Broken Panasonic Television (Argos) help

fumken

I posted this on the wrong site earlier. Sorry. I bought a panasonic LCD TV from Argos in January (about £500). It now has a line in the middle and the bottom right end is bleeding. I took it back yesterday and the guy in the store insisted that the guarrantee does not cover accidental damage. They had to send it off to confirm the cause of the damage and if the company say it is accidental damage, I will have to pay. How can they verify this? I was made to sign that if it is not due to a manufacturing default, I had to accapt liability for the charges. They claim this is company policy.
Is this usual and can they be honest and accurate in their assessment? Any insight on how best to deal with this will be helpful. It is very painful because I buy most things from Argos. If they start getting nasty, where does one go. I wanted a small temporary replacement telly which could go to my son's room after, but have refused to buy one from them.
Thank you.

scullster

Basically, Argos won't want to be left holding the baby which is fair - they don't want to send it off at their cost for an engineer to assess the damage as accidental, because there would be nothing to stop you walking away and leaving them with the transport / engineer costs.

Because the goods are more than 6mth old, the onus is on you (according to SOGA) to demonstrate the fault is inherent - you need to pay for an independent engineer to assess the TV to diagnose the fault, to determine the cause to be inherent and not due to misuse / accident. If your engineer concurs that the fault was not due to misuse / accident, you can claim this cost back from Argos whilst asking them to arrange repair / replacement under the guarantee.

ses6jwg

Personally, I would NOT let them send it off to check it because they could just lie and say it was accidental.

You need to get an independent engineer to look at the TV and write a report saying that the fault is inherent.

You can then take this to Argos, who must re-reimburse you the cost of the engineer report and then either repair or replace the TV.

fumken

They have admitted that it is not my fault. They would have replaced but do not have the same spec, so I was given vouchers. Now to decide on the next telly. Another Panny or other?
Cheers.