Pixmania - Help on return of faulty item

mizzbiz

I know. I should have known. But I did the unthinkable and bought an external hard drive from Pixmania, not realising they were registered in France so I wasn't covered under UK consumer protection laws. Had I known this, I would not have purchased. It was the .co.uk site, the products all being sold in ££££'s and the English language that confused me, I thought I was dealing with a UK company!

So my drive arrived and won't be picked up by either laptop or PC. It is faulty. Won;t initialise, nothing. I go onto the Pixmania website to arrange to return it and realise the trouble I'm in.

1) They gave me labels (by email and online) that are supposed to be return labels, but the only address they have on is mine, not theirs

2) They seem to be expecting me to pay to return it to France :mad: Which will cost over £10 (the drive was only £55 )

3) The address label without their address states that they will send the product to the manufacturer for inspection and any quote for repair will incur a cost to me. !!!!!! is this? They sent me a faulty hard drive (they appear to do this a lot) and now want to empty my bank account.

My questions are:

1)Shouldn't they send UPS back to collect this parcel at their expense? The product is faulty. It isn't my fault. They didn't warn me on ordering I would have to pay more than 20% of its value to send it back without reimbursement if it was faulty. If they had, no way would I have bought it.

2) Shouldn't their labels have their address on? Apparently you MUST send these labels back (one is blank, the other just not an address label at all) so I'm worried if I send with these labels, the product won;t arrive back and if I send without and write their address on the package, they will refuse the refund.

3) If a product is faulty, why are they sending it back to the manufacturer. Shouldn't they be refunding my money and claiming their costs back from the manufacturer? And what about this quote for repair? I don't want a faulty repaired hard drive, I want a brand new, working one like I ordered.

Grr I've lost a whole day, one trying to make this stupid thing work and two trying to work out how they hell I get back into the position I was in before I ever heard of this nightmare company.

mizzbiz

Bump - in a nutshell, should they pay for return delivery/come and collect this fault drive? Or should I have to pay a fortune to have it couriered back to France at my expense?

WTFH

No, they don't have to pay for the return, and yes you will have to pay the "fortune" to send it to France.

My first suggestion would be to take it to a friend (or friendly shop) and get them to take a look. If you can find someone with the same brand/model, maybe borrow their power supply (if it has one), or try a different cable.

mizzbiz

Just to update on this. Pixmania have arranged to collect the drive ta their expense, which I am really happy about. Think I was in a panic as there are so many bad reviews and I saw it going in a similar direction.

WTFH, anything over 'free' is a fortune when we're talking about faulty goods. In the UK, I would not be expected to cover the cost of returning a faulty product. I thought I was dealing with a UK company. I take it you have an in-depth knowledge of French consumer law so thanks for that input. Thankfully, this is not the case in my case.

And also, as helpful as your suggestion is, it isn't really a solution to a brand new electronics product that arrives dead on arrival. I've spent enough of my time trying to get the thing to work, I'm not spending any more.

WTFH

Mizz, glad to hear they've sorted it - and very quickly - anything under a month for French customer support is miraculous. (I wouldn't say I have in-depth knowledge of it, but having lived and worked there for a couple of years, I've a bit of an idea)

(also, the law is the same in the UK - the company does not have to pay the cost of returning goods, provided that information is available to you before you purchase the goods)

earthstorm

Pixmania is part of DSG http://www.dixonsretail.com/our-brands

Fosterdog

Dsgi sold pixmania a while ago to an overseas company

wealdroam

Fosterdog wrote: »

Dsgi sold pixmania a while ago to an overseas company

Not the impression I get from the Dixons Retail website.

Click on Pixmania and you will see:

We took full control of the business in 2012, moving quickly to refocus the business on its core strengths, notably photography, memory storage devices and small consumer electronics. We are determined to put PIXmania on a firmer strategic footing going forward.

Although it does look likely to happen later this year:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-27/dixons-confirms-pixmania-exit-following-works-councils-agreement.html

SuperHan

WTFH wrote: »

(also, the law is the same in the UK - the company does not have to pay the cost of returning goods, provided that information is available to you before you purchase the goods)

Not true.

This is the case under DSR, but a faulty item would be rejected under the SoGA which mandates that the goods be returned to the retailer at no cost to the consumer.

earthstorm

Fosterdog wrote: »

Dsgi sold pixmania a while ago to an overseas company

but currently still a DSG brand until the sale is finalised in Dec.