Samsung and Tesco Cop Out

MeanParent

Last December I purchased a Samsung laptop of one of my kids from Tesco Direct with a 3 year guarantee.

The power transformer has failed.

Tesco referred me to Samsung who refuse to do anything as it is only covered for six months - nowhere on the original purchase was this made clear.

The Tesco extended warranty will not cover it as it has failed before the extended warranty starts!

I am about to buy a new smart phone and new LCD TV, guess who I won't be buying from!

Looks like I will need to try a s75 claim, but why should I have to bother! Silly really as it is a Tesco credit card so they will end up paying anyway!

It is enough to drive one mad!

Dyson, Domestic & General & Xbox have all turned out that week to fix their broken products. Samsung needs to learn a lesson from them!

fozmcfc

It could be considered to be like a laptop battery, which normally is considered a consumable and is normally only guaranteed for 6 months.

I'm am surprised however, the extended warranty doesn't start from day 1. In my experience, extended warranties are normally a bit of a waste, because they normally start from day 1 of signing up for it, so therefore you normally get a year less than the extended warranty is sold for, because you are covered for the first year anyway.

I'm not the best to advise, but I'm pretty sure some people here with good knowledge will come up with an argument to put to Tesco/Samsung.

deanos

Its nothing to do with Samsung, your contract is with Tesco

£$&*"($£&(

This doesn't sound right to me. There's quite often only a six month warranty on batteries but surely the power supply unit should have a years warranty - assuming that's what you mean by "power transformer".

DCFC79

I would have thought the transformer would be covered, have you asked tesco to show you where its mentioned that the transformer is only covered for 6 months,

MeanParent

deanos wrote: »

Its nothing to do with Samsung, your contract is with Tesco

I know, but Tesco's help line transfers you to the relevant manufacturer.

Calling Tesco is no help either - catch 22!

real1314

When my daughter's laptop power supply went kaput 1 month after the end of the 12 month "guarantee" period Tesco, after some pressing, considered a claim based on "out of warranty" / reasonable quality and gave me half the value of the laptop as a settlement.

Not bad when the new power supply was only £50.

I think you need to push Tesco a little. :cool:

MeanParent

Son was using it last night without me knowing.

By holding the cable in a certain way it still worked apparently.

Then caught fire!

Luckily no damage.

I am absolutely livid.

Called Tesco Customer Services and they said nothing to do with them. "Call the Electrical Help Line" they said!

UnB***dy believable!

McKneff

Trading standards is your next step.

But, I would think the power supply would not be covered to be honest. But check your paperwork

Go to an independant shop if you are going to buy one, Currys tried to sell me one for 3 times the cost of an independant.

vyle

Power supplies are pretty much never covered by the full warranty, and even extended warranties don't cover them (out of curiosity at work one day I rung around extended warranty providers to check) -- even the ones that cover accidental damage.

If you have a look in the warranty leaflet that will have been in the box when you bought the laptop, it will clearly state what the warranty covers.

The general warranty page on the samsung website states:

"The warranty covers manufacturing defects only. Please note that this does not include consumables items such as batteries, bulbs, and ink cartridges unless listed above under ‘general information’."

but your warranty leaflet will explain more. It's not the shop's job to explain to you every term and condition of the manufacturer's warranty when the information is provided for you in the box. And when you asked them to sort it out under warranty, they were right to direct you to Samsung, who your warranty is with -- although it's kinda crap that the Tesco warranty doesnt start until the second year, but it does kinda make sense in some ways. Youve already got a one year warranty and I doubt their warranty covers anything more than samsung's own.

Now, if you want to claim for the fault under the SOGA, you're going to need to take a different approach and if you've had it more than six months, it's your job to prove that the adaptor was faulty, rather than broken through misuse. Alas, that might be tricky now your kid's blown it up.

Please remember that the warranty and the SOGA are completely different things and aren't interchangable on a whim.

MeanParent

I have had the power supply checked this afternoon by an independent electronics engineer friend of mine (20 years experience and member of IEEE).

Don't quite understand the jargon but his opinion is that the cable is so thin that it is asking for trouble as the thinner the cable is the more likely it is to heat up and potentially catch fire and unlikely to last a year in regular use. He will put it on a test rig on Monday to see how many bends it takes to cause problems during the week and test its gauge. If faulty he will get a report printed.

The leaflet in the box from Samsung was in the loft and says the battery lasts 6 months as a consumable item. Nothing on the power supply. I would have thought the power supply is not a consumable as if it were all electrical equipment with a transformer built in or not would only be covered for a few months (such as TVS, videos etc).