Electrical goods=2 year minimum warranty?

BargainGalore

I cant he has just cut and pasted it from a newspaper site by looks of it

If I read all of that afraid I might loose the will to live

Its bad enough people come here and post this all time instead of actually taking time to read the sale of goods act

dmg24 wrote: »

Can anybody be bothered to read the above post?

fairtrade

Especially when the Sales of Goods Act is so simple.
The contract is between the consumer and whomever they pay their monies to, in most cases this will be a retailer.
Why people waste their phone bill and time ringing manufacturers, when they have purchased from a retailer, I cannot understand.

For those who watch consumer programmes and read articles without understanding the law follow this link:-
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/consumers/fact-sheets/page38311.html

Should the post by AustinDean be reported to the plain English campaign?

kebabby

I think there is a misinterpretation of the Sales of Goods Act by a lot of people. The law states that in England and Wales that the consumer has up to 6 years to bring a case to the courts, not that the product should last for 6 years. The product should only last as long as it is reasonably expected to, which would need to be determined by the individual products purpose, price and expected life expectancy of components.

If someone expects a £20 kettle should to last for more than 2 years, should a £100 kettle last for 10 years? Most people would say yes but the £100 kettle might cost £100 because of extra features it has on it and the type of finish (eg. brushed steel) it has. Should extra features and the finish mean the product should last longer? If one person buys a £20 kettle and makes 10 cups of tea a day, should they expect it to last 2 years compared to someone who boils it just once a day?

It’s a bit of a mine field really and generalising every product together is not a real way to determine everything.

Have no doubt, filing these claims against retailers will cost them money and if they have to replace it or award compensation, then they will go to great lengths to prove the products lifespan isn’t that what the consumer demands it to be. This can be easily done by retailers by using their contacts to request technical data from manufacturers which gives life expectancy of nearly every component in the product. Speak to most manufactures of elements in kettles and they’ll tell you 2 years is probably the maximum you can expect it to last which will reduce if you used more than normal. What is normal?

The other way to look at it, if we become like the USA filing a claim for every appliance that breaks down regardless of the price paid – the retailers will lose out. A retailer may sell a £600 TV but what profit do you think they make? In this competitive marketplace I would be surprised if anything more than £40-50, yet the consumer demands after 2 years that it should be replaced at a cost of £500+ to the retailer. What do you think will happen? Retailers will start to put prices up and not by a little bit, by £100’s of pounds – possibly at least double what they buy it for. Then we’ll all be complaining about the price of everything. I’m sure most retailers will probably agree that things should last longer but I don’t think they agree that it is them who should pick up all the costs - hence the advent of Extended Warranties.

Oh poor retailers! Well not really, retailers should really consider what they sell and if something is crap – don’t sell it! If it starts to become problematic, cut your losses and drop it from your range.

I recently purchased an electrical item from a health store, all their machines had at least a 10 years warranty on them – some had 20 years. When I enquired why, they said it’s because that’s how long they last. They get a few that fail for some unknown reason generally due to it being electrical but most of their products had less than a 1% failure rate. Therefore, if they sell 10,000 items per year – they would only expect around 100 to fail, which isn’t going to wipe their profits out.

So, do your research, buy items with longer guarantees from retailers that are established and will be around when you need them, don’t spend more than you are willing to lose if it does break down in a couple of years. And finally, if you think it hasn’t lasted long enough for the price you paid – do something about it.

Buyer - Beware what you wish for!

sandwild68

Please help. I bought a dishwasher onwe the 12 Feb this year. It has broken. Engineer came 2 weeks ago and said the power switch was broken. He ordered the part and said it would take a week. I am now 2 weeks later and cannot get any answers from Argos as to when the part will arrive and be fixed. Where do I stand

jlonew

i bought a hotpoint washing machine from dixons online ,just 18 months ago and now appears to be to be louder than a plane taking off . it will be covered under the 5 year parts guarantee but will be left with a huge call out and labour bill . where do i stand on the Eu 2 year warranty , as i rang a few repair places to enquire about repairing it and no one will touch it .

JAG

After 12 months you have to prove that it was a manufacturing fault, so you will have to pay and get an independant report on the machine. If the report says the fault was present due to a manufacturing fault then you should be able to get it repaired free of charge.

123sweetpea

I wonder if someone could help me confirm something really about all this. I've just had Sky on the phone advising me that as our box was coming up to a year old, the guarantee was going to run out and that I should buy an extended warranty from them. I declined and when he asked me why, I said that I understood it to be covered for 2 years under EU law.

His response is that this providing a 2 year guarantee thing was not a mandatory law and that the UK had opted out of the need to provide it. I've not heard anything about this so I wondered if anyone could give me any info as to whether this is correct.

I'd very much appreciate it for reference purposes in the event that something did go pop.

Thanks!

JAG

I wouldn't bother with the warrenty for the box. Now you are out of contract if the box develops a fault then just phone up Sky and say you want to cancel, and they will probably offer to replace the box for free if they think you will leave them.

After 1 year you have to prove the item was faulty due to a manufacturing fault (unlike the first 12 months). So you would have to get an independant report confirming this.

flashharry_2

After 3 years covering started to come away in middle of my kitchen doors, its like a cream plastic.

Called B&Q they told me my rights was up to 6 years, the guarantee was only for 1 year, so they changed 4 doors, after another 3 years another 2 faulty so they also changed them even thro they were just over 6years old.

Was also told only 1 other person had the same problem with there doors.

Now that is good service, and before anyone says its due to steam in kitchen, its a kitchen/ dinner and the gent from b & q called at our home to check the colour of new doors was matching with old if not they was going to change all the doors.

DCFC79

flashharry wrote: »

After 3 years covering started to come away in middle of my kitchen doors, its like a cream plastic.

Called B&Q they told me my rights was up to 6 years, the guarantee was only for 1 year, so they changed 4 doors, after another 3 years another 2 faulty so they also changed them even thro they were just over 6years old.

Was also told only 1 other person had the same problem with there doors.

Now that is good service, and before anyone says its due to steam in kitchen, its a kitchen/ dinner and the gent from b & q called at our home to check the colour of new doors was matching with old if not they was going to change all the doors.

is there a question in there