Do I have any rights at all here?

cattie

Just wondering if I have any rights here or if there is any legislation I can quote when writing to the company. Sorry if it's a bit long winded, but want to give as much info as poss in case it is relevant.

I bought a built in combination microwave oven last July for the new home I was moving into early August. Just a couple of days after moving in I was suddenly taken very seriously ill & spent the next couple of months in hospital with 7 of those weeks in Intensive care.

On discharge I was still very poorly & it was only in January of this year that I felt able to face up to having a new kitchen installed.

Kitchen installation was finished on 15th Feb 2013 & new combi microwave found to be non functioning. I contacted the company (Baumatic) & it was actually 11th March before an engineer got to make a visit, this was due to Baumatic cancelling a couple of previous appointments.

A part had to be ordered, so it was 28th March before engineer came to fit new part & give me a functioning oven.

Fast forward to end of September this year & oven starts cutting out after a couple of minutes of heating up food & all lights etc. go blank. This is an oven that has had very little use since the middle of March when it finally functioned, having perhaps one or two uses a week of just a few minutes of heating convenience food.

I call Baumatic who tell me it will cost £112 for an engineer to call as my 12 months guarantee is up, seeing as I bought it Last July. I explain that it was a non functioning oven from day one & has had minimal use since the end of March when new part was fitted & that it has lasted barely 6 months from that day before developing yet another fault. Doesn't matter, I still have to pay the £112, which I've done under duress I have to say.

Engineer came on Saturday & lo & behold, I have to wait once more for part to be ordered, so could take a couple of weeks before that comes in & an engineer available to fit it. Engineer has advised me to write to company to see if I can get my £112 refunded under the circumstances.

I thought I'd get opinions & perhaps advice from people here first before starting my letter. I'm very dissatisfied with Baumatic over this & feel it is terribly unfair for me to be having to pay for an oven that was dodgy from day one to be repaired after such a very short time of use.

jacques_chirac

Did you buy directly from Baumatic? You do have rights but they are against the retailer not the manufacturer.

InsideInsurance

As above, your rights are with the retailer not the manufacturer (though many retailers will fob you off to the manufacturer you should stand your ground unless its still under the manufactures warranty period).

The Sales of Goods Act says you should have a "reasonable life" from almost everything you buy. Of cause reasonable life is not explicitly defined anywhere but what the item is, its relative price etc should give a fair indication.

As it is over 6 months old it is up to you to prove to the retailer that the fault is not caused by miss use or reasonablel wear and tear but in practice most retailers take it upon themselves to do so.

If you didnt buy it from the company you are dealing with then you have somewhat caused a problem for yourself. How much was the item originally? £115 for an engineer sounds a high fee to just look at a microwave

pinkshoes

You MUST deal with the retailer.

Ideally, as you can prove it's only 8 months since it was installed, you needed to get an independent report to show it was inherently faulty, then go back to the retailer for a repair/replace/refund. (or just go direct to the retailer first and see what they say).