Sony RDRHXD995B HDD Recorder - Refund Entitlement?

Maxes_Party_Planner

Hi,

Newby to the site hoping somebody will be able to advise on our predicament. Will try and keep to the main points:

In January of this year, we purchased a brand new Sony RDRHXD995B HDD Recorder from what appears to be a reputable online store, multizoneav.com. Multizone specify they have a seven day refund and exchange policy and the machine comes with a 12 month manufacturer’s warranty.

The recorder has developed a fault (outside the above seven days) and on contacting multizone, they told us we had to phone Sony directly to find the nearest appropriate authorised Sony Service Agent as it would be a warranty repair. (It transpires there is only one that serves the whole of Greater Manchester)

At our own time and expense, we took the machine to the authorised repair centre and after having it for two weeks, they’ve now told us they can’t get the parts needed until August!

We’re now waiting to see whether Sony or the service agent can come up with a temporary replacement but having had a few bad experiences in the past with service repairs, we’re not particularly optimistic and can see this dragging on and on.

All the while we’re without a recorder which from new didn’t even last five months and we certainly don’t expect to wait until August for a repair.

Are we entitled to a full refund and would this be from multizone?
Are they likely to object given their 7 day policy?
I paid using my credit card, would section 75 apply and if it does, how would we go about this?

Thanks
MPP

stugib

Maxes_Party_Planner wrote: »

Are we entitled to a full refund and would this be from multizone?

If you want to go the legal route rather than the warranty route (and I don't blame you given the circumstances) then it's multizone's responsibility as the retailer. After 5 months you'd be entitled to repair within a reasonable time (August doesn't sound reasonable to me), replacement, or if neither of those were possible then a refund (potentially only partial). The good news is that because it's less than 6 months old it's up to them to prove it wasn't faulty at the time of purchase.

Maxes_Party_Planner wrote: »

Are they likely to object given their 7 day policy?

That's irrelevant - that'll be referring to the Distance Selling Regulations which would give you the right to return it if you'd changed your mind, not if it's faulty.

Maxes_Party_Planner wrote: »

I paid using my credit card, would section 75 apply and if it does, how would we go about this?

Assuming it was over £100? Yes, got no personal experience of this but I'd imagine they'd only get invovled if the retailer refused to budge.

scullster

Cannot argue with stugib at all - its pretty much what I would've written.

The OP has fallen for the classic "Retailer can't be bothered to deal with faults", especially as it is not immediately straightforward. At the end of the day, your contract is with the retailer, not Sony. By following the retailers ever so popular stance, you have done them a favour by cutting them out of the hassle of sorting a problem they are legally obliged to deal with.

Its a shame because the 995 is a great machine.

Maxes_Party_Planner

Thanks for the replies - I think I'll give multizone a call...

derrick

stugib wrote: »

If you want to go the legal route rather than the warranty route (and I don't blame you given the circumstances) then it's multizone's responsibility as the retailer. After 5 months you'd be entitled to repair within a reasonable time (August doesn't sound reasonable to me), replacement, or if neither of those were possible then a refund (potentially only partial). The good news is that because it's less than 6 months old it's up to them to prove it wasn't faulty at the time of purchase.


That's irrelevant - that'll be referring to the Distance Selling Regulations which would give you the right to return it if you'd changed your mind, not if it's faulty.


Assuming it was over £100? Yes, got no personal experience of this but I'd imagine they'd only get invovled if the retailer refused to budge.

Nothing top stop you contacting the CC company at any stage.
From WHICH; -
Consumer Credit Act rights

However, if you paid on credit card, you have another option. Under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, the card company is ‘jointly and severally liable’. This means it is equally responsible along with the retailer or trader for the goods or service, and you can contact the card company to sort out your problem.
You don’t have to reach a stalemate with the retailer or trader before you can contact the company.

Tozer

derrick wrote: »

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Nothing top stop you contacting the CC company at any stage.
From WHICH; -
Consumer Credit Act rights

However, if you paid on credit card, you have another option. Under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, the card company is ‘jointly and severally liable’. This means it is equally responsible along with the retailer or trader for the goods or service, and you can contact the card company to sort out your problem.
You don’t have to reach a stalemate with the retailer or trader before you can contact the company.

