Faulty repair

mark61120

Hi, My wife bought a laptop from Curry's on-line. After about 2 months, it's screen started to flicker, so she sent it for repair. It was away for about a week. When it was returned, after a few days, the fault also returned.
I told her to tell Curry's that she wanted a new laptop or a refund. Curry's have refused saying that they should be given the chance to repair the item and that they can have it for up to 28 days.
She told them to look at the sale of goods act and that they had had the opportunity to repair the laptop once and 28 days is not a reasonable length of time (she needs the laptop).
They were not interested.

Where does she stand?
Thanks.

neilmcl

Under the SOGA there is no limit as to the number of times a retailer can attempt to repair, also you/she may not believe 28 days is reasonable but it would be up to a judge to decide, if it went that far, and I'd imagine most would say it would be reasonable unless she can show that doing without the laptop for that long would cause a "significant inconvenience".

adam.mt

Agree, most people would consider a second chance for repair as reasonable; repair is done by humans, and things can be missed, so give them another chance. If they don't get it right then, or take an unreasonable amount of time (beyond a couple of weeks) then you'd be entitled to ask for a refund. But until then, just have patience. Proceeding the legal route to enforce your rights isn't going to be speedy either!

cyberbob

mark61120 wrote: »

She told them to look at the sale of goods act

That probably really didn't help you start quoting SOGA at companies when they were already going to repair it (even though it was the 2nd time) your likely to get their backs up and cause yourself more problems.

adam.mt

Especially since they were only quoting it could take "up to 28 days", the first repair (or not) was completed within a week! Thus, for all you know a fixed laptop could be back in her hands in another week.

Have patience. High-street stores will take longer to do repairs than if you bought from an independent (or someone like Dell) that might do the repairs themselves. If not having the computer for a week or two is too inconvenient then either arrange to borrow one or you should have considered this to start with and purchased appropriate warranty cover that promised a quicker/fixed-time turnaround.

And no, I don't work for any computer manufacturer or retailer! I'm just able to see the issue from both sides and suggest a reasonable middle ground.