ROC boiler

qazitory

We purchased a ROC boiler and had it fitted by an approved fitted in November 2015.

The registration details were sent off straight after fitting, although it seems like they were not received until after the Christmas holidays.

Due to delay, the UK branch will not honour the 10 warranty as their terms and conditions state the registration must be within the first 30 days after fitting.

The fitter of our boiler had to contact the manufacturer a few months after fitting as there was a unknown fault. ROC had no issues in coming out to fix the first fault.

We paid extra for the boiler as it was recommended, although ROC customer service has been terrible.

We have had to pay for a repair and we have no received no money back, despite the 10 year warranty we have paid for.

Does anyone know my rights in ROC upholding the advertised 10 year warranty?? We are stuck with a boiler that has been nothing but trouble since it was fitted

SouthUKMan

Forget the warranty in this case. The company has already told they are not going to honour it. Instead, use your consumer rights. Assuming you paid for the boiler after 1st October 2015 (you said it was fitted November that year), then the Consumer Rights Act applies to you.

Your consumer rights state something like "an item should be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, as described and should last a reasonable period of time". In my opinion, less than two years for a boiler -
an expensive product designed to operate daily for a number of years - isn't reasonable. Therefore the law is on your side. A firm but polite letter (sent signed for delivery) to ROC pointing this out might do the trick.

A few thoughts...

1) You say you had paid for a 10 year warranty, but I suspect that you actually paid the standard retail price which happened to include a promotional offer of a 10 year warranty. In which case ROC's own T&Cs apply...and they've deemed you haven't met their criteria.

2) You had 30 days to return the warranty registration card. Even if the ROC office closed for an entire week over Christmas, that still left you more than three weeks in which you could have posted the card. Did you send it signed for delivery so that you would have proof of when it was received?

3) If the company have already told you they're not going to honour the warranty for the reasons stated, then why would you expect them to give you money back if you've gone ahead and commissioned and paid for a repair? That said, note point about using consumer rights.

4) While I readily admit that I haven't seen the T&Cs of the ROC 10 year warranty, if it's anything like most 10 year warranties then they tend to operate on a sliding scale... so that after certain periods of time elapse, the warranties protect you against fewer things - to the point nearing 10 years you may as well not bother.

Ectophile

I'd just add that your statutory rights are against whoever you bought the boiler from. For example, if you bought it directly from ROC, then your rights are against them. If you bought it off the fitter, then the fitter is responsible.

qazitory

SouthUKMan wrote: »

Forget the warranty in this case. The company has already told they are not going to honour it. Instead, use your consumer rights. Assuming you paid for the boiler after 1st October 2015 (you said it was fitted November that year), then the Consumer Rights Act applies to you.

Your consumer rights state something like "an item should be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, as described and should last a reasonable period of time". In my opinion, less than two years for a boiler -
an expensive product designed to operate daily for a number of years - isn't reasonable. Therefore the law is on your side. A firm but polite letter (sent signed for delivery) to ROC pointing this out might do the trick.

A few thoughts...

1) You say you had paid for a 10 year warranty, but I suspect that you actually paid the standard retail price which happened to include a promotional offer of a 10 year warranty. In which case ROC's own T&Cs apply...and they've deemed you haven't met their criteria.

To be fair you are correct as stated we haven't actually paid for the warranty but we went with the more expensive boiler because of the longer warranty period.

SouthUKMan wrote: »

2) You had 30 days to return the warranty registration card. Even if the ROC office closed for an entire week over Christmas, that still left you more than three weeks in which you could have posted the card. Did you send it signed for delivery so that you would have proof of when it was received?

The fitter returned the warranty card, not ourselves. He says he sent it just after fitting, but again we have no proof of that ROC do say they received the card but it was in February 2016.

SouthUKMan wrote: »

3) If the company have already told you they're not going to honour the warranty for the reasons stated, then why would you expect them to give you money back if you've gone ahead and commissioned and paid for a repair? That said, note point about using consumer rights.

The repair was carried out by the fitter and he explained what the process for reimbursement was. It wasn't a large job, but that's beside the point.

