Are Three telling the truth?

diymonkey

Hi guys,

I have a quick question.

My daughter has just bought a lenovo p2 phone from a Three store. She asked about warranty and they said the first 28 days she can return it to them, however any problems after that, she'd have to contact Lenovo directly.

I thought that Three are responsible (at least for the first year) since they are the retailer and any problems, then the consumer should take it to them to send back to lenovo?

Fosterdog

Usually with electronics the retailers don't have the the ability to carry out repairs themselves so they have contracts with the manufacturers for them to carry out the repair on their behalf.

You can insist that the retailer deals with the manufacturer for you however it is usually quicker and easier for you to go directly to the yourself.

Where I work if you bring in an item that needs to go to the manufacturer it will get signed in to our store, but it goes to the bottom of the repair list, we already have anywhere from five to fifty other customers repairs ahead of yours in the queue. You are no more important that every other customer so there will be no special treatment and delaying their repairs to speed yours up. When it gets to your turn it will then be booked with the manufacturer, is can be anything from the day you brought it in to a week later again depending on current workload. its the same when it gets back from repair, although the manufacturer tests them after repair we also test them to make sure he repair was successful, we will bump them up the queue a bit for this since it was booked in before some of the current repairs but we won't take something off the workbench we are already working on it has to wait until something else is finished and there is room for it.

All of that can delay your repair by say a week, add to that any additional queries the manufacturer may have and we have to contact you wait for a response and then get back to them all of this adds time to the repair.

If you contact them yourself they can get all of the answers needed off you first time and get the repair arranged a lot quicker. It all depends on what you would find more convenient booking it yourself and having a quicker turnaround or asking the retailer to do it and be at the mercy of workloads, less hassle for you as you don't have to book it yourself but it will almost always take longer this way.

wealdroam

diymonkey wrote: »

Hi guys,

I have a quick question.

My daughter has just bought a lenovo p2 phone from a Three store. She asked about warranty and they said the first 28 days she can return it to them, however any problems after that, she'd have to contact Lenovo directly.

I thought that Three are responsible (at least for the first year) since they are the retailer and any problems, then the consumer should take it to them to send back to lenovo?

It's time for you, and your daughter, to read MSE's Consumer Rights guide.

Here is just one short extract:

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.

Lots of other good stuff in there too.

bris

It's actually 30 days which gives you rejection rights with the retailer not 28.


But as said in post 2 your rights do lie with the retailer but getting them to agree to that can be time consuming. Then when they do eventually agree the time delay giving it to them for them to deal with it on your behalf can be weeks.


You can do that but the result is much quicker doing it yourself through the manufacturer, in fact I have had warranty returns sent away and received back in as little as 5 days (Microsoft Xbox) and the max I have waited is about 10 days (Samsung).


You can dig your heels in but the result will always end up the same, just the time scale difference is all that will change.


P.s dealing directly with the manufacturer does nor effect you statutory rights with the retailer as they are telling you to use them if anything goes wrong in the future.

diymonkey

Thanks very much for all your replies guys. They are extremely helpful. The only reason I was asking this was because I've read and heard that Lenovo's customer support is awful, so I thought if say 8 months down the line something went wrong, I'll throw the responsibility on Three to get it sorted. But as you said it's just easier to send the item back directly to the manufacturer.

Much appreciate your advice.

Fosterdog

I've found their service to be a bit hit and miss, always fantastic with desktops and laptops but tablets they really seem to drag their feet over, possibly because they go to different repair workshops.

In my first reply I didn't mean to make it sound as if the place I works doesn't want to book repairs, we really don't mind doing it, one day last week I had hardly any workload so anything that came in was sorted quickly, pretty much within minutes of the customers leaving and actually gave me something to do and prevent boredom. Go back two to three weeks and it was chaotic with so many things booked there just weren't enough hours in the day nor enough physical space to get the work done any quicker.

ThumbRemote

It's also worth remembering that if you send it to the manufacturer yourself you end up losing most of the statutory right you actually have.

If it gets lost in transit, it's your problem.
If the manufacturer fails to repair it, you don't get the entitlement to a refund that you would do under the Consumer Rights Act had you gone via the retailer.
If the manufacturer loses or damages it, you may have no legal redress whatsoever as they could be based in a different country.
If the manufacturer supplies a replacement then the retailer can completely wash their hands of it further down the line, as it's not the item they sold.

It's not hard to see why retailers are so keen on you taking the risk yourself! The legal protections are there for a very good reason - use them!