Good way to get your money back when something breaks?

Evilm

Not sure if this should go here or in another catagory but I have a sucess story for you regarding something failing before a reasonable amount of time.

My hubby had a HP Pavillion Laptop which after a year the wireless started to go and at about 18 months died completely. A computer tech friend of ours said it was to do with a batch of bad motherboards and HP were known for being difficult regarding sorting them out.

We wrote to the retailer, one of the DSG group, and cited the "Six year rule" saying that 18 months is not a reasonable time to expect such a unit to fail completely and asking for compensation in the form of either a full refund, a partial refund or the unit to be fixed.

They came back to us and asked for a report of what is causing the problems, whether it would be manafacturer fault or user error and the expected cost of repair. We got a report from a local computer shop (which wasn't easy to find one who would do the report but we did) and they said that it would need a new motherboard and repair would cost £450.

The retailer replied very quickly and said they would pay us £450 plus the fee for getting the report and asked if that was acceptable. Of course we accepted as that was nearly half of the original purchase price of the Laptop!

We have put that money towards the purchase of another make and model of Laptop and are very happy indeed!

I don't know if we were lucky or if the six year rule is something that can be relyed on to be of assistance in disputes... hope it helps someone if they have a problem.

kduffy101

hi can you tell me more about the 6 year rule?
breif details...bought a freeview 250gig recorder for about £120 from asda 11 months ago,it broke the other day,so i went to asda but didnt have the receipt,the lady told me....asda do not exchange electrical goods without one.i paid cash+explained i only want another one not my money back.
but i was told i could speak to a manager,who would just tell me the same story,so i just left....
any comments would be great.
thanks

shandypants5

This is what they state in the asda policy.
I am not sure if they can stick to that "legally" though.

Exchanges and refunds


This policy applies to store purchases only
If a customer is not happy with any purchase of ASDA branded items — grocery, fresh or frozen — they can return the product and we will offer a full refund or replacement product. A receipt is preferred but not essential.
Electrical products
When a customer purchases any electrical item their receipt will be placed in a free Exchange & Refund wallet. If a customer doesn’t receive one, they can ask for one. The purchase is then covered for a full year from date of purchase; the customer will need to keep the receipt to be covered under the Asda warranty.
We also offer a 28 day exchange or refund on any electrical item which we call our ‘Changed Your Mind’ promise. Return it to the store in its original condition with the receipt or other proof of purchase within 28 days, and we’ll give our customers a full refund or replacement (excluding entertainment items). To qualify for an exchange or refund, products returned need to be complete with original packaging and all accessories, components, instruction booklet and original plug

shandypants5

Sale of goods act info HERE

6 year rule is mentioned about 6 facts down.

I have never managed to get a shop to adhere to it even after 14 months though, they usually just fob you off to the manufacturers.

Marty_J

I returned a crap Philips GoGear mp3 player to Currys several years after it was purchased; it had never worked properly from day one, and the software it came with was absolutely awful (when it worked at all).

I put £20 to the cost of it and got myself a new 30 GB iPod.