Product Recall? Plum climbing frames

trubble

Result for me too - I now have a playhouse on legs to build. Once I've soaked it all in preservative.
Argos delivered the free playhouse, then collected two pieces of plastic-coated wood from my playcentre the day after.
The only two pieces I gave them were the two main plastic-coated A-frame bits, each with the ladder/step cross pieces, and as far as I can tell, they're quite happy, as I've signed to say they've taken 'the playset' back.

I have a bit of work to do, as *obviously* after the first Argos letter I immediately removed and destroyed the monkey bars, but with some new thicker 'meerkat' quality timber to strengthen/replace the now-obviously-missing (cough, cough) monkey bars, total timber cost 20 quid, I'll have a playhouse, the same swing setup as the original, slide, and a bike store under the playhouse.
Using galvanised U-bolt -type things right around the top of the monkey bars to attach the swings instead of the original big eyelets screwed into the timber is a good idea too, as it's far more secure.

S'pose the other option would have been to invoke the manufacturers 12 year warranty and get some bits sent over from the US - well done!
For those seemingly determined to get their full 12 years out of it, it may be possible, but you'd still be constantly rebuilding the playset as each part fails.

Are the replacement bits any different? Thicker/better quality? Or just non-plastic coated? Be interesting to see the difference between old and new.

Unfortunately, I don't 'do' Facebook or Twatter, so I'll keep an eye out on Watchdog instead for the imminent public shaming of Argos for trying to replace an item F.O.C outside Argos's guarantee period :rotfl:

greenfroggy5

not sure if this thread is still running now, but watchdog have been in touch and are filming a feature about this issue this week. They told me not to get rid of my tacoma playcentre just yet!! I'd already rung argos about arranging collection but thankfully didnt go ahead with arranging a date. You never know, Watchdog may get somewhere!

jagojon

:Tcalled me too! looking at doing something next week, told me not to accept anything just yet

sppsot

greenfroggy5 wrote: »

not sure if this thread is still running now, but watchdog have been in touch and are filming a feature about this issue this week. They told me not to get rid of my tacoma playcentre just yet!! I'd already rung argos about arranging collection but thankfully didnt go ahead with arranging a date. You never know, Watchdog may get somewhere!

They have said that the Meerkat alternative playsets are not ready for delivery until the end of May so therefore why are they so eager to have the Tacoma's returned ????????? Lets hope that Watchdog make them see the true meaning of treating customers with care, and service expected nowadays. They should never have risked our childrens safety with inferior products without the safety standards to start with and should be thinking themselves lucky its only Watchdog investigating and not the police for corporate manslaughter. :mad::(:mad::(:mad::(:mad:

OlliesDad

sppsot wrote: »

so therefore why are they so eager to have the Tacoma's returned ?????????

Several reasons really:

a) It is potentially dangerous so they don't want kids to be playing on them

b) Argos presumably have somebody dedicated to this situation so they want to get it sorted so that they can allocate this person different work.

c) If they were dragging their heels with this people would be attacking them for that too.

d) why delay the inevitable

jagojon

long story, the same as you guys cut short, spoke to argos at length, eventually agreed to pay them an extra £125 and they delivered a barbury playcentre yesterday after a little persuasion to say the least on my part. i agree with all you guys and girls on here but summers coming and i think it was fair deal to all, by the way they keep them in stock for on line sales only ( we spotted it on the net). think it is the next one up to the meerkat, but to be fair they are much better made than the products we originally bought. sort off had a £375 credit note, which means new CE marked activity centre, with new guarantee, no hassle, happy children etc

posted this to try and help, i dont work for argos , and appreciate some of you might still think i got a bum deal, i am happy, dont think it would now take much for others to get the same with this as an example, maybe you could spend the value of the meerkat on other outdoor toys from the catalogue, as the principle is the same??

good luck to you all, i had spoke to watchdog twice and i dont think they are going to run with it. Painted the new one today, took a dated photo, so guess what we are doing next weekend?

RClayton

Plum offered me a replacement meerkat. My main problem is i don't have the time to assemble this so would have to pay someone to do this. Any idea if the company should be compensating people for the personal time wasted in sorting out the problem with the faulty goods?

RicardoGonzalezIII

Just got replacement Meercat...but on checking its value it seems that its now worth £100 less than Argos had it listed....and also Argos don't list it anymore!!! Another fiddle? I wonder how many of these they actually sold given they were'nt available until May!!

another_moaner

I am new here and this could be my one and only post. i felt like most of you the argos offer of refund was low and the replacement product offered did not have the same level of activities so went to the small claims court using the manufacturers 12 year warrnaty as what i thought was a resonable basis to calculate the partial useage factor.

i also added in the hassle and inconvenience that the replacement was causing me for dismantling the old one, repairing the lawn and erecting a replacement (i only used the length of time for the plum one we had not the much longer time needed for the new one).

argos did not show up and i presented my evidence to the court. quite simply the judge stated that she felt argos were being fair and reasonable except perhaps that an additional £40 should be allowed for the inconvenience and then adjourned the case so i could contact Argos to see if they would agree to the refund offer plus £40.

well they did and i got my cheque from them today and i feel ok about it despite actually being £10 down (it cost me £50 to go to court and as i didnt win dont get my costs back ). To me it was more the principle than the money i felt they were being unfair in their method of calculating the refund amount (still do actually but a judge agrees with them - she said it was not a simple sliding scale type calculation and was asking what the true value of the equipment would be 2nd hand as such). it was clear there was no point in me wasting more time going back to court again.

so what can i suggest for you lot?? quit moaning and if you feel its unfair go to court and argue point out the warranty is for 12 years useage but argos are refunding on a 6 year lifespan and ask for a small amount of compensation for the hassle they are causing and i think you will get a better result.

for anyone who has had a child injured well thats different and i wish you luck and hope your child recovers fully.