Packaging for repair under Sale of Goods Act

qabalist

Back in May I purchased a 30" LCD computer monitor which started to have problems displaying an image about 3 weeks ago. Both the vendor and the manufacturer agree it needs repairing and both are willing to send a courier to pick it up and get it repaired free of charge. Where I am coming unstuck is that neither is willing to supply the specialist packaging needed to hand it over to the courier. And no I didn't save the huge box which it came in.

Both insist that I am responsible for ensuring it is adequately packaged and that if it gets even more broken in transit then it's my problem. I can understand the manufacturers stance as they are only bound by their own warranty conditions, but I am having a problem squaring the vendors insistence that it's my problem that I didn't preserve the original packaging.

At the moment we are at a stand off - I cannot source a big enough/strong enough box to put it in along with suitable restraints to stop it breaking in transit and they just point blank refuse to supply any.

The Citizens Advice line which is doing first call response for Trading Standards has given variable advice. When this first became an issue a couple of weeks ago I was told in no uncertain terms that the vendor was responsible for supplying packaging for transit. Yesterday or the day before this had changed to 'it might well be deemed reasonable' for me to package it myself somehow.

I have been totally unable to find anything referencing this situation online. Lots of stuff regarding original packaging and returning goods to the vendor for refund, but nothing about packaging that might be required to get an item safely to the vendor for repairs.

I was hoping this would be dealt with as Asus dealt with a laptop repair a couple of weeks ago. The courier turned up with a big plastic box filled with foam, in went the laptop and away he went.

Is the vendor responsible for supplying packaging? I had assumed so as a repair under the Sale of Goods Act shouldn't cost or inconvenience me.

Help!

somethingcorporate

My opinion is it is up to you to package it reasonably. They provided suitable packaging at the outset (you chose to bin it).

Saying this, once their couriers have accepted it the responsibility to look after it is theirs.

Could you not just pop to the PO or a local stationers to get / build a box?

Valli

If it were me I would pop to Tesco (extra) and buy one of the HUGE rolls of bubble wrap and some parcel tape. I would wrap it in SEVERAL thicknesses of bubble wrap, well taped, then get a roll of corrugated cardboard and wrap in that. And label it FRAGILE - HANDLE WITH CARE

OR

I would sneak round the back of Curry's and see what I could find in their skip (box wise).

bris

somethingcorporate wrote: »

They provided suitable packaging at the outset (you chose to bin it).

As somethingcorporate says, you have chosen to discard the adequate packaging supplied to you.
It's not hard to package it up. Wrap it in bubble wrap a few times and secure with parcel tape, then find a few boxes and make a box to go outside the bubble wrap secure with parcel tape and stick a label on it. No point in looking for a fight for something as simple as this, it's your time you are wasting, they don't care.

arcon5

Bubble wrap, corrugated board & fragile tape is a recipe for disaster. You need a double-walled box to put it in and polystyrene preferably. Otherwise you could use packaging peanuts or bubble wrap.

Have you looked on eBay for TV boxes ?

Guardsman

I had a problem with a acer monitor and they said they would send a courier to collect it.
All acer asked me to do was remove the stand and the courier would take care of the rest.
It's them thats arranging the collection and it's them that should ensure that it gets to their depot in the same condition that it left your property.

qabalist

I was rather hoping for something more than opinion and dodgy packaging advice

This is not a lightweight plastic shell 30" TV/monitor which will bounce if covered in bubble wrap and a roll of corrugated cardboard. It weighs 11kg without the stand. If it gets dropped it'll laugh at all those dead bubbles it leaves in it's wake as it hits whatever is underneath it.
When I mentioned the requirement for specialist packaging I wasn't talking out of my derriere. And you can bet the the courier terms of service state that dropping things is a perfectly reasonable thing to happen to packages it is carrying - and I won't be getting to specify a more expensive courier with better insurance.

So... does anyone know enough about the Sale of Goods Act and its provisions or have direct experience of this situation to actually say anything definitive about the responsibility of the vendor in this matter?

There's certainly nothing that I've read that states a consumer has to keep the original packaging in case they are sold a dodgy unit which will need repair or that upon need for the unit to be repaired that the vendor is responsible for everything about fixing it except the small matter of the packaging for couriering it around safely.

Thanks in advance.

deanos

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Cardboard-LCD-Plasma-TV-Picture-Mirror-Moving-box-52-Screen-bubblewrap-/230740031272?pt=UK_Packaging_Materials&hash=item35b92d7728

somethingcorporate

If you want professional advice go and pay a lawyer, evidently you don't want common sense for free.

You got rid of the packaging, you cannot force them to provide you any and for the sake of a few quid you can DIY it. Like I said, as long as it is reasonably packaged once the courier gets it they are responsible for it, so if it gets dropped whilst in their possession you cannot be held liable for it.

Personally, I think you are being deliberately argumentative so I'll take my crap advice elsewhere.

Nilrem

I think the only time I've ever had the manufacturer supply the packaging for a return of anything was once when I had a Sony CRT monitor that needed replacement under warranty (they had a special courier bring the replacement out in a flight case*), and more recently when Dell arranged a replacement for a monitor and swapped it out - the old monitor went into the same box the new one arrived in.

However it's up to the user to keep packaging that might be needed to return fragile items if anything goes wrong imo, as most companies simply won't have suitable packaging empty to send out for collecting a return for a repair (especially as the packaging is usually designed specifically around each model).

A 30" LCD's packaging is fairly big, but not what I'd call massive, especially as you can use it to store other items in a cupboard or loft.

*The monitor weighed something around 30-35KG, and cost something like £800 new (and the box was roughly a 2 foot cube).

vaio

depends...

if it's a warranty issue then you have to abide by whatever the warranty terms are and if that means you need to pack & return to them then so be it.

If it's a Sale of Goods issue then repairs must be done without "significant inconvenience or cost to the consumer" which I'd say means the retailer has to collect or provide packing.

As you have only had it less than three months I'd say it's Sale of Goods rather than warranty and I'd be inclined to write to the retailer and state this.

Personally I've had two warranty issues with 21" monitors.....

CTX CRT about 10 years ago, CTX sent a new one and the courier waited and took the old one away in the box the new one came in.

Acer LCD about 4 weeks ago, they repaired rather than swapped out and sent an empty box with a courier who returned the next day to take it back to Acer once we'd packed it up.