There is a practical point here. If the retailer can be persuaded to provide a refund in these circumstances, job done.

Maxes_Party_Planner

Cheers - not managed to give them a call yet but will try and get the refund from multizone first although it's reassuring to know there is the fallback onto the credit card company.

Unfortunately (for us) as we got such a good deal in January, we're now looking at a minimum extra £50-£60 if we decide to go for a like for like replacement.

Not so good now is it?

Maxes_Party_Planner

Interesting - just come off the phone from multizone and they have basically said they cannot do anything (in particular issue a refund) until they receive proof from Sony they are going to issue a credit (I assume to the vendor)

They also said that an 8 week wait for parts with Sony wasn't that unusual and as long as the machine is repairable and within their terms and conditions, Sony are unlikely to write the machine off.

I posed the question about obtaining a refund through my credit card and they said I was out of time and because the machine is faulty and efforts being made to fix it I wouldn't get one.

They did offer to get the machine from the service agent and try to deal with Sony about it but they said this would take even longer than going through the service agent. Or, they said I could try to deal with Sony myself to see if parts could be sourced sooner.

Just called the service agent and they've just confirmed what they've said before, they've requested a replacement machine which may or may not be granted and it could be a couple of days or it could be longer before Sony reply, nothing more specific than that. What did worry me was that they said the parts on order weren't available until the end of August, which is slightly different to what they said before.

I'm not getting good vibes from this or am I just being paranoid?

MPP

Tozer

Maxes_Party_Planner wrote: »

Interesting - just come off the phone from multizone and they have basically said they cannot do anything (in particular issue a refund) until they receive proof from Sony they are going to issue a credit (I assume to the vendor)

They also said that an 8 week wait for parts with Sony wasn't that unusual and as long as the machine is repairable and within their terms and conditions, Sony are unlikely to write the machine off.

I posed the question about obtaining a refund through my credit card and they said I was out of time and because the machine is faulty and efforts being made to fix it I wouldn't get one.

They did offer to get the machine from the service agent and try to deal with Sony about it but they said this would take even longer than going through the service agent. Or, they said I could try to deal with Sony myself to see if parts could be sourced sooner.

Just called the service agent and they've just confirmed what they've said before, they've requested a replacement machine which may or may not be granted and it could be a couple of days or it could be longer before Sony reply, nothing more specific than that. What did worry me was that they said the parts on order weren't available until the end of August, which is slightly different to what they said before.

I'm not getting good vibes from this or am I just being paranoid?

MPP

You are not out of time to make a section 75 claim.

The_Pedant

Any repair requested under your rights granted by the Sale of Goods Act must be performed within a 'reasonable period of time' and 'without causing significant inconvenience'.

I would say your inability to use the item for three months would fall under both of those categories. I would therefore go back to the supplier.

As pointed out by the other posters, your contract is with multizone. What Sony say and how they credit Multizone does not affect their obligations with you, it simply affects their ability to deliver upon their obligations to you.

You might like to give Consumer Direct a call, for their view on this & see about pursuing this further to get a repair/replacement within a better timescale.

Maxes_Party_Planner

UPDATE

We now have a replacement machine although I had to do ‘all’ the chasing and phoning around.

As suggested, we got in touch with Consumer Direct who on this occasion, were of the opinion we were well within our rights to seek a full refund if a replacement wasn’t provided within 28 days. Having waited a week for Sony to respond to the replacement request (the machine already having been with the repair centre two weeks) I decide to give them a call.

To cut a long story short, we now have what appears to be a new boxed region 2 unit (Sony explained why) Our original purchase from multizone had a multi-region upgrade, free at the time of purchase as part of their special offer, one of the main reasons why we bought it.

I’ve contacted multizone and they’ve said if we want the upgrade we have to send them the machine at our expense. Given the circumstances, I think it might be wise to just make do with what we’ve got, assuming this one doesn’t break after a month or so.