Hearing Aid not working, entitled to money back?

CATS

Hi All,

About 8 months ago my mum bought a hearing aid from a private clinic worth £2000. She was able to pay in instalments with a £400 deposit upfront. I spoke to the sepcialist who said that she will have 2 months to trial it, if it didnt work she could return it no questions asked.

After 2 weeks it stopped working so she made an appointment to have it looked at. They then sent it away to be fixed and returned about 3 weeks later. After about 1 week it stopped working, again sent away for repair. This went on for months. Eventually she asked for a new one so they sent the old one off and she got a new one, again this does not work.

They take a really long time between appointments and time has dragged on hence it is now almost 8 months. In the meantime she has been paying the monthly instalments. Anyhow the new one she has does not work either and they said they need to get a specialist out and it will take about 3 weeks, the appointment was on Monday and he didnt turn up so they cancelled and told her they will let her know when they have another appointment.

This is not acceptable and she is now tired of it and wants to return it. She called the office and the secretary answered the phone and basically was very rude and told her that she cannot return it now as it is too old. To be honest she just got a new one about 2 months ago that also never worked and she has been in and out of appointments whilst they try to fix it. She has not had the chance to have it for 2 months fully working to see if it works for her or not.

Is she entitled to return it? can she stop paying the instalment? Under the sales of good act it is not fit for purpose and has never been and they are fully aware of all the issues she has had with it. As they dont want to give her an appointment, should she just turn up and return it or send it by registered post with a letter asking for the refund? I am not sure what the best course of action is.

Thank you

ThumbRemote

Under the Sale of Goods Act they entitled to provide a remedy - repair, replacement or refund. The decision is usually up to the retailer, however the law states they cannot cause 'significant inconvenience'. I would guess that being without a hearing aid while it is away for repair for such a long period of time will cause significant inconvenience to her, so she can demand another remedy.

As such I would write to the retailer, stating that the delays in repairing the hearing aid are unacceptable and causing significant inconvenience, and as per your rights under the Sale of Goods Act you now require a refund.

There is a problem here, in that they may argue the case, and in the meantime you are stuck without the working hearing aid. If affordable, buy one elsewhere first.

arcon5

If you are not deemed to have accepted the item then accepting a repair doesn't affect your statutory right to cancel. So for me it would depend on the gaps between it being sorted and going faulty again.... As I'm not sure if you have acted in a way that would be deemed to have accepted it.

Even if legally you have, if the same fault keeps occurring I'd argue they've failed to offer a remedy without causing significant inconvenience, which is an implied term. Leaving you the option to again reject it.

The refund though can be reduced to take in to consideration the use you've had

bris

I think in this case, even though it's been 8 months the op would have a good case for a refund. Significant inconvenience springs to mind here as well as the fact there has been far to many repair attempts on a failed device.
The only problem is maybe having to go to court to get that refund, a LBA may help to get a refund, some companies do not like the attention a court case could bring, especially an elderly, partially deaf person bringing the case to court.

CATS

thank you for your replies, I think the trick is going to be how to return the item as they are refusing to give her an appointment. To be honest she probably used the hearing aid for about 3 weeks in total, that being one week used, then it failed, returned, used another week, failed, returned, new one issued, failed etc.