Neff fridge dead after 5 weeks

CJ

Fridge bought 5th Dec 2012 for £740 from Appliances online

13th Jan food very cold no digital display , phoned Neff and they offered an engineer 10 days later, also phoned the supplier who put me on hold for 15mins while he phoned Neff by this time the fridge had died completely.

The engineer came 22nd and said the control panel needed replaced and he couldn't be sure there wouldn't also be a fault with the compressor. In his opinion I should ask for a replacement because it's so new but he's not allowed to say that. If I allowed repair then it might be more than one and a replacement wouldn't then be an option.
Phoned Appliance online that day asking for a replacement, on hold 15mins to speak to Neff but they didn't have engineers report. AO promised to phone me next day, no call. Read all Martins sale of goods act etc and phone AO today and hit a brick wall.

It was fit for purpose when it arrived!
Outwith their 28 day returns policy
Neff say it could have been repaired and the warranty from Neff is only a parts and repair warranty not a replacement
AO would only go for repair
Credit card company say ot would become a legal complaint if we go through them so therefore still no fridge

Now 2 weeks without fridge, coolbox in snow which will be gone by weekend, do we have to accept repair and hope that's it or what else can we do?
Still waiting from call back from AO while she talked to her supervisor

neilmcl

What sort of time period elapsed between receiving the fridge and reporting the fault to the retailer?

Anything over a "reasonable period" and you won't be able to reject the fridge for a full refund and will have to accept the repair if it's carried out without causing a significant inconvenience.

bod1467

Fridge bought 5th Dec 2012 ... was that the arrival date or the purchase date? If the purchase date, when did you actually receive it? Unless it was late December then I suspect you're past the "reasonable time to reject" period and AO are within their rights to insist on a repair.

CJ

It arrived on 5th Dec and only worked for 5 weeks before it died completely. I would expect a new fridge to work for more than 5 weeks and the thermostat had obviously been faulty as the food stored was frozen. I would say that a cool box in the snow is about as inconvenient as it gets!

I don't mean to seem stupid but why would you reject a fridge if it seems to be working but if its not working 5 weeks after purchase that isn't deemed to be realistic?

railbuff

Under SOGO your contract is with the retailer who can either offer a refund, replacement or repair , but this up to them

CJ

railbuff wrote: »

Under SOGO your contract is with the retailer who can either offer a refund, replacement or repair , but this up to them

That's what I tried to tell them as they keep on going back to the manufacturer. In the end SOGO doesn't seem to offer the consumer much power if it is up to the seller to proceed as he wishes. We've had to concede defeat as we'll have been without a fridge for a month by the time it's repaired now. It was a considered purchase at that price and we definitely won't be shopping with them again. I was only going by what the engineer suggested

railbuff

have you tried [EMAIL="drlcustomerservices@drllimited.co.uk"]drlcustomerservices@drllimited.co.uk[/EMAIL]. as appliance online is owned by DRL Limited
or write a letter sent recorded delivery to John Roberts- CEO of DRL Limited

Techhead_2

CJ wrote: »

That's what I tried to tell them as they keep on going back to the manufacturer. In the end SOGO doesn't seem to offer the consumer much power if it is up to the seller to proceed as he wishes. We've had to concede defeat as we'll have been without a fridge for a month by the time it's repaired now. It was a considered purchase at that price and we definitely won't be shopping with them again. I was only going by what the engineer suggested

You need more focus in your complaint. The retailer is entitled to use the manufacturer as their agent for the repair. The retailer can effectively choose the remedy. There is no point you arguing this.

Your complaint is that a five week old fridge went wrong and for various reasons it's going to take 3 weeks to repair.

1) Do your legal rights allow you to reject the fridge and receive a refund? Probably no,as you were happy with it originally. You could press this; however it will likely take much longer than the repair.

2) Should the retailer offer a refund or replacement because of the time? Possibly, it would be good customer service. However, it's not unreasonable that in the period following Xmas when there are lots of jobs to catch up on, that the process might be a little slower.

3) Are you doing everything you can to mitigate the effects? Little things like changing your shopping pattern. Probably, as you are sensibly using a coolbox.


On balance my advice would be to wait for the repair as that is likely to be quicker than refund or replacement.

(As a side note, don't take what the engineer says too seriously. I'm sure they mean well, but in my experience they are not the ones who make the decision. The engineer will write a report, this will be costed and a decision made. That seems to take a few days - so I personally would "set my expectation level" to hear something several days after the engineer visit)

CJ

railbuff wrote: »

have you tried [EMAIL="drlcustomerservices@drllimited.co.uk"]drlcustomerservices@drllimited.co.uk[/EMAIL]. as appliance online is owned by DRL Limited
or write a letter sent recorded delivery to John Roberts- CEO of DRL Limited

I would like to thank you for this piece of advice. I sent off an email in the first instance to DRL addressing FAO John Roberts and just received a phonecall this morning from AO to say they had been authorised to replace my fridge, they unfortunately don't have one in stock or it would have been here tomorrow, it will be delivered on Tues, they will take away the dead one and they will cancel the repair.

This is a good result as had it not been for the snow and cold weather having no fridge would have been an impossible situation. We live in a rural area with one shop, I'm disabled with no mobility so dependant on stock in the fridge to keep me fed. We don't have a shop at the end of the street and the ability to adapt our shopping habits to accommodate the failure of an expensive new fridge.

There is also the loss of about £100 shop in the fridge bought a few days before it died and which had frozen because the thermostat had obviously begun to go and had to be binned. I suppose that's a loss I'll have to incur because I can't be bothered taking it on

I've learnt my lesson in not listening to engineers but in fairness it was my gut instinct that a repair wasn't right on such a new item. Thanks all for your advice CJ

SuperHan

FYI, the retailer was within their rights to force a repair. It's just good customer service that they've offered to replace.

Just for your future reference, it's worth fighting against, but don't use this example as a precedent for all future consumer rights battles. The retailer has gone above and beyond in this scenario!

bod1467

SuperHan wrote: »

Just for your future reference, it's worth fighting against, but don't use this example as a precedent for all future consumer rights battles. The retailer has gone above and beyond in this scenario!

Wise words.