12 month warranty on a 24 month contract, is this legal or just unfair

Nigma

Morning all,

Thanks for this fantastic opertunity as venting my spleen at Mobile Phone Providers...

July last yr, I took a Laptop and Dongle offer from Orange 24 month contract @ £40 a month will Dell Laptop, which at the time I was happy to do, until 3 months ago a fairly fault free service, then following a network issue, I find I am unable to connect for longer than 5 minutes to the Mobile Broadband network, I rang customer service, and was told it was a network issue and Orange engineers were aware of the fault and it was being addressed, this carried on for a number of days, and fair comment i was given a discounted line rental cost for 1 month, which I hasten to add Was offer to me, not requested. However some months later after repeated phone calls I am still no nearer resolving my connection issue, which upon investigation is not a Network or a Sim Issue, it is actually an issue with the dongle, as confirmed by there 2nd line Diagnostics team.

This is were the issue starts, The dongle supplied by Orange I am informed only has a 12 month Warranty, however the contract is for 24 months, I am in Month 15 of a 24 month contract, and now can hardly stay connected the the net, I have tried the dongle in 3 computers ( one laptop, one tower unit and one Apple ) and the result is pretty much the same, dropped connection and unable to get back on. So answer me this I have a 24 month contract which I am obliged to keep to, in possession of a dongle that is no use nor ornament that is costing me £40 a month, for a service I can realistic use for 5 or 10 minutes of a day. I have been informed by there customer service team, that i can purchase a dongle from Orange for £70, or as advised by one of you service staff, to " Stick my Dongle Sim in my IPhone" and use it that way.

I find this totally unacceptable, your contract is for 24 months yet your warranty a product retailed by you for only 12 months, do i have any recourse to get out of this contract, or I am stuck, any one away of anything from Service of Goods act or Merchantable quality that i can argue my point with?

Kind Regards

Enigma

gjchester

Nigma wrote: »

I find this totally unacceptable, your contract is for 24 months yet your warranty a product retailed by you for only 12 months, do i have any recourse to get out of this contract, or I am stuck, any one away of anything from Service of Goods act or Merchantable quality that i can argue my point with?

Warranty is decided by the manufacturer, some have 12 months some 2 years. Be glad your not in the USA where 90 days is common.

Merchantable quality is a hard thing to define. Dongles are cheap they retail for less than £20 so the trace cost has to be pretty small. The law states it has to be of sufficuent quality, but then if your paying little for it you should not expect it to last forever.

At the end of the day you took the 24 month contract up to get the "free" laptop. And as bad as it seems you'll probably need to replace the dongle as it's broke, it's a bit of cheap electronics and its now broke and not economical to repair.

However why not get on from Ebay, Argos, Tesco etc than pay Orange &0 for a new one. Just ensure it's on the Orange network (or unlocked) swap it over and all should be well.

Hotspur

Nigma,

Legally, the manufacturers warranty is over and above your sales of goods rights which are the responsibility of the seller. You could try and argue that the dongle isn't fit for purpose and consequently should be replaced by Orange. It is quite reasonable to expect something supplied under a 24 month contract to continue to work throughout the life of the contract. However, the unknown here is how the dongle has been treated. e.g. if it had been dropped in the bath you wouldn't expect it to last as long as if it had been kept in cotton wool.

If Orange won't replace it isn't worth the hastle of pressing them so practically buying a new dongle would be the answer.

Nigma

Basically the dongle has sat on the Computer table for the last 15 months, and never moved, so not subject to any water ingress or damage. The Intial issue started when the dongle was still under warranty, therefore i must have some kind of legal recourse, I see now from the Orange website that these dongles are now issued with a two yrs warranty. I understand that the laptop was free, and I was paying for the airtime contract which is based on a sim card, saying that if I am not able to use the airtime ( ok its the dongle that is faulty ), but the dongle is the kit that makes the sim card function. The real Irinony here is I work for a mobile network.... last time i deal with a piece of fruit for a network, now I prefer to breath " Fresh Air "

JJ_Egan

Trading Standards if you get nowhere with the supplier .The manufacturer has no responsibility to the shopper under UK law its the seller who is 100% responsible .Current trading laws say is it reasonable for a product to break down in that time ,could it be proven to be a fault at manufacture six year limit . Though it would not be that easy to claim on something three years down the line .

jje

jje

Guys_Dad

Don't want to add any more gloom to your tale, but have you checked how long the warranty is for on your Dell laptop? I believe the basic package is for 1 year unless you extend.

Also, as suggested, dongles are quite cheap to buy, probably more than extended warranties.

And lastly, it is your air-time contract that runs for 24 months initially. You need to think of the equipment - laptops, dongles, handsets etc as more like electrical items purchased from Currys, Dixons, Comet etc. They generally come with 12 months manufacturers' warranties, irrespective of how long your credit agreement runs (if you buy them on credit, of course)

Nigma

I took a extended warranty from Dell... But thanks

Funny But the case with Mobile Phones, 90% of Main Market handsets, Nokia, Sony, Samsung, HTC all have a 24 Manufactures warranty, Iphone and Blackberry dont, Some Mobile Providers ( CPW and 02 ), will provide a warranty repair for the duration of the contract, the DOESNT COVER Iphone, Blackberry or Motorola.. Oh Alcatel as well.....

Just Seems Strange how Orange now offer a 2 yrs warranty on the same dongle....

Just found this from VODAPHONE

Vodafone Repair Warranty


Enjoy peace of mind when you purchase a new mobile or modem from Vodafone. With Vodafone’s Repair Warranty you are provided with FREE protection from the cost of repairing a defective device for 2 years from the date of purchase! This warranty offer applies to new Nokia, Sony Ericsson, BlackBerry, LG, Samsung, HTC and Huawei devices on, the device in question is Huawei

Hotspur

Nigma,

I wasn't suggesting you had abused the dongle but just gave two examples to indicate how circumstances might alter the legal position. I would continue to pressure Orange to replace going with the line that a dongle contains no moving parts, has been used appropriately and consequently must have contained a fault from manufacture. Also, remind them that they are offering a 24 month warranty on the same/similar product and if they refuse to budge remind them that you are paying then £40 per month and ask if they want to lose your future custom for the sake of replacing the dongle. Good luck :-)

gjchester

[QUOTE=JJ Egan;37258442Current trading laws say is it reasonable for a product to break down in that time ,could it be proven to be a fault at manufacture six year limit . Though it would not be that easy to claim on something three years down the line .
[/QUOTE]

Not quite.

If you have a fault then you have six years (from the date of purchase) in which a claim could be made (statue of limitations) but it's not a six year warranty.

To use an analagy. At the end of the day you can't expect a £100 TV to have the same build quality as a £1000 TV. For the price you would expect the £1000 TV to be better quality and should last longer.
Back to this dongle it's a cheap bit of electronics, they sell for £20 so the cost price is much lower. It's not reasonable for it to such a durable lifespan.

Money_Grabber13579

Nigma wrote: »

the device in question is Huawei

That probably explains it. Huawei is a load of old tat. We had a router from them and it whistled and squealed for a year and a half before it gave up all together. Would never get another one.

JJ_Egan

I know its not a six year warranty . As trading standards remarked dependent upon the value of the item it is often not worth trying to pursue many legitimate claims due to the inability of many UK sellers to fail to understand or work to the law eg 28 days and other baloney .

jje