Toshiba Television

gcthompson

Hi,

I bought a 400 quid Toshiba flatscreen television in January 2008. It's started misbehaving, periodically the display won't work when I turn it on ( I can hear the sound however ). I realise that I have a 1 year guarantee on the item but I'm also vaguely aware of EU legislation saying that 1 year warranties are unfair.

What are my rights with regards to getting the shop to replace/fix this? As far as I'm aware it's unreasonable to expect a TV to malfunction after 1.5 years.

Does anybody have any advice on how I persuade the company to deal with this problem without charging me? I've not approached them yet as I'm still trying to locate the receipt but suspect that they'll refuse to repair it without charging me.

Thanks

djb215

Hi

First of all forget this EU thing, it is a load of crap as the UK is covered by the Sale of Goods Act.

Firstly, it sounds correct that a £400 TV should last longer than 18 months, so you should have a reasonable case for repair.

You should know that your contract is with the retailer you bought it from, not the manufacturer, so if the retailer tells you that they can't do anything because of it's out of warranty then they are wrong.

The Sale of Goods Act operates on a sliding scale based on a 'reasonable amount of time' to have an item - you are covered for up to six years under SOGA but you couldn't claim after 12 months for a £3.97 toaster, whereas it would be reasonable to claim for your £400 TV.

What the retailer can do after the initial six months from purchase, however, is ask you to get an independant report done on the TV by an accredited engineer to confirm that the fault is inherent rather than neglect/misuse. This is called the burden of proof, and after the first six months the burden of proof changes from the retailer to the consumer.

Since you have had 18 months use of the TV, a repair would sound acceptable, but the retailer could ask for SOME payment towards the cost of the repair - the problem is that there are no fixed clauses under SOGA to determine what is and 'acceptable' amount of time.

I would write to the retailer and say remind them (politely ) that under the Sale of Goods Act that a £400 TV should last more than 18 months, and ask them for a suitable remedy.

Hope this helps
(P.S. you don't need the receipt as proof of purchase, as long as you have a hard copy proof of purchase such as a bank statement etc. that should be sufficient).