Do we still have a responsibilty to deal with this?

italianangel

We run a small computer business (myself and my Husband) and last August we sold a customer a new computer monitor with speakers. My Husband set it all up for her and she commented that the speakers seemed a little quiet, but it was agreed in the end she was happy and we didn't hear from her about this again until last week.

Last week she telephoned to say she was really not happy with the monitor (in particular the speakers) and asked us to sort it out for her. I have contacted the manufacturer direct who asked her to telephone so she could run through the problems and they have agreed she has a problem and they will replace for her.

She has now come back to us and insists that we arrange the collection and replacement and that my Husband sets it up FOC. She is also objecting to the fact we asked her to telephone the manufacturer.

We just wanted to check that we have treated her correctly this far and whether we should be dealing with the collection/replacement/installation or if it is up to her.

If it makes any difference, when she purchased the monitor we had a high street shop, but now we only have an interent shop.

Thank you for reading

tomtontom

You are a retailer, the contract is between you and the customer. You need to be sorting this out, including arranging collection and reinstalling the equipment upon return.

JJ_Egan

Is this interant shop a new business .
That is nothing to do with the shop she bought from .

shaun_from_Africa

tomtontom wrote: »

You are a retailer, the contract is between you and the customer. You need to be sorting this out, including arranging collection and reinstalling the equipment upon return.

That depends on a few things.

1/ The customer has simply stated that they are not happy with the monitor and not that it is faulty.
If it is simply that they don't think the volume is high enough or the quality of the speakers isn't very good then this in itself doesn't mean that there is any fault. the built in speakers in some monitors are very small and will never be as good as a set of external speakers and if this is the case then the customer has nothing to complain about as the set up was demonstrated and accepted at the time of sale.

2/ At the sale was last August, it may well have gone beyond the 6 month timescale during which a fault is deemed to be inherent.
If this is the case, it's not unreasonable to ask the customer to provide proof that there is a fault with the monitor.

3/ Is the internet shop the same business as the high street shop?

tomtontom

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

That depends on a few things.

1/ The customer has simply stated that they are not happy with the monitor and not that it is faulty.
If it is simply that they don't think the volume is high enough or the quality of the speakers isn't very good then this in itself doesn't mean that there is any fault. the built in speakers in some monitors are very small and will never be as good as a set of external speakers and if this is the case then the customer has nothing to complain about as the set up was demonstrated and accepted at the time of sale.

2/ At the sale was last August, it may well have gone beyond the 6 month timescale during which a fault is deemed to be inherent.
If this is the case, it's not unreasonable to ask the customer to provide proof that there is a fault with the monitor.

3/ Is the internet shop the same business as the high street shop?

The manufacturer has agreed there is a problem. Are you suggesting the OP disputes this?

shaun_from_Africa

tomtontom wrote: »

The manufacturer has agreed there is a problem. Are you suggesting the OP disputes this?

No, but if the internet shop and the high street shop are two separate businesses then the OP has no responsibility to sort it out.
As the customer is dealing with the manufacturer, they might well be tied to the conditions of their warranty.
If this states that they are required to arrange collection and setting up the new monitor then this is fair enough.


Without knowing the status of the OP's business setup, it's impossible to know for sure if they are legally responsible.

italianangel

The business was originally a mobile computer repair service. We then had a shop in a high street for two years before closing and moving over to an internet only "shop" as well as the mobile repairs.

The company has had the same name throughout.

shaun_from_Africa

As it's the same business then you really should arrange the collection and replacement. This probably wouldn't involve too much work for you.
However as to setting up the new monitor, there isn't normally much, if anything involved in this as many of them are now plug and play.
Unless you actually charged for doing this in the first place, I don't see that you have any responsibility to do it with the replacement.