SOGA and repairs

*SuzySue*

Hope you can help me.

I bought a treadmill for about £2200 in February 2009. It came with a 3 year warranty on parts.

January 2012 it blew up (wouldn't work at all) so I tried to contact the retailer. Their "aftersales, service and parts" department never answered the phone, and as the warranty was getting close to expiring I contacted the manufacturer, who directed me to the nearest servicing company.

They ordered parts and came out to fix the machine. I paid £110 labour and call out charges and the machine seemed to be fixed.

That evening it blew up again.

I rang them the next day and they agreed to order some other parts, and about 3 weeks later they came back to repair the treadmill. The engineer was more thorough, and made some additional changes because the treadmill seemed to be drawing more power than it should.

I used it twice over the next couple of days, and it blew up again.

Another call to the service agents, more parts ordered (the one they'd already replaced in case it was faulty), another 3 week wait and they came back. But they'd only ordered 1 part instead of 2, so they couldn't fix it. Engineer thinks it's yet another part that's causing all of the others to break.

Said they'd order the new parts (plural this time) and come back in a few days. Didn't hear anything, called them and the parts won't be in the UK until the middle of June.

Am at the point where I'm getting fed up with it now. Have had to spend another £1k on other pieces of equipment to train on as I'm training for a half marathon in a few months and I need to be able to work out!

Went back to the retailer last week and asked them to help me. I asked whether the whole machine could be replaced under the SOGA for a refurbished one. I'm still awaiting the call they promised me on Monday. They were adamant that it's nothing to do with them, but I know that under the SOGA it is.

So I suppose my question relates to 'reasonableness'.

Is it reasonable for a £2200 treadmill to fail after less than 3 years? It hasn't had heavy use by any stretch of the imagination.

Is it reasonable that it take 4+ attempts to repair it, covering a period of 5 months+?

Is it reasonable that I request a replacement or refund now? If refund is an option, how do I find out how much mine would be worth?

Grateful for any advice you can offer.

sgtbush

Is it reasonable for a £1200 treadmill to fail after less than 3 years?
no i would think not
Is it reasonable that it take 4+ attempts to repair it, covering a period of 5 months+?
again no
Is it reasonable that I request a replacement or refund now? If refund is an option, how do I find out how much mine would be worth?

i have a feeling you would only get back a portion of your money, not sure how they work it out but you have had it from Feb 2009 to JAN 2012 with no problems

sgtbush

PS, you could aways run around the park to train!!!!!
but the only training for marathons for me is eating the "out of date" chocolate bar!!!
i am of course joking!

*SuzySue*

sgtbush wrote: »

PS, you could aways run around the park to train!!!!!
but the only training for marathons for me is eating the "out of date" chocolate bar!!!
i am of course joking!

I wish. My working hours mean that I tend to run at 10pm or 11pm. Not really safe for a lone female to be out running alone at that time of night round here.

I'd much rather have spent the £2k+ on shoes!

*SuzySue*

sgtbush wrote: »

Is it reasonable for a £1200 treadmill to fail after less than 3 years?
no i would think not
Is it reasonable that it take 4+ attempts to repair it, covering a period of 5 months+?
again no
Is it reasonable that I request a replacement or refund now? If refund is an option, how do I find out how much mine would be worth?

i have a feeling you would only get back a portion of your money, not sure how they work it out but you have had it from Feb 2009 to JAN 2012 with no problems

I'd be happy with it being replaced with a properly refurbished model, or taking whatever the current value of a 3 year old treadmill is to put towards a new one.

What I'm not happy with is these repeated attempts to fix, which involves days off work and having to call them for updates (because they never ever call me). The retailer's refusal to help is pretty sh1tty too. I bought the treadmill in good faith and feel very put out by the whole situation.

sgtbush

you should run round the park by me then!!! even the stalkers and weirdo's !!!!!! off by the sight of the grumpy women all-a-sweatin run past lol

you wud be safe haha, hope you get it sorted tho

CoolHotCold

Its fine to run outside, I'm sure you'll be able to outrun them.... Just in case give you the time and place you'll be running at night and I'll hide in the bushes just to make sure you are safe.


To solve your other problem, outside of 6 months you'd have to get a engineers report or expert report to state that the fault is inherent if you wish to follow the SoGA with the retailer.

*SuzySue*

CoolHotCold wrote: »

To solve your other problem, outside of 6 months you'd have to get a engineers report or expert report to state that the fault is inherent if you wish to follow the SoGA with the retailer.

Don't mind doing that if it comes to it. Just feel that the parts should be capable of working for longer than 3 years! Surely if they don't, with no signs of external forces to break them (which the engineers reports so far have confirmed - this is an electrical problem) then they weren't suitable in the first place?

paddyrg

You may be right, may be wrong, an engineers report will be more use than what any of us here think.

At the moment though, the engineer doesn't seem to know what the problem is, so hard to say whether the fault is down to damage or not. For all we know you're a fan of the pies and use golf spikes when running on it, straining the motor and hence appearing as an electical fault when it is really a pies/user error!

Would you get a refurb? Maybe, if they have one. Surely better to get yours fixed, the wait is a pain, but seems to be a fact of life. Can you run with a friend in the park or borrow a machine for a while whilst yours is being fixed? Ask the engineer for a loaner whilst he sorts yours out, he may have one somewhere.

*SuzySue*

paddyrg wrote: »

You may be right, may be wrong, an engineers report will be more use than what any of us here think.

At the moment though, the engineer doesn't seem to know what the problem is, so hard to say whether the fault is down to damage or not. For all we know you're a fan of the pies and use golf spikes when running on it, straining the motor and hence appearing as an electical fault when it is really a pies/user error!

Would you get a refurb? Maybe, if they have one. Surely better to get yours fixed, the wait is a pain, but seems to be a fact of life. Can you run with a friend in the park or borrow a machine for a while whilst yours is being fixed? Ask the engineer for a loaner whilst he sorts yours out, he may have one somewhere.

I'm well under 10 stone (machine is good up to 150kg!) and run in standard trainers! Engineer said it's a really clean machine (and it holds stats on distance etc so he can see it's not been hammered!)

Am about 6 miles from a decent park, and no buddies to run outdoors with late at night unfortunately. Bought a cross trainer and a rowing machine so that I can do something of an evening. Just cross because I shouldn't have had to.

And the engineer isn't capable of ringing me when he says he will. Not sure he'd cope with having to swap machines!

deanos

As the manufactures have fiddled it umpteen times pretty sure you don't have a case with the retailer anymore , you should have gone to them first, i could be wrong tho, im sure someone will tell me if so