Bad time with Easylife

Elgee

Is this sharp practice, has anyone else had trouble with Easlife's attitude towards its customers?

A bad time with Easylife

Hello,
Order OR8891940

I returned a watch to you as it no longer works and there are cracks on the back. You sent it back saying that as the fault developed after 6 months I needed to prove it was faulty when I took ownership of it. Can you explain how I would know it would develop a fault after 6 months? Please refund my £29.99 and postage of £2.95 promptly. I believe I have good grounds for challenging you in The Small Claims Court as the goods are not fit for purpose; even a £29.99 watch should work for more than 9 months if the battery is still good.

Regards,



Here is Easylife's reply

Dear .........

Order Number: OR8891940

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry to hear your Item has developed a fault.
Unfortunately, if a fault develops after the first 6 months, as per the Consumer Rights Act 2015 the burden is on the consumer to prove that the product was faulty at the time they took ownership of it and not down to misuse of the product.
In practice, this may require some form of expert report, opinion or evidence of similar problems across the product range.
I apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your understanding.
If you have any further questions or issues you can contact our Customer Service:
Telephone helpline on 0333 030 0777 Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm
Email support at Help@easylifegroup.com
Kind Regards,

Joel,
Customer Experience Team

So I wrote back

Hello Joel,

How am I expected to know that a watch I bought from you will stop working after 6 months? Most guarantees are for one year - as yours used to be. You know very well that it will cost me more to obtain an expert report on the watch's condition and even then the report may be inconclusive. I would rather spend £25 on a Small Claims Court action. Please refund my £32.94 (including postage)

Regards, ........
PS, take me off your mailing list

dj1471

They are correct. If you want to use your statutory rights you must provide an independent report showing that the issue was caused by an inherent fault that was there at the time of purchase. If this is the case they will have to pay the cost of the report.

Do you really not have a manufacturer's warranty you could use?

DCFC79

Not sure why you posted it in the Techie area OP.
Its more a consumer rights issue.

Elgee

Thanks for your reply. There was no manufacturers guarantee with the watch. Clearly the watch was ok for 9 months and not faulty when I received it, but then stopped working properly, even a £5 watch from the market would go longer than that. Any ideas as to where I can get a report that won't cost a fortune?

Elgee

Yes and no, besides I'm new here and don't know my way round yet.

agrinnall

Doubtful if it's worth paying for a report for a £30 watch when there's a fair chance it'll say that the fault was not inherent, I'd imagine it will cost more than the watch did. I'd just write it off as bad luck and buy something better.

Cornucopia

I've moved the Thread to Consumer Rights.

Elgee

Well I invested £25 in a Small Claims Court action against Easylife on the assumption that it wasn't worth their while sending a solicitor or company representative 150 miles to my local Court to defend the claim of £57.94. They coughed up the claim of £32.94 but not the Court fee so I told them I would let the Court decide if I was due the fee; they promptly paid the full amount.

Clearly it's too much trouble for the likes of Easylife to defend a small claim, especially when they know that whilst they may consider themselves to be acting lawfully ethically they are not.

Aylesbury_Duck

They simply weighed up the cost of dealing with a difficult customer and paid a small amount to rid themselves of you. I doubt they're upset to be removing you from their mailing list.

You're happy, they're happy. All's well that ends well.

mattyprice4004

Fair enough - at least you're not one of these posters that takes out a Small Claim and tries to flaunt it as some huge David vs. Goliath victory - you know they only did it to get rid of you.

Either way, a win's a win!