Broken bed - Sale of Goods Act

Chalkie77

Hi there everyone, hope you can help!

I bought a bed stead in May 2009 for £220 from a local furniture company. Last weekend one of the side bars broke clean in half - rendering the bed useless (well i've propped it up with a couple of sturdy hard backed books but this is hardly a long-term solution). I've contacted the retailer who (after a week of waiting) have told me that the manufacturer cannot replace the side bar as the bed has been discontinued and there is nothing else they can do.

I have duly pointed out that my contract is with them and not the manufacturer and that I would be more than happy with a repair to the bed - even said that we could probably unstaple the faux leather and reuse it! The lady i was speaking to then told me that there was nothing the company could do until the end of March and everyone who could make a decision was on holiday until then. Humph!


Anyway, I have backed this up in writing using a handy template found on the BBC website, but am not expecting great things. Therefore I wondered if anyone could help me out with a few things:

• A good reference to use on the life expectancy of beds
• How much (£) is reasonable to knock off the sale price for use to date

I guess I'm just appalled because the last bed stead I bought cost me £65 from Argos and lasted 10 years!

Thanks in advance

squeaky

Hmm... this a sales based thing comparing two specific beds - but their average is nine years...

http://www.sleeplikethedead.com/mattress-tempvsleepnumber.html#dura


HTH

gnaril

you have posted on the heading Sale of Goods Act.

So i am assuming you have read up on this and yes your contract is directly with the store.

You will be aware that its over 6 months and its down to you prove the item is inherrantly faulty. An indepedant report would be required to facilitate this.

The merchant are under no obligation to help you at all as it currently stands, you never know you might get lucky and they do go over and above the call of duty, but you will be one of the few.

Life expectancy= depends on how much use/strain your putting on it. There wont be any stead fast guide and is irrelevant in relation to your claim under the sale of goods act. Finding some internet page saying a bed "should" last 10 years or 20 years counts for nothing.

There is 100's of pages about the sale of goods act. Consumer direct will be able to assist with templates if you need to write to the company however their advice would still be that you need a report if the merchant are not going to budge.

All the best

squeaky

gnaril wrote: »

Life expectancy= depends on how much use/strain your putting on it. There wont be any stead fast guide and is irrelevant in relation to your claim under the sale of goods act. Finding some internet page saying a bed "should" last 10 years or 20 years counts for nothing.

Sorry, my fault.

I didn't mean to imply that in anyway that result for a specific manufacturer could be used in an enforcible way by the OP in this case.

Even so - while the average in that graph is nine years, and some show as still good after as long as twenty...

..it also shows that some do not last very long at all.