SouthUKMan wrote: »

4) While I readily admit that I haven't seen the T&Cs of the ROC 10 year warranty, if it's anything like most 10 year warranties then they tend to operate on a sliding scale... so that after certain periods of time elapse, the warranties protect you against fewer things - to the point nearing 10 years you may as well not bother.

If interested, the terms are here:
http://www.rocboilers.co.uk/he-28-and-he-40-terms-and-conditions.html

Thanks for this information I'm going to send them a letter via recorded delivery stating the Consumer Rights Act.

The fitter has said he won't be using them again, and I just hope others haven't been duped into buying their brand for a 'fake' warranty.

qazitory

Ectophile wrote: »

I'd just add that your statutory rights are against whoever you bought the boiler from. For example, if you bought it directly from ROC, then your rights are against them. If you bought it off the fitter, then the fitter is responsible.

Thanks for pointing this out. The fitter feels responsible for recommending the boiler although it's been nothing but trouble since we had it fitted. He has stood to the cost of the repairs so far, but I will chase ROC again.

shaun_from_Africa

qazitory wrote: »

Thanks for pointing this out. The fitter feels responsible for recommending the boiler although it's been nothing but trouble since we had it fitted. He has stood to the cost of the repairs so far, but I will chase ROC again.

It's only worth chasing ROC again if you bought the boiler directly from them.
If you didn't then you have to contact whoever you purchased it from.

SouthUKMan

qazitory wrote: »

Thanks for pointing this out. The fitter feels responsible for recommending the boiler although it's been nothing but trouble since we had it fitted. He has stood to the cost of the repairs so far, but I will chase ROC again.

That's a really good point. Technically (if you want go down this route)... if the fitter returned the warranty card and not you, then there's an argument to say that he should be held accountable for failing to return the warranty card within the 30 day period and therefore should be held liable for the subsequent repair bill due to his failure (assuming the fault would have been covered under warranty). That might be a tough one to prove, but it is an option.

shaun_from_Africa

SouthUKMan wrote: »

then there's an argument to say that he should be held accountable for failing to return the warranty card within the 30 day period and therefore should be held liable for the subsequent repair bill due to his failure (assuming the fault would have been .

Unless the installer stated that he returned the form in plenty of time and it must have been delayed in the post or ROC themselves misplaced it or simply forgot to process the warranty.
It would impossible to disprove the claim that it had been posted promptly.

Peter_Mullen

Hi everyone,

I had a ROC boiler fitted approx 3 years ago. The boiler has started to make a weird sound so I called the original gas engineer who fitted it, he has advised me to call ROC themselves, however, it would appear that they are no longer in business!! I have confirmation of my 10 warranty and from all of the contact details (telephone number, email address, and the website links) it would appear that they are no longer trading!

The reason for me buying the boiler in the first place was because when I purchased it - it came with a 10-year warranty which I have proof of.

My question is - does anybody have contact details on who to contact should my boiler break down and whether you have had any problems with this boiler?

Look forward to your replies and discussing further.

Pete M

qazitory

Peter_Mullen wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I had a ROC boiler fitted approx 3 years ago. The boiler has started to make a weird sound so I called the original gas engineer who fitted it, he has advised me to call ROC themselves, however, it would appear that they are no longer in business!! I have confirmation of my 10 warranty and from all of the contact details (telephone number, email address, and the website links) it would appear that they are no longer trading!

The reason for me buying the boiler in the first place was because when I purchased it - it came with a 10-year warranty which I have proof of.

My question is - does anybody have contact details on who to contact should my boiler break down and whether you have had any problems with this boiler?

Look forward to your replies and discussing further.

Pete M

I tried to contact them again but had no joy

I even contacted the parent company in China - no response.

We ended up buying a new one completely.

As pointed out, your statutory rights are against whoever you bought the boiler from. Due to this, we came to an agreement where the fitter didn't charge us for the fitting of a new boiler and we purchased the boiler.

mattyprice4004

Unfortunately the manufacturer's warranty is just that - a warranty with the manufacturer.
If they've gone pop, so has your 10 year warranty.

If you didn't buy the unit directly but paid a gas fitted an 'all in' price then they are the purchaser, and you have rights against them - but after 6 months you'd have to prove it was a manufacturing defect that caused the failure, not through misuse etc.