Refused refund on faulty goods

raymond

No problem. Some people dont realise that shops have rights too

In fact, every incident like this where someone makes a return even legitimately means the shop loses profit thus eventually leading to higher prices for the rest of us.

derrick

zorber wrote:

Again your example hardly fits the thread here now does it. Your suite for one cost £1500, i expect the fault was a visiable fault or a fault which could not easily be repaired without ruining the suite completely.
your suite was out side of any warentee and you had obviosly been refused any help.

Again the only question is what is a reasonable time !! according to the goverment web site only a judge can decide this.

You seem to have got very lucky with your sofa and this proably reflects the judges feelings towards the company who sold it to you and refused to help you. As in reality you could have really only expected a partial refund as you had some use out of it.

here is a quote from the goverment site.

"What are you entitled to ask for?

If the goods are faulty at the time of sale, you are legally entitled to request one of the following remedies:

1) A full refund.
This remedy is available when the goods have not been 'accepted'. Under the Sale of Goods Act, acceptance can take place in three ways:

By telling the retailer that you have accepted them.
By acting in a way with the goods which is inconsistent with the seller's ownership. E.g. if you have altered the goods in any way or customised them then you would be deemed to have accepted them.
By keeping them for longer than a reasonable time without telling the seller that you have rejected them. There is no time specified in the Act and it may vary according to the type of goods. Ultimately, it may be for the judge to decide whether an unreasonable time has passed and whether goods have been accepted. For this reason you must contact the supplier, preferably in writing, as soon as the fault appears. To delay may mean you lose a right to a refund

If acceptance has taken place, then only the following remedies are available:

2) Compensation (damages)
The amount of compensation may be based on the cost of repair, or if that is not possible, compensation may be based on the purchase price with an allowance for usage.

3) Repair or replacement
The trader can refuse to agree to either of these remedies if it is disproportionate in comparison to the other remedies. For example, if you ask a trader to replace a washing machine then he would be entitled to turn down your request and offer a repair instead.

However, the repair or replacement must be carried out within a reasonable time and without causing significant inconvenience to the consumer. If this does not happen or the repair or replacement is not possible, then the consumer can rescind the contract (claim a refund) or request a reduction in purchase price."

Again a repair has been offered and should be accepted. You may lose your rights to any action if you hold out for a refund. Electrical devaluates rapidly suites do not, A suite should last many many years far out stripping the expectation of the life of an electrial item hence a resonable period of time for an electrical item is regarded as a lot shorter.

Re my suite complaint, which is probably relevant to this thread re the the DVD recorder, first told it is out of warranty, tough, well warranties are in addition to and cannot take away your statutory rights, so after a lot of “persuasion” they eventually sent out an upholsterer, he agreed that the suite fillings had deteriorated to far, company agreed to replace interiors, 6 months later interiors fail again, company do not want to know, start CC proceedings, Court appointed upholsterer visits and does a damning report, company do not attend final hearing,(they have stalled all along) one of the judges comments was,” if I had received this report, I would not have attended either”, all claims and costs awarded to me and company paid within 10 days, and whilst I did put in my post “not fit for purpose” I did also cite “not of merchantable quality”, which it would appear relates to the OP.



This, “Where goods bought after 31 March 2003 prove defective within six months of purchase, there's a presumption that they were defective when they were bought, in which case the seller is in breach of contract (Section 14 Sale of Goods Act. as pointed out by mr_fishbulb which I could not find, puts the onus on the retailer, NOT the manufacturer, (as you are well aware the contract is with the retailer), the DVD recorder cost £238. and should last longer than 2 months, the retailers 28 day rule is just their terms and carries no weight in law, just as the 12 month manufacturers warranty only gives an easier way to have the product repaired/replaced/refunded during that period and as I have said does not take away your statutory rights, this product is not of satisfactory quality and not fit for purpose and in my opinion the time is “reasonable” for the complaint to be made, that might not be your opinion, but we all have our own and that is one of the points of this site.



The links I gave where meant to enlighten the OP as to their recourses under the law and for them to pick out the relevant ones for them and not a complete endorsement of everything stated.



