Costco : In-store purchase - What would you do.

leonardo

Hi all,

Eight months ago - we purchased an all in one injet printer for the house.

Two issues:

A) Print quality is poor (don't do photos), repeated paper jams.

Reports inks levels incorrectly. Say enough ink for 62 pages - but the print outs are already coming out as if ink is emptying.

Consumer report reviews - U.S - consistent 1 star (only) ratings for this unit.

£99 at purchase.

With costco - what is the best way to achieve my goal of a full refund.

My sincere thanks to anybody that can help me achieve this outcome.

Leo

DoaM

As it is after 6 months since purchase then Costco can legally require you to prove that the printer was inherently faulty. (They may not of course). Such proof would be an engineer report that inspects the item and advises (on the balance of probabilities) that the item was inherently faulty.

If the item is just generally of poor quality then that boat has sailed ... you'd have needed to report this to Costco quite soon after purchase.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 would apply to your purchase. (Unless Costco try to claim they are a trade-only business, in which case the T&Cs of the purchase contract could contract out some consumer rights, but that's unlikely).

unholyangel

Not sure what to tell you. Costco have a 90 day return period on electronics. Even if you are a consumer (and therefore able to rely on consumer rights), you only have the short term right to reject in the first 30 days. And as its been more than 6 months from purchase, even if the retailer agreed to provide a refund (rather than repair/replacement), they could ask you to prove its inherently faulty and also reduce the refund to account for use you have had.

stugib

In my experience CostCo are excellent and will often just refund without question if you tell them the problems you're having with it. Just go and explain

DavidP24

unholyangel wrote: »

Not sure what to tell you. Costco have a 90 day return period on electronics. Even if you are a consumer (and therefore able to rely on consumer rights), you only have the short term right to reject in the first 30 days. And as its been more than 6 months from purchase, even if the retailer agreed to provide a refund (rather than repair/replacement), they could ask you to prove its inherently faulty and also reduce the refund to account for use you have had.

Just to clarify for any wondering visitor, unfair contract terms prevent a company creating terms that breach common law, e.g. consumer rights act. Your statutory rights are not affected by the warranty stated.

It is right that you may be expected to pay for report but if it concludes was a manufacturing defect they pay for the report,

DoaM

To clarify ... they'd be liable for the reasonable cost of a report. Reasonable isn't defined but £60 would generally be classed as reasonable. (Although it also depends on the cost of the goods).

But you'd be expected to have communicated with the seller first before commissioning a report - if you don't then they could probably argue against the report cost as they hadn't insisted on it.

munchpot

I would firstly asked what is your membership? Are you an Individual or Trade member, as obviously a Trade Member would be a B2B transaction.

As an individual member I've always found Costco have been brilliant at returning things. Why not just pop in and ask at your local store. If they refuse then start working out your rights. It might be much easier that way

wealdroam

DavidP24 wrote: »

Just to clarify for any wondering visitor, unfair contract terms prevent a company creating terms that breach common law, e.g. consumer rights act. Your statutory rights are not affected by the warranty stated.

It is right that you may be expected to pay for report but if it concludes was a manufacturing defect they pay for the report,

Is the Consumer Rights Act common law?

leonardo

It looks like I should go in store, talk to them and see if I get the result I'm hoping for.

If that doesn't work then I'll need to try something else.

It was purchased under a normal membership - the thing is my membership expired two months ago - and I don't want to renew it.

What problems could this cause?

[Deleted User]

I'd be stunned if Costco just didn't refund you there and then. If you have 'history' of returning stuff though, expect your membership to be cancelled.

EDIT: Just noticed you have an expired membership. Might have more trouble then. If you aren't currently a member you won't be covered by their satisfaction guarantee.

unholyangel

camelot1971 wrote: »

I'd be stunned if Costco just didn't refund you there and then. If you have 'history' of returning stuff though, expect your membership to be cancelled.

EDIT: Just noticed you have an expired membership. Might have more trouble then. If you aren't currently a member you won't be covered by their satisfaction guarantee.

OP probably wouldn't be covered even if his membership hadn't expired - its been 8 months since purchase and costco say their satisfaction guarantee on electricals is 90 days so OP is some 150+ days over the time limit.

DavidP24 wrote: »

Just to clarify for any wondering visitor, unfair contract terms prevent a company creating terms that breach common law, e.g. consumer rights act. Your statutory rights are not affected by the warranty stated.

It is right that you may be expected to pay for report but if it concludes was a manufacturing defect they pay for the report,

Unfair contract terms prevents businesses relying on/enforcing terms that are unfair (whether automatically because they conflict with statute/some other principle of law or whether the term fails to satisfy the fairness/transparency test). As wealdroam hinted at though, legislation such as the consumer rights act is not common law, its statute.

It would be more useful if it did (as you say) prevent companies from creating such terms but alas, it doesnt.