5 year old Fridge freezer from Currys

Princess_Coupon

I'm after an opinion whether this is acceptable/legal.

I bought an American FF in Dec 2008 for £600 (5 years 3 months ago)
I've had some problems over the last 2 years but it worked till yesterday, now the fridge will not cool below 12c

Googling reveals that a similar model was recalled after intervention by watchdog, my model had parts in common and seems to have the same problem. As it's out of warranty Samsung aren't interested.

I've turned to Curry's under SOGA they say I will need to get an independent report and if it shows that it was an inherent manufacturers fault they will give me a partial refund of 6 years= 72 months. 9 month remaining for me out of the 6 years so £600/72 x 9 = £75.

Can they offer just £75? i realise I've had the FF for 5 years but I'd have expected it to last 8-12 years, plus I'd rather a repair which they could do as she pointed out she can book a repair for a fixed price of £179 as advertised of their website.

unholyangel

Personally I'd say £600 for an American FF is extremely cheap therefore I wouldn't expect it to last more than 5 or 6 years. For a 8-12 year one I wouldn't expect to pay any less than £1000.

That's just me though, with other posts you might be able to get a better idea of whether their offer is fair or not.

Also, while you can request one remedy over another, the retailer can refuse if your chosen remedy is impossible or disproportionately costly in comparison to other remedies.

wealdroam

They certainly can offer a partial refund to take account of the use you have had.

Under SoGA you can tell them which remedy you prefer, but you cannot force them to provide a remedy that is disproportionately costly or impossible.

They seem to be saying a repair costs over twice as much as their offer of a partial refund.

You might be able to negotiate on the partial refund value.
Say it's expected life is 10 years, then perhaps £60 per year is reasonable.
That leaves a possible refund of around £300.

That assumes linear depreciation.
There is nothing in SoGA about how partial refunds should be calculated, and some will say that more is lost in the earlier years.

One thing is certain though... it is wrong for Currys to use six years as the life of the product in their calculations if that six years is only based on the length of time in which you can claim from them.

All the above assumes that the thing is deemed inherently faulty.

Currys have told you to get an independent report stating that.

You now need to decide whether it is worth getting that report, bearing in mind of course that the report may not find in your favour.

If the report does show the fault to be inherent, then Currys will pay for the report too.
On the other hand, if the report doesn't show that, then you have to bear the cost of the report as well as not getting a remedy from Currys.

Princess_Coupon

Thanks for the responses so far, I'm trying to weigh things up and decide if it's even worth getting the report. My thoughts were that a repair was reasonable bearing in mind they charge £179 for unlimited parts and labour on their site, this of course includes a profit for them so the actual cost for them is likely to be half of that and so not dissimilar to the £75 they state would be offered (after a report in my favour).

Princess_Coupon

As a side note to replace it with another Samsung of the same spec is currently £800-£850

lincroft1710

A 5 year old £600 fridge/freezer probably has next to no value on the secondhand market, so £75 isn't that unfair. Life expectancy of such items is probably no more than 7 years these days, unlike 25/30 years ago when you could expect 20 years or more.

whitegoods_engineer

These samsung side by sides suffer exactly the same fault. Quite simply, they have a dual cooling system with an evaporator in both the freezer and (unusually for a side by side) in the fridge.

You probably heard a loud noise coming from the fridge which stopped as soon as the door was opened. This is the fan hitting ice which has failed to automatically defrost.

After a day or so, the ice builds up so much, the fan stops blowing cold air into the refrigerator section, then the temperature rises.

If you look in the back of the fridge section, you'll see Ice.

The repair is very simple. You need to get a repairman out to replace the fridge defrost heater. A half hour job (I've done more than I can remember) and the problem is solved!

The recall you mention was a safety modification which involved fitting fuses in line with the defrost elements and really have nothing to do with the fault.

So, for about £100-£140 you can easily get it fixed by an independent repairer.

Princess_Coupon

Thanks, I'll get my husband to check the fan and see if that's the problem we have

Princess_Coupon

DH says the fan is fine, ice free and spinning?

whitegoods_engineer

Hmm, sounds like a possible gas problem then. Unusual though.

Did he take the cover off (2 screws behind the charcoal pad holders) and the 2 at the bottom?

If the fan is running (not just free of ice but actually running), is the metal evaporator freezing cold all over or is it partially frozen at the top and dripping condensation at the bottom. If so, it's a gas problem and unfortunately, expensive.

I'm really surprised as the fault sounded like a classic heater failure in the fridge!

Princess_Coupon

I've PMed you WGE