Just out of guarantee - what rights?

Anjistar

Hi,
I have a Culligan's Aquadial SLHitechF water softener, installed new in November 2008.

It stopped working in December, but we and our local plumber were too busy to look at it until after Christmas, so we turned it off. The visible fault is that it keeps flushing water through to the drain, and the electronic display flashes blue, but with no error message or numbers.

The plumber says it needs a Culligan's engineer to look at it and they want to charge us the full call-out fee of £80 (plus parts if necessary), as the machine only came with a 12 month guarantee.

Our last water softener, an Aquadial Prismertec, lasted over 10 years, and never needed any attention and we feel that a whisker over two years is not good enough.

Are we being ridiculous?
How do we find out if the fault is such that it might be covered by the Sale of Goods Act?
In your experience, could we trust the manufacturer's engineer to own up to it being such a fault if that were the case?

Many thanks
Angie

27col

If it had a 12 month guarantee dating from Nov 2008 and it did not fail until Dec 2010 you can hardly say that is just out of guarantee. Also there is no point comparing it's reliability to a machine of a different make. If the other machine was so marvellous why did you not replace it with another of the same make. It is just the luck of the draw, some you win, some you lose. As to what the engineer might say, well I have known some company engineers to be quite vocal about the short comings of their products. Especially if you speak to them nicely. So, you never know, you might get him to say something. But whether he would be prepared to write it down is quite another matter.

Anjistar

I get the feeling you think I'm after something for nothing. I just wanted a bit of advice.

The machine is the same make - Aquadial, as I said - just a new model. We couldn't have replaced it with the same one as it was no longer in production.

I wasn't very clever describing the guarantee. I know the manufacturer's guarantee was for 1 year, but I did think generally EU law allows 2 years as a reasonable time in which an item should stay functioning, and the Sale of Goods Act allows for 6 years, if the fault is inherent.

If it was a £20 kettle I wouldn't be bothering, but this machine was a great deal more than that, and I can't afford to replace it or waste large amounts on unnecessary engineer callouts. I wanted to know if other people had had similar experiences and what they'd done about it.

That's all.

ormus

generally guarantee periods are for 1 year on most goods/services. unless stated.
however the courts have taken a different view of say an expensive item like a combi boiler and a 20 quid kettle warranty period/s.
even if both makers only offer a 1 yr warranty.

spmc

under the sale of goods act you have rights up to 6 years. A 12 month warranty does not affect your statutory rights under the SOGA. Your rights are with the retailer not the manufacturer. Different products will have different life expectancy depending on product and price so it is not simply a case of effectively having a 6 year warranty.

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/sale-of-goods/understanding-the-sale-of-goods-act/your-rights/

I have no idea how long a water softener should last but I have had success in getting a washing machine where the bearings failed after 28 months replaced free and a dishwasher that failed after 16 months repaired free by reference back to the SOGA. The washing machine did take a bit of persistance.

Rights under the SOGA are not straightforward. I understand I could have been asked to contribute to the replacement washing because of the use I had already had from the machine, but also I could counter claim on the loss of the use of the machine while it was faulty and I was waiting for a replacement - luckily it didn't get down to that kind of detail.

You won't have a claim if any fault is down to simple wear and tear or misuse.

27col

Anjistar wrote: »

I get the feeling you think I'm after something for nothing. I just wanted a bit of advice.

The machine is the same make - Aquadial, as I said - just a new model. We couldn't have replaced it with the same one as it was no longer in production.

I wasn't very clever describing the guarantee. I know the manufacturer's guarantee was for 1 year, but I did think generally EU law allows 2 years as a reasonable time in which an item should stay functioning, and the Sale of Goods Act allows for 6 years, if the fault is inherent.

If it was a £20 kettle I wouldn't be bothering, but this machine was a great deal more than that, and I can't afford to replace it or waste large amounts on unnecessary engineer callouts. I wanted to know if other people had had similar experiences and what they'd done about it.

That's all.

I wasn't suggesting for one minute, that you were after something for nothing. It wasn't clear to me that the new softener was of the same make as the old one.
As someone who lives in a very hard water area I have never felt the need to get a water softener either.