Is the shop assistant correct?

DonkeyBoy

lemmings999 wrote:

what you'll proberbly find is that trading standards say that unless YOU can PROVE the goods were faulty at time of sale (as the item is over 6 months old so reverse burdon of proof no longer applies) currys are within the law to repair the item.
that is what trading standards have said on every issue i have had,
i have rung them so many time the woman working at the local office knows me by voice

I called consumer direct (http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/ 08454 04 05 06) and the woman said pretty much what you have.

She was still extremely helpful and told me that if I did accept a repair that the repair should be durable - i.e. if the unit fails again in a few months I can take it back and argue for a (partial) refund.

I would highly recommend anyone to give them a call if you want to get the scoop on your consumer rights.

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, a lot of the sale of goods act refers to "reasonable" time scales & refunds/replacements. And the consumer's definition of reasonable is probably a long way from the retailer's. If the retailer is intransigent (and the guys at Currys seemed pretty battle hardened) then the only place to take the argument is the small claims court (and it hardly seems worth it unless the product in question is worth £100s).

The ironic thing is, I bought from a highstreet store in preference to online (which would have saved me a few quid) because I thought I would be in a better position to get things sorted if the unit went wrong. Turns out I am exactly zero better off by buying from Currys.

woohoo_postingid

Keep us updated on how things go

RedOnRed

I ran this refund type of situation thing past a lawyer recently and was advised that all they have to do is offer a refund within a reasonable amount of time. For example, Sports Soccer will only give refunds within 24 hours which they are legally entitled to do. There is no 30 day refund entitlement. It's all rather discretionary.

When you start quoting the Sales of Goods Act in this situation you may have to be prepared to test it in a civil court.

stiffnuts69

RedOnRed wrote:

I ran this refund type of situation thing past a lawyer recently and was advised that all they have to do is offer a refund within a reasonable amount of time. For example, Sports Soccer will only give refunds within 24 hours which they are legally entitled to do. There is no 30 day refund entitlement. It's all rather discretionary.

When you start quoting the Sales of Goods Act in this situation you may have to be prepared to test it in a civil court.

There is mountains of case law with regards to a reasonable period of time. In some cases the court as held that months after the contract persons are entitled to a full refund.

Sports soccer are not entitled to give refunds only within 24 hours that is a definite no no, and I would argue a restrictive statement under the fair trading act.

I would advise that about the month mark on the whole is a reasonable period of time but again it is rather subjective with no definite time period quoted. (It also depends on a number of different factors).

It would in the end be up to the county court judge.

stugib

RedOnRed wrote:

Sports Soccer will only give refunds within 24 hours which they are legally entitled to do.

If the goods aren't faulty they can set whatever time they want, or in fact not accept non-faulty returns at all (which I thought was the case at Sports Soccer, not even 24 hours).

But as Stiffnuts says, they can't take away your statutory rights whatever their policies say, so a 24 hour limit is meaningless if the goods are faulty - they'd have to argue that 24 hours was a reasonable time to inspect the goods, which isn't true for everything they sell. The example the DTI used to give (think the web page might have gone now) is a pair of skis (which theoretically Sports World could sell) - if you bought them in August but then only found out they were faulty when you first tried them out (i.e. 'inspected' them) when it next snowed in January, then you'd be entitled to reject them for a full refund.

RedOnRed wrote:

There is no 30 day refund entitlement. It's all rather discretionary.

That's true - people tend to quote 28/30 days but this seems to be a common time retailers interpret 'reasonable' to be for a lot of goods. Even after that time you'll be entitled to repair/replacement up to 6 years after purchase (dependent on what it is, how much you paid, etc).

dmg24

Good luck with Currys - I had the same problem, went in and when they wouldn't help, quoted the relevant statute. They still didn't budge ... maybe they think they're above the law?!!

RAMBLER

It is ironic that I still sometimes buy in stores rathan than online because I "think" I'll get better customer services.

I guess the best advice is to be as informed as you can (when something happens) and take in a witness (its amazing the bull you can be told)

Good luck

RAMBLER

lemmings999

DonkeyBoy wrote:

I called consumer direct (http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/ 08454 04 05 06) and the woman said pretty much what you have.

She was still extremely helpful and told me that if I did accept a repair that the repair should be durable - i.e. if the unit fails again in a few months I can take it back and argue for a (partial) refund.

I would highly recommend anyone to give them a call if you want to get the scoop on your consumer rights.

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, a lot of the sale of goods act refers to "reasonable" time scales & refunds/replacements. And the consumer's definition of reasonable is probably a long way from the retailer's. If the retailer is intransigent (and the guys at Currys seemed pretty battle hardened) then the only place to take the argument is the small claims court (and it hardly seems worth it unless the product in question is worth £100s).

reasonable time for repair according to dsgi plc will be 28 days, and after that time has passed if they still havnt repaired said item it should be exchanged.


secondry thing is that all garantee work done by dsgi plc is covered by a 3 months garantee

i'm assuming the dvd recorder was upwards of £180 as of the fact that is a hard drive version and was bought last year therefore you "proberbly" have reasonable grounds for a repair upto about 2 years after the purchase and this is roughly what would be deemed "fair useage" for that price dvd recorder

but dont quote me on any of this