How long do extended warranty companies have to fix a problem? Forever?

disgruntled2

My extended warranty supplier has not yet resolved my problem. It has been 3 months since I contacted them. It is difficult to contact them. Endless waiting on the phone, and all they do is send an email to the engineer who if he doesent reply, they dont follow up with him/her.
1. What are my rights? They could string this out for ever. They have told me as much. They have informed me that there is no time scale for effecting repairs in the terms and have refused to give me any indication of when they will repair it. They dont even want to chase the part supplier, to find out whether the part has been sent or not!
2. Perhaps I should get an estimate from the manufacturer's repair service and take action in county court to recover my costs.
Any advice please as I am at the end of my tether over this.

InsideInsurance

First of all check if your policy is an insurance policy or not. If it is then you can use the Financial Ombudsman Service rather than the courts as a no cost solution to you. Write a formal letter of complaint and get a proof of postage from the postoffice. If they dont answer within 8 weeks or their answer is unsatisfactory you can then escalate it to the ombudsman.

Unless the terms specify a limit on timescales then the matters will be measured against a test of reasonableness that includes both the cause of delays, the values involved and what inconvenience it is causing you.

For example, if you had a £10,000 projector that was working fine other than one dead pixel which would cost £5 to repair but the part is currently unavailable due to a fire in the suppliers warehouse it probably would be considered reasonable to a delay for a fair amount of time rather than giving a refund or replacing the whole unit.

If your front door is broken and cannot be locked, the door cost £500 and will cost £400 to repair but the company lost the order for the new lock then it will more likely be a case of forcing their hand.

disgruntled2

Thank you very much indeed. The firm is regulated by the FSA. The problem is causing me a great deal of trouble.

Fire_Fox

Write a proper letter of complaint listing every telephone call you have made to date, you've long since established calling is ineffective.

disgruntled2

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Write a proper letter of complaint listing every telephone call you have made to date, you've long since established calling is ineffective.

Have done this now, mentioning "time is of the essence". Total time spent on their phone line, an 0870 number was 147 minutes!

wealdroam

disgruntled2 wrote: »

Total time spent on their phone line, an 0870 number was 147 minutes!

Have you looked on saynoto0870 for a cheaper number?

disgruntled2

wealdroam wrote: »

Have you looked on the link to saynoto0870 for a cheaper number?

I have just done that. Thank you very much. I will certainly use it from now on, and give it out to everyone I know.