Advice Please Regarding TV from Hughes Store

claraabblue

Please can anyone help, I desperately need some advice and I don't know who else to ask about it?
Back in Dec 2007 my husband purchased a Panasonic 42" Plasma TV for £984.99 from our local Hughes Electrical Store. He also took out at the time Hughes' Own Pro Plasma 5 year guarantee for the additional price of £350. At no time were we given anything from Hughes detailing exactly what their own guarantee entailed.
At the beginning of July this year we noticed a problem with the screen of the Plasma so we contacted Hughes immediately and they sent someone round to collect the television and to see if it could be repaired. Just over a week later we were contacted by Hughes to say that the TV was unrepairable and that they were issuing us with a new TV. Same make and screen size but obviously a different model as our old one was n longer being made.
It sounded a good deal too we were going to be given a 3D (no glasses though) Internet Ready Smart TV. We had the tele dropped off and were left to set everything up on our own which was fine as my hubby is a dab hand with controls and settings ect. It wasn't until we really got to see the picture that we were really really unhappy with it. The screen colours are muted and totally un-vibrant with a great deal of grain showing on the picture also. It is by no way as good as our old TV and we were very frustrated as when my husband contacted Hughes no one wanted to deal with the issues he had raised as the Manager was away for 2 weeks.
So over the past two weeks my husband has fiddled with every connection and setting but to no avail. He has spend countless hours on the Internet researching the TV and other peoples opinions. My husband also has Aspergers Syndrome and so for him it is incredibly difficult to let anything go and he turns things over and over in his brain for days or weeks at a time.
Today he phoned up Hughes and seeing as the Manager was back from holiday Spencer (my hubby) spoke with him and aired all the concerns that he has about the TV. To make things easier to understand I am going to list them so you can skim through and see what you feel.

1. His old TV was £984.99 but the TV he has been given is currently on sale at £599.99 but it was originally 799.99. A big enough price drop from what he paid near on 5 years ago.

2. Hughes have told him that even though he paid £350.00 for the 5 year Guarantee because they have changed our original TV due to a fault then the 5 year guarantee is now void and has been cancelled, when as far as we were concerned it should have carried on till Dec of this year.

3. We have been given no manufacturers warranty with this replacement TV as my husband would need a receipt from Hughes to be able to claim it. My husband asked if he could have some sort of receipt to say when he got the TV and Hughes are telling him that they don't know if he can have a receipt as there was no cash exchanged. We don't understand how this is possible Surely we have a right to claim a manufacturers warranty??????

The Manager of Hughes (Darryl) has told Spencer if he wants a better quality of TV we would need to pay more money but we don't have any more money to spare. He is also making out that if we want a warranty we would need to take out another Hughes' Own 5 Year Guarantee at around £160.

All this is making my husband mentally and psychically unwell and we don't know what to do.

Please can you advise us on where we stand with any of this.

Kindest Regards

Claire

StuieUK34

Your kinda stuck with it to be honest..
went through a similar thing in 2010 (18 month old TV which cost just short of £2k, 46" LCD with all fancy bits on it)....

Busted via a Nintendo Wii, so insurance co said they cant replace screen (discontinued), so will provide a cashcard to buy another telly...

Insurers/underwriters/warranties, all do the same thing, they look at screen size, HD, type (plasma/lcd/led), and brand.
Because technologies move on, newer stuff comes out which can match older stuff in the above, but not on the picture quality, etc etc...
If u got the model number of the old TV, and looked at the spec, and your warranty says it will swap like for like, then u can try going down that route.....

claraabblue

Thanks for the reply Stuie,

Sorry to hear you had similar troubles. It's just so frustrating when we weren't even given a choice between model numbers. Would have preferred a cash card to be fair as at least that way we would have had more choice. Xx

McKneff

The trouble with getting a cash card is that you would probably got one for a pittance because they would have deducted a big chunk taking into account the amount of time you had use of the TV.

visidigi

claraabblue wrote: »

1. His old TV was £984.99 but the TV he has been given is currently on sale at £599.99 but it was originally 799.99. A big enough price drop from what he paid near on 5 years ago.

He bought that 5 years ago, TV's have dived in value since...so this isn't a factor. 5 years of TV use would have seen your £985 purchase at not much more than £50-£100 at a quick guess, electronics lose value exceptionally quickly.

claraabblue wrote: »

2. Hughes have told him that even though he paid £350.00 for the 5 year Guarantee because they have changed our original TV due to a fault then the 5 year guarantee is now void and has been cancelled, when as far as we were concerned it should have carried on till Dec of this year.

Usually the terms of these warranties are that when a full replacement is issued then the warranty ceases to exist.

You would need to refer to the terms and conditions of the policy you took out to find out your specific rights.

claraabblue wrote: »

3. We have been given no manufacturers warranty with this replacement TV as my husband would need a receipt from Hughes to be able to claim it. My husband asked if he could have some sort of receipt to say when he got the TV and Hughes are telling him that they don't know if he can have a receipt as there was no cash exchanged. We don't understand how this is possible Surely we have a right to claim a manufacturers warranty??????

Not necessarily, insurance claims usually get the equipment cheaper if they don't take on the warranty - its a bit of a grey area this as normally you are only covered for the warranty from the point of purchase, as you did not purchase the item its quite likely you don't get any more warranty.

claraabblue wrote: »

The Manager of Hughes (Darryl) has told Spencer if he wants a better quality of TV we would need to pay more money but we don't have any more money to spare. He is also making out that if we want a warranty we would need to take out another Hughes' Own 5 Year Guarantee at around £160.

This is right - if you want a better TV than offered it would need to be paid for, and as referenced above, it all depends on what your warranty documentation states, usually this makes the warranty null and void if replacement is issued.

claraabblue

Okay so another question.

Am I entitled to have a receipt from Hughes stating when this new TV was given to us allowing us then to claim the free Panasonic Manufacturers Warranty? Is does seem very unfair if we aren't even allowed to have that, just in case this new TV goes wrong....

Thanks X

visidigi

claraabblue wrote: »

Okay so another question.

Am I entitled to have a receipt from Hughes stating when this new TV was given to us allowing us then to claim the free Panasonic Manufacturers Warranty? Is does seem very unfair if we aren't even allowed to have that, just in case this new TV goes wrong....

Thanks X

I don't believe you are, it totally depends on the documentation. If you had had a refund (which would have been considerably less) and walked in and bought a TV then this would have been a new purchase as money changed hands, as you got this under insurance the experiences of this scenario varies greatly depending on the policy terms.

vyle

out of interest, what is the model number of your new TV, and what was your old one?

Guardsman

Should they not provide a receipt by law ? even if it had £Nil on it.
I would want a receipt just in case I had to prove I owned it.

bris

No receipt needs to be issued by law. The tv you have is deemed to be 5 years old and replaces your old one, warranties do not start again with replaced goods to stop infinite claims.
You could phone panasonic with the tv's serial number, explain what happened and ask them to give you the warranty. They may be able to do something for you.

Looksguywalker

bris wrote: »

No receipt needs to be issued by law. The tv you have is deemed to be 5 years old and replaces your old one, warranties do not start again with replaced goods to stop infinite claims.
You could phone panasonic with the tv's serial number, explain what happened and ask them to give you the warranty. They may be able to do something for you.

If I request a receipt can the seller legally refuse me?