Currys, Blackberry & sale of goods act

Shimrod

I bought a Blackberry playbook in August - end of September it has stopped accepting a battery charge (although indicating that it was charging). A poke around the internet reveals this seems to be a relatively common problem and it would need a repair.

Took it back to Currys who took it in for repair. The following day I received a phone call (message on answer machine) that I would need to deal with Blackberry direct. The sales assistant at the store said Blackberry would not take the playbook in for repair unless I spoke to them first. To do this, I could either come into the store (9-5 Mon-Fri) or take away the playbook and deal with Blackberry myself.

My argument was that under the sale of goods act Currys should repair, replace or refund and I shouldn't have to talk to Blackberry - that certainly isn't going to happen from the store as I'm not giving up a day of work for that. That leaves the alternative of dealing with Blackberry direct, which to me means that Currys are ignoring their responsibility under SOGA. The shop assistant would not budge from his position. Before I escalate further, I would be interested in whether people think Currys are acting correctly or not.

tomwakefield

No, legally they're not. Your product is faulty, it's within six months so the fault is deemed to be inherent unless proven otherwise, and your contract is with Currys not Blackberry. Currys are notorious for washing their hands of anything and everything as soon as possible - one reason why I'll never shop there.

That said, you may get more luck going through Blackberry direct.

Depends whether you want the easy route, or to challenge Currys on principle.

The_Pedant

Tell them they can talk to you by phone and that you're happy for your number to be passed on?
Tell them if they're unable to arrange a repair that you'll happily accept a full refund for the faulty item.

CoolHotCold

Interesting to know which store.

But no you are right, the store needs a little reminder that regardless of how inconvenient Blackberrys process is it's their responsibility.

JethroUK

Currys dont give a monkeys about any laws

They do as they please

Only choice would be to take them to court - of course you'd win - but judge would only give you any damages you could establish - £30 for your time?

Currys lawyers have obviously discovered its more profitable to rip off 10,000 customers of which 1 or 2 can be bothered to sue them for £60 - yeah that'll teach em to make £467382947294237 ripping everyone else off

Does make you wonder why we bother having consumer laws - because they are basically toothless

I wouldn't buy a Mercedes from Currys if they were selling them for a £5 a piece

Shimrod

The_Pedant wrote: »

Tell them they can talk to you by phone and that you're happy for your number to be passed on?
Tell them if they're unable to arrange a repair that you'll happily accept a full refund for the faulty item.

They weren't prepared to offer either a refund or exchange, and the only way to talk to Blackberry was to go to the store, or handle the whole contact with Blackberry myself.

I'll probably end up doing the latter, but I'm in no rush so I'll spend a bit of time being awkward for Currys first.

vyle

There are two issues at work here:

Firstly, you have the warranty, which if you wish to invoke it could indeed mean that you would have to speak to Blackberry. If you have taken it to Currys to be repaired under warranty, they're quite within their rights to ask you to speak with BB.

The second issue is that you have your consumer rights, the SOGA, which is entirely separate from your warranty.

By taking it in under warranty, then changing your mind to SOGA half way through, you're effectively telling someone you want a green Tshirt, then insisting you asked for blue.

Either you're invoking your warranty (potentially faster resolution), or you're invoking SOGA (could take a while). Not both at once.

The_Pedant

I think they key point to stress to Curry's might be that going into store during standard office hours would cause 'significant inconvenience' (assuming it's not just around the corner from work and your abloe to easily nip in at lunchtime). Therefore they should either pass your details onto Blackberry, give Blackberry's details to you for you to call them, or sort out a repair/refund/replacement.

To quote section 48B(2) of the sale of goods act:

If the buyer requires the seller to repair or replace the goods, the seller must—
(a) repair or, as the case may be, replace the goods within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience to the buyer;

It might give a little more support to the argument & show you're trying to reach a suitable resolution.

shaun_from_Africa

If after following the advice given above, Currys still won't help, you could always contact your credit card issuer (assuming that you paid this way and it cost over £100) and tell them that Currys are refusing to honour their SOGA obligations and because of this, you want to invoke your Section 75 rights are are holding the card issuer jointly liable.

Extreme?
Quite possibly, but a letter from the card issuer may encourage Currys to get their act together.

rs65

Will it not power on?

When you plug the charger in does the red light only stay on for about 8 seconds?

Shimrod

rs65 wrote: »

Will it not power on?

When you plug the charger in does the red light only stay on for about 8 seconds?

I've been through all the options from the internet including stack charging and buying a rapid charger pod. I noticed the problem when the battery was still at 36%. Even though it showed it was charging, the battery was still going down. I've been away for a week, and now the battery is completely depleted - it will show the 'I need power before I can boot' icon, but it just won't charge.