Sale of Goods act vs Vodafone

prosaver

eefee wrote: »

Ok. As 6 months have elapsed, clearly I need to prove that my phone has an inherent fault.
I took it into a mobile phone shop, the engineer confirmed that it was dead but......
Only Apple can service the phone. It's impossible to get an independent engineers report.
How do I prove an inherent fault?
I'm living in Belgium at the moment. We don't even have Apple stores here. I would have to drive to Germany and even then, the report wouldn't be independent.

what exactly was wrong with the phone?
google it and see if its a common default with the phone ..there's your prove, a manufacturing fault.:T
ps lets us know the fault

prosaver

just done some detective work its very common...some people have got a replacement or you could fix it yourself.
less grief

NFH

Has Apple yet disputed that the goods were not durable at the time of supply (in breach of Section 14(2B)(e) of the Sale of Goods Act 1979)? Until Apple disputes your assertion that they were not durable at the time of supply, an independent report is not necessary.

Did you buy it directly from Apple? Remember that your contract is always with the retailer, not with the manufacturer.

You could pay Apple for a repair, stating that you are paying under protest and on condition that they give you a report stating what the fault was. This could then be sufficient evidence to pursue a claim against Apple under Section 48B.

eefee

The phone was supplied by Vodafone. They have refused a free repair or replacement without an independent report.

Apple tell me that it is Vodafone's responsibility and that I should have purchased Applecare. I didn't purchase this as I assumed I was protected by the SOGA.

Thanks very much for your advice

mattyprice4004

I don't see what's so hard for them to give a report - I'm an independent repairer and I supply reports for anything, including Apple products if I can prove the fault was indeed inherent.

iPhones aren't difficult to work on, just looks like you've been speaking to the wrong people.

NFH

In that case, the Sale of Goods Act does not apply. Your claim is against Vodafone under Section 11N of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 in respect of their breach of Section 18(3)(e). As a consumer, you have a reasonable expectation that the goods will be sufficiently durable to last at least for the length of the service contract for which the supplier intended them to be used.

eefee

The final response from Vodafone is as follows-

I have discussed these with our legal team and have been advised that The Sale of Goods Act ("SGA") 1979 implied terms into the contract between Vodafone and the consumer .These are set out in section 14(2) of the SGA 1979 and say that goods supplied must be of "satisfactory quality".

Vodafone’s position is that that all the handsets it supplies are of satisfactory quality. There may be occasions when an unexpected error occurs/ inherent defects in manufacture which will make a particular handset fail to function as it should due to the age of the handset. However it is quite clear that there was no inherent defect in the handset when it was supplied - if there had been this would have manifested itself far sooner.

Furthermore as at least six months have elapsed since you have taken possession of the handset that the burden of proof will be you to demonstrate that the handset was faulty when it was supplied to you

With regard to guarantees, the EU Directive states, in Article 6, that freely given guarantees will become legally binding contracts and demands that consumers have sight of them if they want to read them (for comparative purposes).The Directive does not prescribe any length of any warranty or impose any obligation to provide a warranty.

If you believe that Vodafone has not complied with your statutory rights, it remains open to you to refer the matter to your local trading standards office.

eefee

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

I don't see what's so hard for them to give a report - I'm an independent repairer and I supply reports for anything, including Apple products if I can prove the fault was indeed inherent.

iPhones aren't difficult to work on, just looks like you've been speaking to the wrong people.

Where are you based Matty?

NFH

eefee wrote: »

Vodafone’s position is that that all the handsets it supplies are of satisfactory quality. There may be occasions when an unexpected error occurs/ inherent defects in manufacture which will make a particular handset fail to function as it should due to the age of the handset. However it is quite clear that there was no inherent defect in the handset when it was supplied - if there had been this would have manifested itself far sooner.

Although the other stuff they say is correct, this bit is incorrect. A durability defect, by its nature, does not manifest itself at an early stage, but at a much later stage. Durability is specifically required by Section 14(2B)(e) of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) and Section 18(3)(e) of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982. I would say that the latter applies, but both acts have the same requirement in this respect anyway.

movilogo

Have you tried to take it to an Apple store directly? They may be able to fix it for free if this a software issue.