Sports Direct online returns policy

Joe_Horner

inglorius wrote: »

They've just emailed back to say that as the item was bought just over a year ago they can't help me as their warranties only cover up to 12 months - is there any recourse I have over this?

As DOAM says, you're not claiming under the warranty, you're claiming under the Consumer Rights Act (section 9: goods to be of satisfactory quality) which includes an explicit reference to durability.

The problem you'll have is that they'll try to tell you that straps are essentially "wear and tear" items and, to a point, they're right. Getting a year's use out of a resin / plastic watch strap isn't all that unusual. How and where you wear the watch can also have a huge effect on the life of a strap no matter what it''s made of. Watch manufacturers almost always exclude straps from their guarantees for that reason.

But, where the strap is integral to the case and a failed strap makes the watch unusable it's clearly a problem if they're still using materials that fail after a year. Effectively, the durability of the entire watch is determined by the durability of the strap so, unless they're claiming that the expected life of the watch is just over a year, they can't really rely on a non-replaceable strap having a limited life.

It's a constant annoyance in my business seeing these fashion designed pieces where you're tied in to the maker's own straps (if available). I see a LOT of disappointed owners who end up in the position you're in of a completely useless watch because straps have been discontinued and nothing else will fit.

The sooner buyers start rejecting that sort of cynically bad (for the owner) design the better!