I stick by all of my comments, and if I was the OP I would put it in writing to the retailer asking for a refund and if no joy there then I would take it to the court, it will only cost £30. to issue the papers and when they win that will be reimbursed, other people may take a different course and that is their choice as is everything in life, at the risk of repeating myself, stop keep going on about goods being out of warranty, as they are in ADDITION to your statutory rights, this is not just directed at you but everybody in the country.

penrhyn

Wouldn't it be interesting if the OP's problem was just finger trouble?
She never did say what was wrong with the machine.

zorber

i Have to be honest i am not interested in your suite as the complaint falls into a different catagory all together. Firstly you allowed the retailer to make a repair but they seem to have messed that up. Your item was out of warrenty this item is not.
This is an electrical item and therefore is a lot easier to repair or put right with minimal distruption nothing like your suite.
I feel you are being heavy handed with going straight down the court route especially as the OP has been offered a repair.
It says on the goverement web site a resonable amount of time is very short. After this a repair is a reasonable course of action, so now you have just lost your court action,your fees and a repair still happens. The manufacture is trying to help the OP with a repair if this fails then yes they have grounds to attemp a different course of action. Go to any of the large shed and ask the the faulty policy and they will all say the same,
The manufacturers dictate the policys as they do the repairs so it is actually better to deal with them, usually the retailer gets over his responsability by organising the repair with the manufacturer on behalf of the customer.

derrick

zorber wrote:

i Have to be honest i am not interested in your suite as the complaint falls into a different catagory all together. Firstly you allowed the retailer to make a repair but they seem to have messed that up. Your item was out of warrenty this item is not.
This is an electrical item and therefore is a lot easier to repair or put right with minimal distruption nothing like your suite.
I feel you are being heavy handed with going straight down the court route especially as the OP has been offered a repair.
It says on the goverement web site a resonable amount of time is very short. After this a repair is a reasonable course of action, so now you have just lost your court action,your fees and a repair still happens. The manufacture is trying to help the OP with a repair if this fails then yes they have grounds to attemp a different course of action. Go to any of the large shed and ask the the faulty policy and they will all say the same,
The manufacturers dictate the policys as they do the repairs so it is actually better to deal with them, usually the retailer gets over his responsability by organising the repair with the manufacturer on behalf of the customer.

The large sheds may all state the same, but it carries no weight in law.
The manufacturer does not dictate the law, and the law will always take precedence over suppliers T&Cs, an electrical item costing £238 should last more than 2 months, if it was me I would have no confidence in the item and would require a refund, if that meant "risking" another £30 court fees then that is what I would do, it would be the last resort as all court actions should be.
I agree that the retailer usually gets over his responsability by organising the repair with the manufacturer on behalf of the customer, but the law still says that it is the retailers responsibility and if you contact the manufacturer they could,and mostly do, tell you to go away.

icequeeniecash

Wow I don't check in for a few days and BOOM!

Okay, I called Consumer Direct to find out exactly where I stand. They told me that if I had been offered a repair then I would have to accept that first, if it was repaired then became faulty again I was to contact them with my reference number and they would advise me accordingly. He told me to write to Top Electricals with "Sale of goods act 1979 as amended" at the head of the letter and state that the DVD recorder is not of satisfactory quality as it is not free from defects, and request either a repair or replacement item.

So I thought I'd try and call them instead, and be a bit calmer since I knew that I wasn't automatically entitled to a refund now, and the guy was very helpful and gave me Liteons number and told me that they were fantastic, the only people they dealt with that were as good and they would send out a new DVD recorder and pick up the old one.

I called Liteon and they told me to download the newest firmware from their website and install it in the DVD recorder, which I have done, it hasn't fixed the faults so I will call them up again, they gave me a reference number and told me that if the faults weren't fixed then they would arrange for an uplift and new unit to be sent out.

The faults are not "finger trouble" thanks very much, Penrhyn!! :P There have been several things going wrong with it, the timer record wouldn't work unless the player was switched off at the wall and restarted. The remote control goes haywire, you press pause and it skips 3 chapters, the other day it wouldn't switch on at all with the remote but once I switched it on on the machine it worked with the remote just fine. Sometimes the picture and sound just disappear from it, the scart leads were new and we checked that they were in properly so again it had to be switched off at the wall and restarted and then the picture comes back.

I'm quite happy at the moment, I know where I stand now, if I have anymore problems with purchases I wouldn't hesitate to contact Consumer Direct again. Liteon were very helpful too, and they offer 2 years warranty so at least now I know that I am covered. Thanks for all the advice. K

zorber

derrick wrote:

The large sheds may all state the same, but it carries no weight in law.
The manufacturer does not dictate the law, and the law will always take precedence over suppliers T&Cs, an electrical item costing £238 should last more than 2 months, if it was me I would have no confidence in the item and would require a refund, if that meant "risking" another £30 court fees then that is what I would do, it would be the last resort as all court actions should be.
I agree that the retailer usually gets over his responsability by organising the repair with the manufacturer on behalf of the customer, but the law still says that it is the retailers responsibility and if you contact the manufacturer they could,and mostly do, tell you to go away.

Again there is no requirement by the retailer to refund the item until all other avenues have been exhusted. The retailer is fully within their rights to exchange or repair and if this has been offered it doesnt matter if you take them to court or not you will lose as this is set out i the trading standards documents. You will only win if the retailer fails to do anything. This has just been back up by what the OP by what the OP has just posted.