'Reasonable' time to repair a coffee machine

timb999

Hi all,

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction please...

I have a coffee machine (cost £190) purchased new roughly 18 months ago. It came with a 2 year warranty.

The machine developed a fault. The retailer referred me to the manufacturer as they said they only dealt with repair items up to 12 months.

The manufacturer picked up the machine, repaired it (allegedly) and returned it to me.

It is not repaired.

They sent a spare part hoping this would fix it. It did not.

It has now been 6.5 weeks since I reported the problem, and now they want to pick it up again to try and repair it again.

Do I have to put up with this, as this could go on indefinitely?

I know they have a 'reasonable' amount of time to repair the item, and I would have thought 1 month would be reasonable, given that it is a large company and a popular/common item.

Any pointers as to what my options are please, or do I just keep having to jump through their hoops and wait?

Many thanks in advance for your help!

Cheers

Tim

JJ_Egan

Your rights are against the vendor not the manufacturer .
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/consumer-rights-refunds-exchange


Question is what are you going to do ??
Say this is an unreasonable amount of time and have the not working machine returned to you seems a bit pointless .
Have it returned and claim against the vendor via SOGA would require you to provide an independent report showing the fault is a defect not damage .

timb999

Hi - thanks for the reply.

Ok - I will get back to the vendor as I buy a lot of stuff from them and they have clearly misled me when I spoke to them. Their argument was that because the item was over 12 months old, I had to return to the manufacturer.

As far as the manufacturer goes...you appear to be saying that there is nothing I can do about it, which doesn't surprise me in the slightest. I guess they can always argue that any amount of time is reasonable, and I also assume it will cost me a fortune (if even possible) to try to prove that the item is defective and not damaged.

Thanks anyway...it seems that I will just have to wait for however long it takes

timb999

Hi all,

Just wanted to update this thread.

First of all...the company in question is Delonghi.

Second...they have now had my coffee machine for 10 weeks.

So the machine has a 2 year warranty so has now been faulty for 10% of the warranty period.

Can anyone suggest anything I might try to get them to repair this item soon, as I am now wondering if they are going to keep it until my warranty expires in a few months, and then tell me 'bad luck'.

Absolutely shocked that they can be so terrible at honouring their warranties the last two weeks they have been waiting for a spare part.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Tim.

rustyboy21

You have no formal contract with the manufacturer, you bought it from a retailer, so they are the ones who you should be dealing with. A warranty is only a bit of paper not an obligation on behalf of the manufacturer. They could legitimately say that you should paint the coffee machine pink with blue spots after purchase, otherwise you invalidate your warranty, that is how meaningless warranties are. A good manufacturer will work hard to give customer service, some obviously dont.

You should be talking to the retailer about the issues, get them pushing Delonghi to hurry up the repair, or exchange the product. If you are a good customer of the retailer, then they should be doing this for you, but if you havent told them about the wait, they cannot do anything. The retailer could swap the product for you, it is in their interest to keep you happy, so you buy off them again.

wealdroam

Just to reinforce the point...

Did you read this in that article JJ Egan linked to:

Know who's responsible

When returning items, beware shops trying the oldest trick in the book: saying they're not responsible for the shoddy goods and you must call the manufacturer. This is total nonsense!

If a company fobs you off by saying “go to the maker instead”, it's wrong. It's the retailer's job to sort it.

It doesn't matter if it's an iPod from a high street shop or a designer frock from a department store. If something's broken, torn, ripped or faulty, the seller has a legal duty to put it right as your contract is with it.

timb999

Ok so the retailer in question is Amazon and I will be getting back in touch with them, as yes, I do buy a lot of stuff through them.

I did contact them and yes, they fobbed me off. I foolishly believed them when they said they would cover the first 12 months, but could not honour the 2 year warranty. I did specifically state to them that I believed they were responsible, but they have essentially lied and stated that they are not

They also tried to fob me off before when a 6 month old DVD player broke...and tried to make me go back to the manufacturer. i knew not to give in on that one, but didn't realise that they are still responsible even for warranties over 12 months. Disappointing

Thanks for the tips so far...always appreciated.

wealdroam

timb999 wrote: »

Ok so the retailer in question is Amazon and I will be getting back in touch with them, as yes, I do buy a lot of stuff through them.

I did contact them and yes, they fobbed me off. I foolishly believed them when they said they would cover the first 12 months, but could not honour the 2 year warranty. I did specifically state to them that I believed they were responsible, but they have essentially lied and stated that they are not

They also tried to fob me off before when a 6 month old DVD player broke...and tried to make me go back to the manufacturer. i knew not to give in on that one, but didn't realise that they are still responsible even for warranties over 12 months. Disappointing

Thanks for the tips so far...always appreciated.

It is also disappointing that you did not follow that up when that link was supplied to you nearly a month ago.

Did you buy directly from Amazon, or from a marketplace seller?

unholyangel

timb999 wrote: »

Ok so the retailer in question is Amazon and I will be getting back in touch with them, as yes, I do buy a lot of stuff through them.

I did contact them and yes, they fobbed me off. I foolishly believed them when they said they would cover the first 12 months, but could not honour the 2 year warranty. I did specifically state to them that I believed they were responsible, but they have essentially lied and stated that they are not

They also tried to fob me off before when a 6 month old DVD player broke...and tried to make me go back to the manufacturer. i knew not to give in on that one, but didn't realise that they are still responsible even for warranties over 12 months. Disappointing

Thanks for the tips so far...always appreciated.

When buying from amazon, you're contracting under the laws of luxembourg rather than UK law so advice you find here may not apply (some of it will as a lot of our consumer rights come from EU legislation but luxembourg may have implemented them differently so it shouldn't be assumed to be the same as UK law).

timb999

Thanks for your replies.

I have got back in touch with Amazon and they have repeated and reiterated their position in no uncertain terms...

Amazon offers 12 months warranty only. As my fault appeared after this period, but before the end of the manufacturers 2 year warranty, the responsibility is with the manufacturer. Amazon cannot help me.

Therefore they are still saying they are not responsible. From what most of you have advised...this is incorrect and they continue to fob me off...however I sm clearly not going to get anywhere talking to chat advisors it seems. Therefore I guess I have to escalate this somehow or find legal text that states 100% that they are responsible...which I have been unable to find so far...

wealdroam

I'll ask again...

wealdroam wrote: »

Did you buy directly from Amazon, or from a marketplace seller?