Fault on product (golf club) leading to secondary damage

dom31

Hi,

I brought a Ping driver (golf club) last year in June from a large golf retail store which cost a bit under £200. It was covered by the usual year guarantee + an 12 month extended guarantee, the extended 12 months is for all clubs sold with no extra charge.

A few weeks ago while on the driving range the shaft snapped sending the head of the club down the range. The head was received a few days later by the staff and I took it too the store where I brought it from, it was sent back to Ping for assessment.

The top of the head was badly scratched (this part of the club is not typically scratched or damaged with normal use hence the black glossy paint, very good condition previously) where it had landed on the rough terrain and probably hit by balls.

Now the store say the shaft will be fixed but the scratches won't be as it was caused by landing on the driving range with stones and balls damaging it, basically not a fault of the product. Surely as this secondary damage was caused by a fault it should be repaired. It won't affect the performance but would affect trade in value and not nice to have a scratched bit of kit.

If there's any comments or reference to legal docs it would be really helpful, Ping won't be repairing the club till next week anyway so ideally would like to get this solved while they still have it.

Hintza

I'm surprised they are not just replacing it. They still might.

dom31

They said it would either be replacement or repair when I dropped it in at the store, apparently it get sent back to Ping to have a x-ray done to determine the damage.

When I called them yesterday to check the progress that was when they said the shaft was being replaced but damage to the crown wasn't.

This concept of secondary damage caused by a first fault must have come up before and could be applied to several other products.

Guardsman

As far as they are concerned they wont know if the club was damaged due to it being in a bag without a cover.

This is four years old but has some interesting points.
http://www.golf.com/equipment/break-club-heres-what-expect-if-youre-hoping-free-replacement-golfcom

dom31

Thanks for the link Guardsman, interesting reading.

I take your point but the sort of damage caused couldn't be caused by other clubs hitting it while in the bag even if the headcover was left off.

Anyway phoned the retailer to get the phone number for Ping, Ping said it's not that they wouldn't repair the crown but that they don't have the facilities, I've argued my case and now looking into it. I've heard good things about Ping's customer services so hope they live upto their reputation.

CoolHotCold

It is cosmetic damage, and if the T&C state they will only fix physical faults or exclude cosmetic damage then thats all they have to do. Unless they explicitly state in the warranty T&C that they will fix all problems with the club regardless of nature then you have no legal recourse.

bod1467

https://twitter.com/PingTour

https://www.facebook.com/PINGGolfFans

If things get sticky then the above may be useful.