Am I entitled to a refund?

sketchy_sam

I bought a mountain bike from my local shop a few weeks ago. I originally ordered the bike in December 2010 and after many delays it finally turned up in August 2011.

After just one week I had to return the bike with one fault (frame was not finished correctly) and after three weeks from the original date of purchase I had 6 seperate complaints so they decided to send the bike back to the manufacturer for them to assess.

It has been two weeks since I sent the bike away now and after getting them to chase it up I am told that the bike manufacturer are waiting for the head designer to get back to have a look. Basically, they've had the bike for two weeks now and done nothing! Also, they won't say when he's back leading me to believe that I'll now be without this bike for at the very least another week.

Now I am starting to get a bit hacked off - especially given that the bike cost me a substantial amount of money and I am currently left with nothing to show for that. Am I entitled to a refund?

Also, I know it shouldn't make a difference but I work for the shop in question. I can forsee this causing me a lot of grief as the company can be pretty stubborn at the best of times. This could potentially make my working life rather difficult to say the least so I want to make sure I know exactly where I stand before I run in and kick up a fuss.

Thanks in advance

visidigi

repair, refund or replace, the choice of the retailer which they choose - if its the repair option then you must give them reasonable opportunity to repair it.

Surely its better to have an lower employee at the manufacturer delay the decision and have the head person check it? Give them an oppportunity to do so...if I personally worked for the store I would certainly do the leg work myself with the manufacturer than ask my employer to do the chasing (although legally, employee or not, you are actually classed as a customer in this scenario).

sketchy_sam

I thought a repair was to be carried out in a "reasonable" time. I am unsure if this is considered unreasonable considering that I will have been without the bike for more time than I have had the bike.

Unfortunately it is strictly forbidden for me to contact suppliers which is a pain because I can't get a straight answer going through my manager who has to go through head office.

Ordinarily I would be happy with a repair and more than happy for the head guy to look at it. However, this is not something that can be repaired - the frame needs to be replaced to resolve this issue. It is a quality control issue. Because of this I am unsure why I have to be without a bike for all this time.

The annoying thing is that if I was a regular customer it is very unlikely that I would be in this situation. I have already missed out on a lot of riding time because of this - i had a weeks holiday which I had planned to spend cycling as well as two seperate weekends.

Because of this I am contemplating asking for a refund so that i can buy a different bike from a different manufacturer (this one - without mention names - doesn't have the best reputation. I believed that these issues were in the past however it now appears that I was wrong).

arcon5

Upto 28 days could be considered reasonable.

Although not a legal entitlement, it will do no harm in asking for a refund or even an exchange. The worst they can do is say no.

The_Pedant

Upto 28 days could be considered reasonable.

Depends on your circumstances though.
If, for example you would have used the bike every day to get to work and instead you have a lengthy walk then I'd be saying that 28 days would be unreasonable.

Down to individual cases. If you can demonstrate that something is causing 'significant inconvenience', depending on the purpose that the bike was for then you may be able to argue a better case.

halibut2209

I can't believe you waited 8 months for it to be delivered!

Given that level of service, it will probably take just as long for the bike to be repaired.

arcon5

The_Pedant wrote: »

Depends on your circumstances though.
If, for example you would have used the bike every day to get to work and instead you have a lengthy walk then I'd be saying that 28 days would be unreasonable.

Down to individual cases. If you can demonstrate that something is causing 'significant inconvenience', depending on the purpose that the bike was for then you may be able to argue a better case.

I would say what constitutes reasonable is down to the type of product and the complexity of the repair itself just as much as whether op has to walk to work.

For example, 28 days may not be considered reasonable to repair a brake pad, whereas if the repair was a complete rebuild 28 days would be reasonable.

For example, a few months ago our boiler needed replacing, we was without hot water which caused significant inconvenience to us from day 1 -- the landlord had a plumber get a new boiler and installed within 9 days, although extremely inconvenient, many would consider this to be reasonable bearing in mind the size of the job.