Baumatic Faulty Oven

JaceBeleren

OK so at the end of June this year I was cooking something in my 7 month old Baumatic BSO636SS oven (it came with a 24 month manufacturer warranty). There was a loud bang. The inside glass door had exploded all over my kitchen floor. I was furious. I contacted the manufacturer who arranged for an engineer to come and fit a new inside door in 10 days. This was fine.

The engineer arrived about a week later and he explained he didnt have the part, apparantly the office had sent him the part but neglected to put the job number with it so he just left it off his van. He noticed some clips also needed to be replaced.

I was pretty annoyed as I had taken a day off work. Anyway he went on to explain i could do it myself. Showed me how and I was OK with it. He said he would drop the door off in a few days. That never happened and i got a text off him saying it would be delivered by courier. about 12 days later with no door i contacted customer services who said it had gotten lost in transit and another one would be ordered and delivered within a week. I was quite angry at this point but remained calm, it isn't the fault of the person I was speaking too.

1 week later and I had a slip on my door matt saying "item beside gate". To my amazement the courier had dropped the item over my 6ft high garden gate and it had smashed into millions of pieces. So I rang up the next day asked to speak to a manager as I needed to get the issue fixed now as it had been almost a month. The gentleman calmed me down and arranged for the same engineer to attend with all the parts in about 10 days. The engineer visit was today, my wife has taken time off work for this visit and he phoned me this morning to explain he had been sent the wrong door. He said he would attend anyway and check out the broken glass we had and also check the clips we had received were correct. I just got off the phone to my wife who tells me he informed her the clips are the wrong ones.

They have made four attempts to fix this now and they haven't even come close. The engineer says he has ordered the correct door and that it will be with him. I assume he is going to have to order the correct clips. All this means another day off work and more waiting around. The engineer has informed me that using the oven might not be good idea! I have spent a fortune on eating out and buying convenience food. Can someone please tell me what i should be doing here. I phone up to complain and it falls on deaf ears and i get sent round the same circle! Is there something in the sale of goods act I can use or that says something about if they can't repair it they should replace it? I am really stuck!

When i contacted the retailer (an online retailer) they directed me to the manufacturer. Baumatic seems to be a subsidiary of Hoover Candy group so I would've thought they know what they are doing!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

agrinnall

Your SOGA rights are with the retailer so if you're dealing directly with Baumatic there's no point in raising SOGA with them.

Trying to get a replacement probably won't work, and is quite likely to take even longer than a repair. I think your best option would be to wait for the engineer to do the repair properly then request compensation from the retailer. If you tell us who it is we may be able to tell you how likely it is that a claim will succeed.

unholyangel

What do the terms of the warranty state? The manufacturer only really has a duty to provide the guarantee they offered in line with the terms they offered it on.

As above, for sale of goods act, that falls to the retailer. However if its more than 6 months from purchase, the retailer can require you to prove the fault was inherent rather than accidental damage (for example).

JaceBeleren

Thanks guys the retailer was appliancesdirect.co.uk. Not sure what on earth i can do. I spoke to the manufacturer (hoover/candy) and as a gesture of good will they are going to extend my warranty by 6 months. The oven still isn't repaired. They assure me this time it will be. this is going to be the 5th attempt by them to get the right part delivered.

Unfortunately I (or my fitter when he unboxed the product) has mislaid my warranty card which is where the manual says details about the terms of the warranty will be. I seem to think you might be right about the manufacturer providing a replacement. If this repair fails would i be within my rights to contact the retailer some 7 to 8 months later and demand a replacement under SOGA?

Just read something on appliancesdirect.co.uk website.

"Faults Occurring Within 1 year (3 months for refurbished products): If you've had the product for up to 1 year and require a fault repair, your product will be repaired directly by the manufacturer or by us. If that's not possible we will give you a replacement, or if that's not possible, a refund."

wealdroam

It really is time you read MSE's Consumer Rights guide.

Although not quite your scenario, this short quote from that guide is appropriate:

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.

Also, have a read of MSE's Failed Delivery article. In there you should see that you can claim compensation for losses incurred due to their abortive attempts at a repair.

JaceBeleren

Here is the end result of this debacle.

So after finally getting baumatic/hoover/candy to identify the right part they tell me its out of stock. I went back to the retailer who were fantastic. They agreed what had happened was terrible customer service from baumatic/hoover/candy and they would arrange a replacement. I was reluctant to get the same oven again and indeed it was out of stock. Appliancesdirect.co.uk let me pick a different oven of similar value so i picked out a zanussi. Its arrived and installed and feels much much better than the baumatic albeit with less features.

I will pretty much avoid all baumatic/hoover/candy appliances for the rest of my life now after that experience with their customer service dept. Shockingly bad, didn't seem to care at all. I can appreciate hoover candy have recently bought baumatic and the parts aren't widespread but then why sell a product if you cannot support it?

I have also learnt a lesson. I think if I had went to the retailer first rather than the manufacturer all would have been sorted a lot quicker.

neilmcl

I must admit I've got the same oven which I've had for over 5 years now and I can't fault it. I'm not sure how difficult it is to get a replacement inner door, it seems to be readily available at the various online spares outlets.