Help Needed With Consumer Rights Issue

Joshinator_273

Hey everyone, I'll try keep this brief

My situation:

I (read: my mum) bought an Xbox 360 in late November or early December 2007, and everything's been fine up until the other day where it went and broke on me. Now, I bought it from PC World, who had a 1 year warranty on the Xbox, but which has now obviously expired.

Fine I thought, Microsoft operate a repair system where you can package up the Xbox, post it off to Germany, they'll take a look at it and (hopefully) fix it and send it back to you in good condition.

However, this method takes weeks and there's always the risk of it not being fixed, still broken, lost, delayed etc... I'd much rather just go back to PC World and swap it over the counter. Now you would have thought that'd be impossible if the 1 year warranty is up, right? Well, I've been reading things recently to suggest its not that black and white.

I'm sure you clever folk at moneysavingexpert can help me

In the Sales of Goods Act 1979 it has a section on items lasting a 'reasonable' amount of time depending on the circumstances of their sale and price. Surely a £300+ console should last more than 2 years?

It also says that a product should be: 'as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality', so they cannot be sold with faults, even if the faults are not apparant at the time of sale. Which they weren't, it's only just broken now.

Also, in Citizenship today, (yeah I'm 14 :P) our teacher said that all items have a 2 year warranty? Is that right? There seems to be a lot of different laws...

Sorry, guess I didn't keep this brief, but I'd really appreciate any help anyone could give me

Thanks, Josh

4743hudsonj

Joshinator_273 wrote: »

Hey everyone, I'll try keep this brief

My situation:

I (read: my mum) bought an Xbox 360 in late November or early December 2007, and everything's been fine up until the other day where it went and broke on me. Now, I bought it from PC World, who had a 1 year warranty on the Xbox, but which has now obviously expired.

Fine I thought, Microsoft operate a repair system where you can package up the Xbox, post it off to Germany, they'll take a look at it and (hopefully) fix it and send it back to you in good condition.

However, this method takes weeks and there's always the risk of it not being fixed, still broken, lost, delayed etc... I'd much rather just go back to PC World and swap it over the counter. Now you would have thought that'd be impossible if the 1 year warranty is up, right? Well, I've been reading things recently to suggest its not that black and white.

I'm sure you clever folk at moneysavingexpert can help me

In the Sales of Goods Act 1979 it has a section on items lasting a 'reasonable' amount of time depending on the circumstances of their sale and price. Surely a £300+ console should last more than 2 years?

It also says that a product should be: 'as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality', so they cannot be sold with faults, even if the faults are not apparant at the time of sale. Which they weren't, it's only just broken now.

Also, in Citizenship today, (yeah I'm 14 :P) our teacher said that all items have a 2 year warranty? Is that right? There seems to be a lot of different laws...

Sorry, guess I didn't keep this brief, but I'd really appreciate any help anyone could give me

Thanks, Josh

this angle has been explored thousands of times over

rely on MS repair service, its less hassle and provides a repair which is all retailers have to do under soga anyways. this is one situation where retailers fobbing you off probably is too your benefit.

Joshinator_273

Thanks a lot,

I guess I'll just have to be without it for a few weeks then, I'll live :P In fact, now you say that, I suppose the obligation is for them to replace it, but my step-dad said it's not within a time frame so they might just do exactly what I would be doing anyway and post it off... hence no time saved

Thanks again

Esqui

Joshinator_273 wrote: »

Also, in Citizenship today, (yeah I'm 14 :P) our teacher said that all items have a 2 year warranty? Is that right? There seems to be a lot of different laws...

Your teacher is wrong.

Also, if you had taken it back to PCW, they would have sent it for repair as well. (if it is the RROD E74 fault, Microsoft extended the warranty to 3 years for that)

4743hudsonj

Joshinator_273 wrote: »

Thanks a lot,

I guess I'll just have to be without it for a few weeks then, I'll live :P In fact, now you say that, I suppose the obligation is for them to replace it, but my step-dad said it's not within a time frame so they might just do exactly what I would be doing anyway and post it off... hence no time saved

Thanks again

under soga they have an obligation to repair, replace or refund. They have this choice, not you

and repair is the most economical

so thats what they would do

they would merely take it to there warehouse, then box it up then send it to germany, then bring it back then send it to you

if you go direct it should be faster so you will save time.

Joshinator_273

Ahh OK thanks for that everyone thats useful... I'll get it sent off ASAP then

Talk to you all later and thanks again

Mark_Hewitt

It's impossible to quantify what a reasonable length of time is really.

e.g. If you'd only switched it on once a month and played it for 10 minutes a time, then 2 years is clearly a short time for it to break. But if had people playing on it 24 hours a day 7 days a week, 365 days a year then 2 years is a good life span.

You're doing the right thing sending it away. You could have taken it to PC World, or you could have bashed your head against a wall, it would have amounted to the same thing.

Sponge

It might not take as long as you think to return it to MS. I've read of many instances where turnaround has been a matter of days, not weeks.