Are Argos selling Grey import Tvs?

Southpaw

Hi
Yesterday I purchased a new LCD tv from Argos (Hitachi 15LD2400 15in LCD TV.) When I got home I discovered the only plug which was with it was a 2 pin European plug.
Obviously not happy but are Argos selling grey imports and are they allowed to sell them?
Here's the link to the tv
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...hi.Hitachi.htm

Cumbrian_Male

Could just be a packing fault at the factory. I used to work for Samsung making monitors. We could have 3 or 4 different makes and markets down the line in an 8 hour shift. Easy to put a continental accessory park in a UK market product.

Hell some Compaq's went out with Siemens manuals and accessories once, that caused some red faces.

Asus_Mobo

Maybe the TV was shipped out to the wrong country/depot from the manufacturer.

Stephen_Leak

I used to work in Dixons, and we used to get the occasional item with a European plug. Some high-end portable things like laptops were actually meant to come with two (UK and Europe) and occasionally only got one.

hammodt

My understanding is that if you buy an electrical item in the UK then it should be supplied with a UK plug. If not, it can be considered "not fit for purpose" under UK law, meaning there is a breach of contract and you can expect a refund, and perhaps even compensation. The only exception to this is if the company explicitly states that a product is not supplied with a UK plug.

David

superscaper

hammodt wrote: »

My understanding is that if you buy an electrical item in the UK then it should be supplied with a UK plug. If not, it can be considered "not fit for purpose" under UK law, meaning there is a breach of contract and you can expect a refund, and perhaps even compensation. The only exception to this is if the company explicitly states that a product is not supplied with a UK plug.

David

My understanding of the BS and IEE/T regs are that it has to be supplied with a UK mains plug OR if it has a non-uk plug it must be supplied with a UK adapter without exception.

BexTech

Southpaw wrote: »

Hi
Yesterday I purchased a new LCD tv from Argos (Hitachi 15LD2400 15in LCD TV.) When I got home I discovered the only plug which was with it was a 2 pin European plug.
Obviously not happy but are Argos selling grey imports and are they allowed to sell them?
Here's the link to the tv
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...hi.Hitachi.htm

(Your link doesn't work as you didn't copy link location / or from the address bar, but copied it from the screen, so this would make me think, you've copied the link from another forum).

For it to be a grey import then it would have to be a product that was meant for sale outside the EU.

The UK is part of the EU and as such it's one big common market, means you can buy an item in any EU country just as you would from the shop down the road.

Most items you buy in the UK or other EU country are them same item, no point in making one item for the UK, one for Spain, one for Germany when you can make one product and it will work in the EU, Australia, New Zealand etc.

They should have provided you with a plug suitable for the UK, either by replacing the 2-pin plug or using an adapter.

Yes, Argos are fully allowed to sell them, because they are not grey imports as it's a EU designated product.

I have bought several items from within the UK that had a euro 2-pin plug on, though have been supplied with the required adapter (as per pics), I have also bought items from Germany when the German VAT was only 16% and the electrical items were sold more cheaply.

I have no problems with this at all, even if it did have a UK plug it would have been the exact same product as one bought in other EU countries and you'd have been none the wiser.

Yes, UK uses PAL I, where as other countries may use PAL B/G, but they produce one item to cover many countries.