18 months broken fire saga - Where do I stand legally?

westyrugby

Bought a wall mounted fire in July 2008. The fire has a fascia mounted on to it which has cracked and been replaced six times since we bought it by the company who the warranty is with. The last time a fascia cracked we found out the fire had been installed with a "heat shield" part missing, so this was fitted with the latest new fascia and we were told this would fix the problem. Unfortunately they were wrong, this has again cracked and the company no longer replace anything with this fire due to the problems they have had with it. They have offered us two replacement fires but they look nothing like the present fire at all and neither are particularly nice.
We feel this fire has never been working satifactorily since we bought it and we would like a full refund as well as the installation fee but the warranty company say the shop we bought it off is responsible if we reject the fire and the shop says the warranty company is responsible.

Can anyone explain where we stand as regards a full refund and who we should be dealing with.

Thank you

jdturk

your contract is with the shop not the manufacturer, you have to chase them and they will chase the supplier.

jdturk

Normally under the sale of goods act they do not have to refund you, they can offer a replacement or repair, they obviously know there is an inherent fault with the fire hence their stopping of replacing it so you maybe able to get a refund from them

I would be looking for an amicable deal, why not look through their catalogue and see if there is another one you like and if its not much more than what you paid barter with them.

As for the legal stand point I'm sure someone will come along and point you in the right direction.

westyrugby

Thanks for the replies JD. Tried the second option but they have no other fire which is suitable or similar to the one we have except for an electric one which is several hundred pounds cheaper and they want us to pay the installation costs. The shop have also been very unresponsive hence this post to try to ascertain exactly where we stand from a legal standpoint.

jdturk

Personally if they are not playing ball I would say you will have to

1) write a letter and send recorded delivery offering them one more chance to repair/refund/replace under the SOGA (be aware that as it is after 6 months they are in their right to ask you to prove that there was an inherent fault with the fire).

Detail the problems you have had and exactly what you are looking for in terms of recompense.

2) if still no ball then you seriously have to look at taking them to small claims court and even though the cost of this is relatively small you have to be willing to take it and must be fairly confident of winning which means you must make sure all your facts are correct (take proper advice if required).

Hopefully another user will come along with more advice for you