Currys and the One Year Old Cooker

ScrimpingandSaving

So this time last year the cooker which came with the house broke down and after failing to repair it, we shopped for a new one. We settled on a Logik built in single oven from Currys priced at £149.99. We did not take the extended warranty offered.

Precisely one year and 2 weeks later (a few days ago) this cooker stopped working. The fan comes on but there is no heat - nothing. So I call Currys and they tell me I should have taken out an extended warranty. I quote the Sale of Goods Act to them and tell them that you expect a cooker to last a darn sight longer than a year.

The next day someone calls me from the Currys Repair Team. They say it would cost too much to repair, fair enough, so they want to give us a replacement. They will send a credit note for the exact same cooker for £115.

Hold on, I say. The cooker cost £149.99, isn't that a bit of a rip-off? Oh no, he says, that is the correct sale price for that cooker now.

As I'm on the phone I don't get chance to look this up so I take his word for it. However now that I have looked it up, not only is that cooker not for sale for £115 but it's simply not for sale. Currys don't have that cooker in stock - not online anyway. The cheapest built in single oven is £199.99.

So what do I do now? Any advice?

bris

You have had the cooker for a year so they are legally entitled to take a percentage off for the use you have had from the cooker, £115 is pretty good for a £149 item.

The price of another oven is irrelevant.

munchpot

I agree with Bris. Although to be honest I'm quite surprised that you got the response you did from Curry's so quickly.

They've given you £115 to put to a new cooker, in essence you've had a years' use of the current model fro £34

I'd take the money before they change their mind

ScrimpingandSaving

I fully see what you are saying, but my point is that for an oven to completely pack up after a year, there must be a fault. If it's faulty then surely we are entitled to a replacement oven?

Regardless of whether we have used it for a year or not, ovens should be manufactured to last at least 5 years.

We cannot buy the exact same oven, it's not for sale. So we will be just under £100 out of pocket. Isn't that making us pay for a faulty oven?

If you take a faulty item back to the shop do they normally reduce the value of it according to how much you used it before it broke down? As a consumer you expect appliances, particularly kitchen ones, to last a reasonable amount of time. One year and 2 weeks is not a reasonable amount of time.

ScrimpingandSaving

Oh and Currys did at first refuse to take any responsibility. If I didn't know about the Sale of Goods Act I would not only have forked out £149.99 for a faulty oven but be in the position of having to pay for a brand new one. It took most of the day to actually speak to someone at Currys who didn't try and fob me off with the extended warranty excuse. They are not being super brilliant here, they are doing what they are legally obliged to do.

bod1467

http://sogahub.tradingstandards.gov.uk/sogaexplained

That explains your "rights". Your "right" is to a remedy (repair, replacement or refund). You can request a specific remedy but the retailer can decline if that remedy is disproportionately expensive. (So effectively the retailer gets to choose). A refund can be reduced to account for usage.

Currys have acted correctly as far as I can see. Whilst the cost to them for the £199 oven as a replacement may not be much different to a £115 refund, it is their choice not yours.

ScrimpingandSaving

Mmm, doesn't seem very fair. Bear in mind here that the oven was only 2 weeks over the 1 year guarantee. Is that reasonable?

The question here is what is deemed as reasonable.

Other companies such as John Lewis guarantee their white goods for up to 2 years. That would be reasonable. Many manufacturers do the same.

The lack of durability of the oven would suggest that it was not built to a satisfactory quality. Now I know it wasn't the most expensive oven there, but the brand is a recognised one and you would reasonably expect it to last more than a year.

If they could not offer us a like-for-like replacement, why not just say that on the phone? Why tell me that the exact same oven is for sale at £115 when it clearly isn't? I did not ask for a replacement, I just wanted it fixed. I would be happier if Currys met 3/4 of the cost of a new oven (the cheapest on their site would be fine).

I do actually think it's worth holding out this time. Based purely on the fact that it was only 2 weeks over the one year guarantee period.

unholyangel

ScrimpingandSaving wrote: »

Mmm, doesn't seem very fair. Bear in mind here that the oven was only 2 weeks over the 1 year guarantee. Is that reasonable?

The question here is what is deemed as reasonable.

Other companies such as John Lewis guarantee their white goods for up to 2 years. That would be reasonable. Many manufacturers do the same.

The lack of durability of the oven would suggest that it was not built to a satisfactory quality. Now I know it wasn't the most expensive oven there, but the brand is a recognised one and you would reasonably expect it to last more than a year.

If they could not offer us a like-for-like replacement, why not just say that on the phone? Why tell me that the exact same oven is for sale at £115 when it clearly isn't? I did not ask for a replacement, I just wanted it fixed. I would be happier if Currys met 3/4 of the cost of a new oven (the cheapest on their site would be fine).

I do actually think it's worth holding out this time. Based purely on the fact that it was only 2 weeks over the one year guarantee period.

Yes so do currys expect it to last over a year or they wouldnt have offered you a partial refund. You also said cookers should last 5 years....well based on the refund being linear, they expect the cooker to last 4 and a half years. However deductions do not have to be linear and its not entirely uncommon for items to lose more value in the first year than subsequent years.

I'm sorry but £149.99 is extremely cheap for an oven imo. And something lasts a reasonable length of time/is of satisfactory quality if it meets the standard of a reasonable person taking into account the circumstances (including price paid).

Plus, I'm assuming they didnt insist on you obtaining an engineers report? If they didnt, then they've already done more than they had to by law.

ScrimpingandSaving

Again, I do see where you are coming from. However most white goods are now given 2 year guarantees, not just by manufacturers but also by retail outlets such as John Lewis.

I'd have been happy to have given them an engineer's report as that would at least prove the fault.

Of course I would not expect Currys to give us a replacement that cost more than the oven itself. I just feel naffed off that it broke down 2 weeks after the first year of guarantee; if it had broken down earlier we would have been entitled to a full replacement of the oven I presume? Honestly, it's like they programme these things to break down just after that first year!

I'll see what comes in the post. We've already had to put up without an oven all through Easter (yup, it broke down on the Saturday) and we don't have a microwave, so cooking for a family of four has been a bloody nightmare. Therefore if I come across as grouchy and pee'd off it's because I am!

I have learnt my lesson - go for ovens with a 2 year guarantee and they might just last that long!

Valli

ScrimpingandSaving wrote: »

Other companies such as John Lewis guarantee their white goods for up to 2 years. That would be reasonable. Many manufacturers do the same.

Which begs the question - why didn't you buy from John Lewis then?

Curry's are being perfectly reasonable. You chose to buy 'cheap' and then you decided not to take the extended warranty.

It's always inconvenient when white goods break down; I had an oven 'go' midway through cooking Sunday Lunch!

ScrimpingandSaving

Look at my name Valli - we can't afford John Lewis. Our old oven packed in roundabout Easter last year too, so we panicked and bought an oven that was in stock that we could take home that day. Currys is just around the corner, John Lewis is not. They had a built-in oven available, ready and waiting for us to take home. £149.99 was and still is a lot of money to us and it was by no means the cheapest built in oven they had in stock.

I wonder what will break down next Easter?