Consumer Rights: MSE Article discussion (DO NOT ASK CONSUMER QUESTIONS HERE)

derrick

Selphie142 wrote: »

Hey there!

I just wanted to ask a quick question about returning items that become faulty and I'm sorry in advance if this is in the wrong section...

The store I work in sells new games consoles and our refund policy is if a faulty item is returned within 14 days (or 28, I can't quite remember) then we will swap the item or refund them if we can't.

However, I have been told that if the item becomes faulty after this time then we are to refer them to the manufactuer as we aren't allowed to give refunds/swaps. (So, if after 6 months an XBox360 has the red rings of doom it's the problem of Microsoft)

Is this true? I've looked on the main site and there's lots of info about items sold to you that as faulty... but what if it becomes faulty (i.e. stops working); what rights are there and who is responsible?

Yes, you are in the wrong section as the first post will inform you.

Please read the first post of this board where it will inform you not to ask questions on consumer issues and will direct you to the correct board which is the Consumer Rights board.

But in a nutshell, your company policy cannot override statutory rights, in this case the SoGA, and as a retailer the consumer has a contract with you under this Act and NOT the manufacturer.

Also you mention, (as an example), "6 months", well that is a cut off point for who has the burden of proof as to what the fault is and who caused it, up to 6 months the burden of proof is on the retailer to prove the fault was not there at point of sale, over 6 months the burden swops over to the consumer.




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haysof

Hi there, can anyone help me with the issue of companies taking money out of your bank account with out notice and without invoice or receipt. i gave them my card details for the 1 and only transaction that was agreed,and confirmed with an invoice, since then they have taken over £400 without any notice and are unable to be specific what for, but they are not agreeing to give me any refund. They have in the last couple of days sent a debt collector agency after a further £370 pounds which again I have no notice or knowledge about. i contacted a lawer and they are a bit banboozled by it, so am searching for another. i contacted trading standards who said, get a lawer. I contacted my bank who can t do anything due to the way they have taken the payments, all I can do is change my bank account, which I have today. The debt collectors say they are looking into it and are holding taking anything further. The company that are taking the money keep ignoring me and who ever I speak to dont know anything about other money due, arent awair of the debt collector,,,, its all a mess. I do have however email proof of correspondence, which backs everything up,,,, but,,, any help or advice would be much appreciated.

wealdroam

Haysof, the first thing you need to do is read the title of this thread.

Particularly the bit where it says...

DO NOT ASK CONSUMER QUESTIONS HERE

Just have a look at a few of the posts before yours, they all make the same point.

