'The EU ‘goods must last a minimum two years’ rule is a myth' blog discussion 13 December 2010 at 12:56PM in Martin's blogs & appearances & MoneySavingExpert in the news 51 replies 10.4K views

Former_MSE_Lee

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "The EU 'goods must last a minimum two years' rule is a myth" Blog.

Please click 'post reply' to discuss below.

Mupette

Interesting as my gaming memory has just died, and was bought through e buyer 3 years ago, although its crucial memory which has a life time guarantee, although OH said it would be to much hassle to get the money back as they did cost a bit when he bought them for me.

Domain.Rider

Mupette wrote: »

Interesting as my gaming memory has just died, and was bought through e buyer 3 years ago, although its crucial memory which has a life time guarantee, although OH said it would be to much hassle to get the money back as they did cost a bit when he bought them for me.

I had some Crucial PC memory fail after 18 months, and Crucial replaced it on return without quibble. Call them for an RMA (see 9.1 Return Procedure).

spratley

Interesting. Am just trying to research whether I have a case against Worcester for a fault on my gas boiler. It is only 4 yrs old & has suddenly sprung a leak from a plastic section called the "flow unit". This is made from thick plastic, but has somehow become porous & a pinhole leak has resulted. Really cannot understand how this could happen to a plastic pipe, unless the type of plastic used was not fit for purpose. The plumber had obviously seen this type of fault before. Have not been billed yet, but it took several hours to replace the part, so am expecting something around the £200+ mark. Will be posting this problem on other forums to see how common it is...

aaranj

Four critical time limits? I only counted three in the blog.

LeeJ79

aaranj wrote: »

Four critical time limits? I only counted three in the blog.

There is a fourth time-limit:

The final time limit is the ‘must last a reasonable time bit’ and here the word ‘reasonable’ has a common sense definition.

Mupette

Domain.Rider wrote: »

I had some Crucial PC memory fail after 18 months, and Crucial replaced it on return without quibble. Call them for an RMA (see 9.1 Return Procedure).

OH said he will call them later he said Sept 2007 is when he got them, this would of been the time of major rebuild and upgrade of my pc.

in fairness they have lasted 3 years, but when a company says lifetime guarantee how long do they really mean,

worse case is they will tell him to bog off, at best refund on market value now, he wasn't going to bother but i have persuaded him to ask them.

fannyadams

I had a Hotpoint washing machine that broke down after 2 years 5 months.:mad: I contacted the retailer (Co-op electrical) who told me to go to Hotpoint. I know I should have pushed them more but I didn't know about this site in them days.

Hotpoint couldn't have cared less... they wouldn't accept that the machine wasn't up to the job and they wouldn't give me a replacement so they lost a valuable customer (up until that point ALL my family had used/owned Hotpoint). like they care...

I now have a Bosch washing machine (it was a Which? best buy) (thanks to a bonus I received from work). It, too, is dying by degrees (bearings are wearing).
The engineer tells me that Bosch will "put a computer on the machine and know that you've abused it"... So i'm waiting for it to die properly and will see what happens.
I might ask them how long they think the washing machine should last for and see what they think. can't remember who I bought the darned thing from now.

aaranj

LeeJ79 wrote: »

There is a fourth time-limit:

Ah. That would be a reading fail, on my part then.

rpb

Interesting Martin's choice of "six months" when he said:

Most would say it’s not reasonable for a £1,000 plasma telly to break after six months

Personally, I'd expect a £1000 item like that plasma telly to last five years or more and I reckon most reasonable people would agree that it *should*!

[In fact, I'd still be miffed if a £1000 telly broke after five years - my current CRT family telly is 14 years old and going strong - but the way things have been going I wouldn't be overly surprised if a new telly gave up the ghost after five years. Washing machines apparently only typically last 6-8 years these days.]

rpb

And on that topic - why can't we start a popular movement to define what is "reasonable" in terms of something lasting a certain amount of time?

If, as my recent Bosch washing machine repair man told me, washing machines typically last 6-8 years these days (which is pretty poor right there, in my opinion), could it not be said that, therefore, a "reasonable" person would expect a washing machine to last, say, at least half of that upper limit (or two-thirds of the lower) and so a washing machine that conks out (whilst well cared for) within four years can be consider not to have lasted a reasonable time? A one or two years guarantee doesn't really seem adequate for this sort of purchase.

Maybe I'll write one of those 50-word things and suggest this!