Wickes Warranty claim

garichd

Hi All,

Need advice on Wickes warranty claim. My Wickes branded Bathroom taps are part of the bathroom suite I bought from Wickes. Over the years taps broke 2-3 times from the same place - ie same part wearing down and Wickes always replaced the part.

Taps broke again and I am having nightmare dealing with Wickes and going around in circles for 6-7 weeks. Events as below :

1) On my first customer service request, I was advised that due to COVID-19 they can not send any parts and I will have to go to the store. When I visited the store I was told that they can not deal and I will have to call customer service again. 

2) When I called customer service again, I was told that Wickes no longer stock these taps and part are no longer available. And also taps are out of warranty, When I pointed out that they are under warranty I was told to supply proof and email to customer service.

3) Email resulted in the same too and fro, even after supplying the proof that the Taps do have a 10-year warranty. Eventually, they agree that Taps and under guarantee and agree to send me replacement taps.

4) I waited for 2 weeks to get the replacement and when I chased again I was told that the replacements they were supposed to send me are no longer in stock. They will send me other ones. However, it's another two weeks now and I am still awaiting my replacements. I am also no longer getting any reply to my emails.

Just wondering where do I stand from my consumer rights perspective as it's been going on for 6-7 weeks now. 

DoaM

Consumer rights may not yield you much benefit ... how long does "over the years" actually mean? When were they purchased? Did you buy direct from Wickes?

Warranty is in excess of your consumer rights ... unless the warranty T&Cs specify a time frame for any claim to be sorted then you'll simply have to wait.

bris

As a consumer you need to prove the taps are inherently faulty (assuming the original installation was over 6 months ago) by way of a professional report, then give it to Wickes It you can find any one expert enough to do this. They would then have to agree and provide you with new taps. 

With the warranty your are already at this stage where they have agreed to give you new taps so at this point your consumer rights are pretty useless. All you can do is keep pestering them, the covid-19 certainly doesnt help here but it shouldn't be an excuse forever.

If they keep ignoring you then from a consumer rights POV you would need to do as above and end up going to court to get them to comply, this would be difficult to do and certainly not quick.