Halfords OFFICIALLY HELLfords - Sat Nav Woes!!! HELP!!!

chris163

Hi

Firstly - thanks for reading this....

I am having an absolute Nightmare with Halfords.

I bought a sat nav unit 2 days ago from Halfords and went to take it back yesterday as it was far from my expectations and was told I was not entitled to a refund or exchange!

It was a brand new Road Angel Navigator 6000 and the box was not sealed. On the way home on the evening i bought it, I tried it and the mapping quality was awful - with the cursor moving all over the screen, and it seemed very innacurate and laggy.

Anyway...I didnt register it or anything - I put it back in its box and went back with it the following day.

The salesman said - sorry, we do not refund sat nav. I explained it was far from fit for the purpose and it was either faulty or just.....well.....crap!

He then went and got the manager who then pointed to this stupid little notice which said Sat nav unit's were exempt.

I was farrrrr from happy. I left the unit with them to 'test' knowing fully well it would just sit in the box and they would say 'yes its fine'.

I then checked out my rights and the trading standards law which stated If its unfit for the purpose for any reason I am entitled to a refund within 30 days.

Given that it was packaged as new, without being registered....i went back......they are still refusing to refund or change it - i dont even mind paying upto £100 more for a better version!!

What do I do?

PLEASE HELP!!! THANK YOU!!

skiddy2k

Contact Halfords Customer Services... I'm pretty certain Halfords stores are not aloud to refund or exchange Sat-Navs, but you can ask CS for an explanation and see if they'll change their minds

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10651_langId_-1_partNumber_ST_509

banger9365

halford/hellfords are well known for this kind of thing breaching our statutory rights when it comes to sat naves and things like that ,they think they can do what they want .
ive had the same sort of thing happen to me and it was a fight to get it changed ,it took phone calls to the manufacturer and going to halford and having a stand up argument with the manager in the shop and quoting the sales of goods act to them do's not do any ,in the end i had to get the manufacturer to give me a RMA number and get them to replace the unit on the spot before halford would swop it (i just wanted to exchange a faulty unit for the same kind ) all i can suggest to you is ring consumer direct and see what they say first and i be leave you are in your right to take it back if it's not fit for purpose or faulty (money back or exchange).
and good luck you will need it

Little_John

The problem you were having regarding the jumping about sound familiar to sothing that happened to me in San Francisco, The GPS sgnal was screwed up by the overhead cables for the trolley buses it was totally useless. The same thing happens if you try to use sat nav in a car with a heated windscreen if you have a heated windscreen you will need to buy a booster that yo stick to the window where the heating elements dont run normally behind the rear view mirror.

Astaroth

If there is nothing wrong with an item then you have no statutory right to return it irrespective of the condition or if you have a receipt or not.

The "problem" is that you are saying the item is not "fit for purposes" but this is an exceptionally subjective thing. Your complaint with it was that the cursor was slow/ inaccurate... some would say that it makes it not FFP where as others would say that that aspect is the consequence of buying a budget model but as long as it does get you from A->B that it is perfectly fit for purpose as A-> B is the purpose for which it is made not to have the worlds fastest cursor to show off to your friends with

Avoriaz

You should have bought this budget navigation system instead. It uses reliable and time proven technology at very low cost to the user.

http://img.tesco.com/pi/Books/L/2X/074954872X.jpg

chris163

haha very good - i think i might revert to that!

astaroth - thanks for your reply - thats what they were basically inferring. I am far from happy about it...but what can i do?

banger - i tried phoning customer services, constantly engaged...i know what their going to say as well....which makes it all the more annoying!

tempted to sell it on ebay...

chris163

oh and littlejohn - much appreciated advice. We also have a Tomtom and that works fine in my car (which does have a single line down the middle of the windscreen for heating). I mean, the words are perfect on the timing when in navigation mode....but the screen is all over the place....very frustrating to watch!!

skiddy2k

you dont KNOW what they're going to say, worth a try, or you may want to send a letter or e-mail, nothing to loose.

nej

GPS reception is affected by a number of things. Atmospheric disturbances, overhead trees, tall buildings, hills/valleys, heated windscreens (as mentioned), position in car. It's only really 10m accurate and not even guaranteed at that.

Sometimes people have too high an expectation of GPS. Lower-priced models will suffer even further as the receivers will be less sensitive. Look for a SIRF Star III chipset as a good guidline.

Mapping is often a bit out of date. Mapping updates are released by the mapping companies (TeleAtlas & NavTeq) every quarter, but the sat nav makers will not go through the lengthy conversion process that often. Once per year would be quite normal, twice would be generous. And that data is still not going to have everything on it as some bits will inevtiably be missed.

trets77

I was in the market for a Road angel sat nav and considered a a vist to Halfords.

if it cheers you up any they have lost my potential custom for life due to this thread. :rotfl: