Argos, nintendo DS 13 months old, consumer rights?

tiamai_d

I bought my son a Nintendo DS in September last year from Argos. It was put away and he got it for Christmas. I still have the receipt.

last week, the touch screen stopped working. He has not been over-zelous with the screen, has been using the Nintendo branded screen covers which have been used since christmas and are not heavily scratched (so we can assume he has not been rough with it). He did not use it that often.

I called up Argos Customer Services to ask what they could do, knowing it was outwith manufacturers warranty.

I was told that as the warranty had expired only last month and it had only been used since Christmas that they would repair or replace it, free of charge, take it to the store i bought it from and tell them I had spoken to CS.

In we went, having all ready told my son not to worry it would be fixed, only to be told that CS had told me a load of carp and no way was it getting fixed or replaced by them as it was over a year old. Manager came down, was very nasty, my son was in tears and before we had even left the store she was laughing at us.

Called CS when I got home, surprise surprise, there seems to be no record of my phone call and they have a policy of 'if its over a year old, tough'.

Searching through here though, I see that I may be entitled to a repair free of charge or a partial refund due to the sales of goods act.

I am planning on calling CS back (as I have the exact time of my initial call and want to complain) but do I have any chance of having it repaired?

I would assume that a DS would last longer than 13 months (actually only 10).

Thanks in advance.

dmg24

The first person that you spoke to was correct. Did you get their name?

If you call again and get no joy, write to them, recorded delivery, giving them notice that you intend to take them to the small claims court if they do not remedy the situation.

Good luck! x

tiamai_d

Thanks!

You know I spent two nights lying awake fuming at the attitude of that woman? Doesn't help that my Dad used to work there and I all ready knew how she got that job in the first place. :mad:

Didn't get his name sadly, they say it at first and after you have been on hold you don't tend to listen that good. He took all my details, but now there is no record of my details (even though a few weeks ago I bought a lot of large items and had a few problems, second time I called them they had me 'on file')

May call trading standards first and get as much ammo as possible.

Thanks for posting so late, I can now go to bed and get some sleep!

maplegirl2011

hi contact nintendo directly. my niece actually sat on hers and broke the top from the bottom. we phoned nintendo and they sent a prepaid parcelforce label and they sent it back today after a week, repaired free of charge. i'm sure if you tell them that it was kept for christmas etc they will help out,because to be fair they didn't have to repair our one,which was so obviously damage not covered by warranty. big thumbs up for nintendo customer service

roddydogs

Argos is usually one of the best companies re SOG act, as advise just put it in writing etc

tiamai_d

Hi, thanks for your replys.

Spoke to TS then phoned Argos. As soon as I mentioned TS, the attitude changed. CS phoned the store, spoke to the manager there who said she offered to send it away to be repaired. Yes she did, I said, but she also said if it costs then we will just have to pay it. I quoted Sales of goods act, and said that it should be free of charge as even if it had been used for 13 months, it should be expected to last a lot longer than that. I was then told that if there was a charge 'we will see what happens'. I double checked that it would not be a case of 'pay this or don't get it back', as they have a habit of charging a fee for looking at it, I was told no, if there was a fee to be paid before it was repaired, I would be told and have the chance to have it returned to me free of charge unrepaired.

I will of course be pushing to have it repaired free of charge as it should last a lot longer, I have game boy colours over 7 years old that were treated rougher and still going!

kkpolobear

the ndshas a 2 yr manufacturers warranty call 08706060247 they should sort it out for you

tiamai_d

The Wii has a 2 year warranty, and the DS lite, but mine has 12 months according to the booklet.

Not heard from Argos yet, so going to give them a call.

kkpolobear

i got mine changed free of charge and it was 18 mths old

badgermonkey

Nintendo are your best bet - I have heard really good stuff about their customer service. Do try them.

athensgeorgia

I know this is a long time after the op but can anyone help me not with argos but our ds i bought it in April for my daughters birthday in may and now its broke it just stopped working, she was playing with it fine on minute turned it off put it down them came back to it about 15 mins later and just wasn't working, i can'tfind my receipt i had it lying around for months but my dh has thrown it away i can show the transaction on my debit card statement but virgin megastore claim to not keep receipt number after 28 days i could really do with some avice with what to do next have been tryingto ring nintendo but have had no joy not sure if its a post-xmas thing bt they've not answered our email which we sent on xmas eve, this is really starting to stress me out especially since it broke on xmas eve and my daughter was convinced father christmas was going to bring her a new one and she keeps asking why she didn't get one whn she changed her xmas list, any help would be greatly appreciated