jesselivermore

This is a post about some very serious problems I’ve been having with the John Lewis second year warranty for my Toshiba laptop. I would caution any MSE users to think twice before doing any Christmas shopping at John Lewis or Peter Jones!
This is why:
I used to trust John Lewis’ brand name, so much so that I chose to pay them £700 instead of spending £630 for the same laptop from PC World (due to a technicality I was told that couldn’t price-match).
I justified this additional cost because of the extra warranty period (beginning as soon as the manufacturers 12 month warranty ended and lasting a further year). I also thought that I could rely on John Lewis’ reputation for customer service. I was wrong.
A few months into the John Lewis warranty the unit developed several hardware issues. I called the JL technical support number and they explained that I would need to send it off to their repair providers, Regenersis, who were based outside of London. This would take up to 14 days.
I have since discovered that John Lewis have a commercial agreement with this repair company. Despite the fact that any repair work done by a Toshiba-authorised repair partner should be to the same high standard, John Lewis have a commercial incentive to put work through Regenersis only.
I told them that I used my laptop daily, so this would be very inconvenient. The John Lewis employee I spoke to said that there was another option available, at the discretion of the Oxford Street store, which was to use any other Toshiba authorised repair centre instead, including one I had found in Central London called Gultronics. I called the JL store’s PC department and this was confirmed to me. All I needed to do was to pay for the work and get a full invoice and John Lewis would reimburse me in-store afterwards. They knew Gultronics well and were happy for me to use the company.
Gultronics inspected the unit and wrote a repair note listing the hardware issues which would need replacement parts. I paid almost £150 for the parts and the repair charge and they then ordered the parts. Whilst waiting for their delivery, another issue emerged which I confirmed was also a hardware fault with the help of Toshiba’s technical support centre. I noted the reference number for this call and asked them to note full details of the case.
Since another part would need to be ordered, I called the JL Oxford St store to let them know. I was told that the person I had spoken to previously had left the company, no work done via Gultronics would be permitted and that I would have to carry out all further repairs with the repair partner, and that I would have to contact JL head office to find out whether a refund of the £150 I had already paid Gultronics was even possible.
At this point I was livid. This was a totally different policy by the company to the one they had previously taken. I had:
1) Spent a lot of money, in good faith and acting under the advice of two separate employees of John Lewis. I was now not even sure if this reimbursement would be honoured by the firm.
2) Wasted a lot of my time and inconvenienced myself a great deal
3) Still not managed to resolve the issues with my laptop at ongoing inconvenience to myself
4) Been told I would need to waste further time (up to 14 days) in order to repair my machine.
I complained about this – first to the manager of the John Lewis store’s consumer electronics department, Mr. Mark John Pierce, and then to customer services at John Lewis head office (020 7828 1000 – ask for Kiran Shah, if any readers are having similar issues). It was agreed that they would look into both the refund and sorting out a more viable option for the repairs, and that someone would revert in full within 24 hours.
I got a call the next day from a junior in the Oxford St store reiterating their previous position on the repairs. I’ve had no feedback on the refund.
I have since emailed the customer services department asking for a more acceptable response. I believe senior management need to be made aware of the escalation of my complaint, so I CC’d the Chief Executive of John Lewis, Mr. Andy Street, and the Chairman, Mr. Charlie Mayfield. More than three working days later, I’ve had no acknowledgement of my email at all.
To summarise, John Lewis have really let me down and in doing so they have massively damaged their reputation for customer service.
By not allowing me to use an authorised Toshiba repair centre in London, it is my view that they have contravened the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. In doing so, John Lewis are ignoring what would be a more pragmatic option, given the considerable inconvenience I have already been put to. They are choosing commercial agreements and profits over customer experience.
I will now be pushing for further compensation for the time and funds incurred over the last month as I have tried to resolve this issue. I’d love to hear if anyone else has had a similarly bad experience with John Lewis and how they managed to resolve it.
I’ll update this post with any further developments – in the meantime, I would advise anyone reading this to think twice before doing any Christmas shopping at John Lewis or Peter Jones!

bod1467

Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

popadom

I saw on Martins guide that shops do not have to sell mispriced goods. But i thought id add something too this. Yes, He is right, you cant argue breech of contract due to mispriced goods. However It is an offence to misprice goods. If you argue with a trader with breach of contract, theyll ignore you. But most shops, if you say you'll report them to trading standards will infact just give you the item,(apprently they can get fined) Its not worth the hassle-as long as its not at 50k car advertised for 5k!:D

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/advice/problemswithgoods-sum3.cfm

popadom

I saw on Martins guide that shops do not have to sell mispriced goods. But i thought id add something too this. Yes, He is right, you cant argue breech of contract due to mispriced goods. However It is an offence to misprice goods. If you argue with a trader with breach of contract, theyll ignore you. But most shops, if you say you'll report them to trading standards will infact just give you the item,(apprently they can get fined) Its not worth the hassle-as long as its not at 50k car advertised for 5k!:D

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/advice/problemswithgoods-sum3.cfm

popadom wrote: »

Offences:
If the seller is in business (rather than a private seller), he may have committed a criminal offence if he:

• sells goods which are unsafe
• advertises a misleading price
• displays a sign which states 'no refunds'
• performs an 'unfair commercial practice' - this can include many activities such as placing false claims on goods or services

If you feel that any of the above could apply, you should report the matter to Consumer Direct before you return to the trader.

Edit: In the above link i typed in my address and found my councils trading standards. I dont really want advertise where i live, but if you find your own trading standards site, this seems to be pretty generic. So you should be able to find the above qoute yourself

somethingcorporate

Can you provide a link or some evidence to suggest mis-pricing goods in error is illegal?

Most shops if threatened with TS for making a human error would turf you off their property (and rightly so).

It is illegal to deliberately mislead customers with pricing under advertising rules but prices on a shelf are simply invitations to treat and do not have to be accepted by a shop, even if you offer to pay the full price tag.

You may have got lucky with arguing with a retailer but they probably only sold it to you to get rid of a difficult customer.

Rakesh.Chauhan_2

Problems with Internet Hosting service

I bought:
1. domain name and
2. hosting

on a yearly direct debit.

After 6 months, i transfered the domain name to another company but forgot to cancel the hosting. On the 13th month (today), i noticed money has come out of my account for the hosting via direct debit. I called up the company to see if i could get my money back but they refused.

Is there a way around this?

bod1467

Yes. START YOUR OWN THREAD!