Consumer rights for broken prize?

Johnandabby

I was lucky enough to win a PS4 direct from Sony in a competition. I then had to spend 3 months badgering them to actually get it, but hey it's free! I got it 3 weeks ago, bought a couple of second hand games .... and then it stopped working last week...

Sony customer service has been good - clear instructions of how to post it (free of charge) to their repair centre.

I was just wondering if my consumer rights are any different given that it was a free prize rather than something I purchased?

vuvuzela

Johnandabby wrote: »

I was lucky enough to win a PS4 direct from Sony in a competition. I then had to spend 3 months badgering them to actually get it, but hey it's free! I got it 3 weeks ago, bought a couple of second hand games .... and then it stopped working last week...

Sony customer service has been good - clear instructions of how to post it (free of charge) to their repair centre.

I was just wondering if my consumer rights are any different given that it was a free prize rather than something I purchased?

What sort of consumer rights do you want to exercise ?

Johnandabby

That if the refurbished unit gets returned and has a similar problem, do I have any rights to ask for a brand new unit?


I've just been reading up on this anyway - is it correct that I wouldn't have been able to get a full refund if I had purchased in store, as I would have 'accepted the goods' by using it twice? It would be at the store's discretion.

shaun_from_Africa

Johnandabby wrote: »

- is it correct that I wouldn't have been able to get a full refund if I had purchased in store, as I would have 'accepted the goods' by using it twice? It would be at the store's discretion.

Using it twice wouldn't automatically mean that you had accepted the item as the law states that you have to be given a reasonable time to test and inspect the goods to ensure that they are as they should be.
However, it you had used it twice, once when bought and once a few weeks later, it would probably be the case that acceptance had occurred.

Fosterdog

How can you get a full refund for something you didn't pay for? A full refund would be £0.

shaun_from_Africa

Fosterdog wrote: »

How can you get a full refund for something you didn't pay for? A full refund would be £0.

The OP only mentioned the full refund assuming that they had purchased the faulty goods from a shop and not in relation to the prize.

is it correct that I wouldn't have been able to get a full refund if I had purchased in store, as I would have 'accepted the goods' by using it twice? It would be at the store's discretion

bris

You have the same rights as anyone else, in this case however you are getting it sorted by their excellent returns process, so whats the problem?

If it's just that you are worried about getting a refurb unit back then yes it is legal, you get put back in the same position as if the breach hadn't occurred, so you send a used unit to them they send you one back if they can't repair yours, if your lucky you get a brand new unit.

George_Michael

bris wrote: »

You have the same rights as anyone else.

Not really.
Most consumer rights with regards to faulty goods come from the Sale of goods act and the sale and supply of goods to consumer regulations and as the OP didn't purchase hire or lease the console, they have no consumer rights under either of these two acts.

Johnandabby

bris wrote: »

You have the same rights as anyone else, in this case however you are getting it sorted by their excellent returns process, so whats the problem?

If it's just that you are worried about getting a refurb unit back then yes it is legal, you get put back in the same position as if the breach hadn't occurred, so you send a used unit to them they send you one back if they can't repair yours, if your lucky you get a brand new unit.

Yes, not a problem at the moment, and I'm not worried about getting a refurb unit back. I was just interested in knowing if there were differences due to the fact it was a prize if there were any on-going problems. A couple of friends bought PS4s and had numerous visits to the repair shop, and ended up getting a full refund from the store after giving up - some people think that the issue is a batch issue, and I'm wondering whether I'll be given refurb units from the same batch as I'm less important as a customer....


Anyway, will wait and see what happens when they eventually get round to repairing it. Apparently they can't give any indication of time scales...

Johnandabby

George_Michael wrote: »

Not really.
Most consumer rights with regards to faulty goods come from the Sale of goods act and the sale and supply of goods to consumer regulations and as the OP didn't purchase hire or lease the console, they have no consumer rights under either of these two acts.

This was my initial thought, and I couldn't find anything concrete through google to say either way. If I hadn't spent money on games I probably wouldn't care too much...


Sony customer service was really good (not quite so good when I was trying to claim the prize!), but I was interested in whether they were doing more than they had to...

unholyangel

Johnandabby wrote: »

This was my initial thought, and I couldn't find anything concrete through google to say either way. If I hadn't spent money on games I probably wouldn't care too much...


Sony customer service was really good (not quite so good when I was trying to claim the prize!), but I was interested in whether they were doing more than they had to...

Well Sale of Goods Act says:

Contracts to which Act applies.

(1)This Act applies to contracts of sale of goods made on or after (but not to those made before) 1 January 1894.

Contract of sale.

(1)A contract of sale of goods is a contract by which the seller transfers or agrees to transfer the property in goods to the buyer for a money consideration, called the price.

In order for a contract to exist, both parties must give consideration. This was (in the eyes of the law) a gift.

Different if you had taken out a mobile phone contract that has a "free" ps4 included as then you are paying consideration - even if theres no additional consideration for the ps4.