depending on the nature of the problem. Under SOGA, two years is a reasonable amount of time (and IMO, two years hassle-free isn't bad going). So you're probably in for a repair on it.

If you're nice and sweettalk a manager or customer services, you might get a replacement or (in the case it is no-longer sold, which is probably the case), vouchers for the amount you paid.

craig777

My Panasonic microwave recently suffered what sounds to be a similar problem. When using it on micro/grill combination, it would cut out and stop working after about a minute.

After a few weeks of this problem repeatedly happening, the microwave went 'BANG' and gave off a burning electrical smell and I chucked it out the door immediately. So be prepared for that if you continue to try and use it.

Mine was at least 7 years old, so I can't really grumble. I think you'd be hard-pushed to get any joy out of Argos with the microwave being 2 years old, even if you wave the 'sales of goods act' flag at them.

zenseeker

Although there are guidelines in existence regarding how long an item is supposed to last, after 6 months the retailer doesn't have to take responsibility:

What does the "reversed burden of proof" mean for the consumer?It means that for the first six months the consumer need not produce any evidence that a product was inherently faulty at the time of sale. If a consumer is seeking any other remedy the burden of proof remains with him/her.
In such a case, the retailer will either accept there was an inherent fault, and will offer a remedy, or he will dispute that it was inherently flawed. If the latter, when he inspects the product to analyse the cause, he may, for example, point out impact damage or stains that would be consistent with it having been mistreated in such a way as to bring about the fault.
This reversal of the usual burden of proof only applies when the consumer is seeking a repair or replacement. After the first six months the onus of proof is again on the consumer.

I've never quite understood that, but it may be relevant.

Judith_W

Does anyone know whether you have to prove the fault was there at the time you bought it, or just that there is one now - if it is more than 6 months after you bought it? I have a hard disk recorder which is more than 12 months old which keeps freezing and would like to speak to Hitachi.

Thanks