Faulty JVC 50" TV - Currys. Sales of goods act?

mathew_thomas1981

Hi guys,

Sorry if i have this in the wrong thread/link (plesae move it if needs be).

We bought a JVC 50", smart TV from currys on the 26/4/15. We brought the TV home and all was working well. The TV started to flash up with the messages "wifi dongle detected" and then straight away "wifi dongle removed". This occurs constantly from the moment the TV is switched on and right in the middle of the screen(TV un-watchable). Called up knowhow and had the tv picked up, repaird and returned to us with in a week, great. This was 15/06/15. To cut a long story short this happened again 10/8/15 (picked up, repaired, returned) and again 02/09/15, same fault. We asked after the 3rd time it broke if we could have an exchange but was told that they would escalte to LEVEL 3 repair!!! and that this would fix all problems.....

Well needless to say its 21/9/15 and the same problem has happened again. Spent another 38 minuteson phone to knowhow (as there is no direct line to currys, Cardiff Culverhouse cross), this nice chap said they would fix it again. I asked if we could have a new TV or atleast a refund(although a replacement would be my prefered option), he said this was not what they did!!??!! I then asked him if i was entitled to an exchange under the 1979 sales of goods act and this drew a stunned silence. His responce was eventually this is above him and that after taking my details a senior member ofhis team would call back. Well that didnt happen..

Sorry for the long intro, but my questions are:
1) This does fall under sales of goods act?
2)did i do the right thing asking for an exchange/replacment
3)Its costing me a fortune in phone calls, can i claim costs for a reoccuring fault?
4)We are without a tv, still paying the rip-off BBC TV licence, Sky and netflix, but cant watch any, can i make a claim for any out of pocket expenses?

Thanks everyone in advance

wealdroam

SayNoTo0870 lists a possible Currys Culverhouse Cross number as 029 2067 5081.

teddysmum

We bought a Panasonic microwave from Apollo, some years ago and needed a callout three times, due to sparking.


The engineer who came on the third occasion said that had it come from the shop at which he worked (think he was subcontracted)it would have been replaced, so he left it unrepaired, as I had decided to approach Apollo.


They eventually agreed to a replacement, but on the two occasions I went to collect, the replacement was the wrong colour, so I contacted Panasonic, who sent the correct item by next day courier.. and it lasted for years, until given away.

stugib

mathew_thomas1981 wrote: »

Sorry for the long intro, but my questions are:
1) This does fall under sales of goods act?
2)did i do the right thing asking for an exchange/replacment
3)Its costing me a fortune in phone calls, can i claim costs for a reoccuring fault?
4)We are without a tv, still paying the rip-off BBC TV licence, Sky and netflix, but cant watch any, can i make a claim for any out of pocket expenses?

1) Yes
2) right to ask but their choice to repair/replace/[partial] refund
4) OT, but you pay, what, £40-50pm for Sky and Netflix but £12pm for BBC content is a 'rip-off'????

SuperHan

wealdroam wrote: »

SayNoTo0870 lists a possible Currys Culverhouse Cross number as 029 2067 5081.

But remember, the store won't be able to do anything as they are not the repair team. Calling Knowhow is likely to be more effective, but worth a try I suppose.

mathew_thomas1981

Cheers everyone, still waiting for the phone call back from knowhow!!!

My contract is with Currys not knowhow and therefore shouldnt i be dealing with currys??

Ive spoken to several helpful people from the knowhow team (hahaha) and all they want to do is keep taking it away to be repaired. This leaves us with no tv when surley after the 3rd occasion they should just offer us a straight replacment or our money back to go buy a new tv somewhere else?

cono1717

Currys/PcWorld/Knowhow are all the same company. Knowhow is the delivery/repair and support side of the business.

SuperHan

As Cono said, they are the same business. The people you speak to in store will be wearing Knowhow badges and standing under a Knowhow sign, it's just the name of their service department.

You can try to get a replacement, but you're probably unlikely. Until consumer law changes, they can repair indefinitely, and the law is unlikely to consider any period of time without a TV unreasonable given it is a luxury item.

In addition to that, three repairs and then an exchange is a feature of their extended warranty. They won't want to offer this to people who haven't paid out for the warranty, as it will obviously devalue it.

cono1717

SuperHan wrote: »

You can try to get a replacement, but you're probably unlikely. Until consumer law changes, they can repair indefinitely, and the law is unlikely to consider any period of time without a TV unreasonable given it is a luxury item.
obviously devalue it.

Yes and no - it is a luxury but then, you have paid for that luxury. It's unreasonable to expect a customer to not have 2 months worth of enjoyment of an item because of a fault. This is the problem with that clause tis a very very grey area.

wealdroam

cono1717 wrote: »

Yes and no - it is a luxury but then, you have paid for that luxury. It's unreasonable to expect a customer to not have 2 months worth of enjoyment of an item because of a fault. This is the problem with that clause tis a very very grey area.

Except that the relevant clause in The Sale of Goods Act does not talk about reasonableness or unreasonableness.

Section 48B of SoGA says (amongst other things):

48B Repair or replacement of the goods

(2) If the buyer requires the seller to repair or replace the goods, the seller must—
(a) repair or, as the case may be, replace the goods within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience to the buyer;

(my emphasis)

without causing significant inconvenience is somewhat different to whether it is reasonable or not.

Would being without a TV for a third period be a 'significant inconvenience'? I don't know, but I suspect not.

Would being without a TV for a third period fall within 'repairing the goods within a reasonable time'? Possibly, if any period was of unreasonable length.

Only a judge can answer those questions for any specific circumstance.

mathew_thomas1981

Just a quick update - After speaking to trading standards and then getting back in touch with knowhow. The regional manager gave us a call, he has spoken personally with the store in Cardiff and said we could exchange our TV if we brought in back today. Brilliant...

Took us an hour and a half to get there (our nearest currys is that far away), when we arrived was told we could exchange the TV for another, but only to the value of what we paid. So am i stupid to think we would just get a straigh exchange i.e a similar model or next model up????. No mention of this was made by the regional manager over the phone. We bought our TV in a Sale as it was a very good price and now all the TVs with the same spec as ours are atleast £120 more. So when we got there we did not want to pay an extra £120.

We asked if we could just have a refund and got a NO as it would mean they would make a loss, the pushy store manager said!! "This is not my problem" i replied and that "i should not have been sold a faulty TV in the first place".

So we are back to square one. Is my only option to contact my C/C company and get my money back through section75??

Thanks again everyone