Returning TV to a evasive Amazon....Help Please!

Davonator

Summer 2008 bought a Sony Bravia TV with 3 year warranty.

Last week no digital channels came up, so I rescanned (no luck), Tried another aerial (no luck) Restored from factory settings (no luck). Called out a TV man, who confirmed that my aerial was fine and couldn't get any digital channels, so he concluded it was a TV fault and urged me to make use of my warranty.

So I phoned Amazon. As this was the 2nd year of a three year warranty I rang them up to get it sorted through them as standard practice with warranties seems to be year one is covered by the manufacturer, the rest by the retailer.

Anyway the guy at the call centre, said the opposite was true and year 1 was with them, and years 2 and 3 with Sony. This sounded really strange to me, and I said i'd check with Sony....who then said my initial presumption was correct. Year one IS covered with Sony and two and three by Amazon.

So now I need to go and talk to Amazon and put them straight, but I want to arm myself with a bit of knowledge beforehand. So can I ask

1) Does Amazon have a history of being like this when it comes to large scale refunds (I usually have a good experience, and it may just be a bloke with a summer job i'm speaking too who is a bit clueless)?

2) Is there some dedicated hidden number I can call them on, which doesn't put me to their generic switchboard?

3) Is there any legal/policy paperwork that can back me up?

Thanks

da1seggy

I might be completely wrong so correct me if so, but I always thought faults after the first year are the responsibility of the manufacturer, and not the seller as the extended warranty is with them.

I might be wrong, but that's what I thought.

hethmar

Ive always found them extremely good for returns. I got my sons ipod replaced before I even sent off the faulty one and that was nearly a year into the warranty.

I know when my monitor went on my last pc system, I rang the sellers and they said the warranty was with the manufacturer and gave me a number to call. It was all sorted very quickly. Have you tried ringing Sony?

Davonator

hethmar wrote: »

Ive always found them extremely good for returns. I got my sons ipod replaced before I even sent off the faulty one and that was nearly a year into the warranty.

I know when my monitor went on my last pc system, I rang the sellers and they said the warranty was with the manufacturer and gave me a number to call. It was all sorted very quickly. Have you tried ringing Sony?

Just Now!

They said that year 1 is covered by them and years 2 and 3 by Amazon, so it is Amazon's responsibility now.

I will get on the phone to them.

david39

You need to look at the T&Cs of your warranty.

We bought a Panasonic from TVdirect and they gave us a one-year warranty but a few days after registering the set with Panny, to our surprise, we got a voucher back from them giving us a free 5 year guarantee.

TVdirect had not mentioned this to us, but when I came to look closely at the receipt it did say so but it said that the first year guarantee was with them and the other four years were with Panny - and to contact Panny if there was any need to use the guarantee after twelve months. I would expect this to be the case with Amazon, too.

I'm sure you will have the terms in writing somewhere in your documentation, it just needs a bit of searching for.

dragon934

Has there been any changes to the digital service in your area?
I've heard of standalone digiboxes dying when the new software upgrdes as they are to old to cope. I'm not sure of your rights in this case. I just seem to remember only digi kit with the "pink tick" being recommended. If I'm wrong then by all means someone correct me

david39

As the set seems less than 2 years old, it will have Freeview built-in, so it should be able to stand up to any changes (other than it won't bring in Freeview HD without an add-on).

If a competent engineer has looked at it and declared it dead, I would have thought it almost certainly is.

You need to be talking to the manufacturer about the extended guarantee.

If you can't get anything out of them, then you go back to Amazon, quoting Sale of Goods Act and that the set hasn't given a satisfactory length of service - in which case, you will require a written report from your engineer to prove that the set is dead.

Your first port of call has to be to the manufacturer who are almost certainly the providers of the extended guarantee. Amazon are acting correctly at this point, until you can get no joy out of Sony.

Keep any emails, letters etc. and keep a record of any telephone calls and what was said and to whom.