Gas Cooker bought from Argos

Mrs_SCW

Hi there
I'm actually looking for some advice on behalf of my mother in law. She bought a cooker (hob and oven single unit) from Argos in October 2011. It had a 1 year warranty. The door to the oven has now broken so she either has to slam it shut, which often causes the gas to blow out, or cook with it slightly open - wasting a lot of energy. She had no joy when she went back to Argos as she was told the warranty had expired. I tried phoning on her behalf and was put through to the manufacturer who said the parts and labour is covered for 5 years but she would have to pay 100 pounds call out fee.
She can't really afford to do this and I guess I'm asking whether Argos should be taking more responsibility as the cooker is not fit for purpose and has not lasted a reasonable length of time.
Any advice is much appreciated on how I would go about this - thanks.

MamaMoo_2

Mrs_SCW wrote: »

Hi there
I'm actually looking for some advice on behalf of my mother in law. She bought a cooker (hob and oven single unit) from Argos in October 2011. It had a 1 year warranty. The door to the oven has now broken so she either has to slam it shut, which often causes the gas to blow out, or cook with it slightly open - wasting a lot of energy. She had no joy when she went back to Argos as she was told the warranty had expired. I tried phoning on her behalf and was put through to the manufacturer who said the parts and labour is covered for 5 years but she would have to pay 100 pounds call out fee.
She can't really afford to do this and I guess I'm asking whether Argos should be taking more responsibility as the cooker is not fit for purpose and has not lasted a reasonable length of time.
Any advice is much appreciated on how I would go about this - thanks.

Your only recourse would be if you could prove that the item was inherently faulty (ie the fault that now exists is due to an issue that was present at the time of manufacture)
To do this, you'd need to get a report from an independent engineer. This report will likely cost you, however if the item is deemed to be inherently faulty Argos will have to refund the cost of this report as well as providing a remedy to the issue.

Spankey

Cooking with the door slightly open is very dangerous, if the burn is not perfect it will start to create carbon monoxode which can = dead people.
point this out to Argos .

MamaMoo_2

Spankey wrote: »

Cooking with the door slightly open is very dangerous, if the burn is not perfect it will start to create carbon monoxode which can = dead people.
point this out to Argos .

This'd only be relevant if it was inherently faulty. If it's damaged and hasn't been proved to be Argos' fault, making this statement would just look silly and a bit blackmail-ish. Especially as, if Argos know you're aware of the dangers yet you still go ahead and use the oven, it would be pure negligence on your part and therefore not Argos's problem.
There's the chance that this damage could be caused by the user, in which case it's not Argos's problem anyway, and to try and push them into fixing it by making such a statement is akin to dropping a glass, and telling the retailer to repair/replace/refund or you might hurt yourself using the glass in future. Very silly, and the advice would no doubt be, quite simply, "don't use it then".

mattyprice4004

MamaMoo wrote: »

This'd only be relevant if it was inherently faulty. If it's damaged and hasn't been proved to be Argos' fault, making this statement would just look silly and a bit blackmail-ish. Especially as, if Argos know you're aware of the dangers yet you still go ahead and use the oven, it would be pure negligence on your part and therefore not Argos's problem.
There's the chance that this damage could be caused by the user, in which case it's not Argos's problem anyway, and to try and push them into fixing it by making such a statement is akin to dropping a glass, and telling the retailer to repair/replace/refund or you might hurt yourself using the glass in future. Very silly, and the advice would no doubt be, quite simply, "don't use it then".

This makes a lot of sense.