Faulty Fireangle Smoke Alarm

Nickydooda

Hi

Looking for some advice.

I bought 4 Fireangle ST620 smoke alarms for our house late 2012 but there weren't fitted until we had finished painting the ceilings so about this time alst year.

Anyway, three are fine, but one of them has started chirping at all hours of the night for no reason. They have an inbuilt 10 year battery so it;s not that.

I contacted Fireangel and they have agreed to replace it as faulty - I had to provide proof of purchase which I did.

However I am being asked to return the faulty item to them at my expense, they have stated that the terms of the warranty is that the original purchaser must return the item prepaid postage.

I did some online research and found that this particular models has a known fault and has been linked to a couple of incidents where the alarm itself has caused a fire when it has developed the same chirping for no reason fault that our one is doing. So Fireangel are aware of this fault.

I have read online that others have been provided with a prepaid envelope to return their alarm but I am not being given this option.

Are they within their rights to ask me to pay to return a faulty item. I did ask for a returns label or a freepost address but I am being quoted the above warranty line. Not sure how much it's going to cost me to return it but it is heavy with the battery pack (which can't be removed, only disabled).

Thanks in advance for any advice, Nicola

shaun_from_Africa

If you are making a claim from the manufacturer under the terms of their warranty then they are legally entitled to ask you to pay the postage costs if this is what the small print in the warranty T&C's states.
This is because the manufacturer has no sale of goods act obligations towards you (unless you purchased directly from them) and because of this, they can have conditions such as this in their warranty.

You can try to get the retailer to replace or refund for the alarm as they are the ones that you have the sales contract with, but this may well cause you more time/expense than paying to return the alarm to the manufacturer.

Nickydooda

Thanks - does that still count in the event of a known fault?

Seems very poor to me if they know that this fault occurs

Oh well, I'll have to send it back then.

System

I gave up with them. I've had 3 fail after about 18 months each. As these were supplied and fitted by the Fire Service then Fireangel give a 10 year warranty and replaced them FOC.

I've changed to a different make that I purchased myself