Guarantee help needed

Bexxy4573

We bought a vr headset last October, its just under 12 months old, but comes with 2 years guarantee from the manufacturer. One of the headphones no longer works, and upon doing various trouble shooting suggested by the manufacturer we have discovered its an issue inside the headset. I contacted the manufacturer and they informed me that as we purchased it from a retailer (argos) we would have to contact them to arrange repair etc. Argos just told us that they don't offer repairs for this item, and as they no longer stock it all they could offer was a pro rata gift card, or we could pay an extra £70 to get a similar model. Is this right? Who is responsible for the guarantee? Occulus say as we purchased it from a retailer that it is them we should go to, but argos say that they only cover consumer rights and after 6 months we only get partial refund. Occulus guarantee states repair, replacement or refund of purchase price. 

Aylesbury_Duck

It's up to you which route you take. Argos are being reasonable because they're accepting there's a fault without asking you to prove it, and they can choose to repair, replace or refund, taking into account the year's use you've already had.  That's you consumer right.

Warranty is different and is down to the manufacturer.  Did you register the product and activate the warranty, if that was required?  If not, you don't have a warranty. 

Bexxy4573

Product was registered with occulus, it was them who looked at the account and said that as we purchased it from a retailer that we would have to contact them. The gift card refund doesn't seem right to me, as we paid by debit card, and have a full receipt. We now have the problem that argos convinced hubby into paying for a replacement, so we don't have the original item, and we don't want the replacement as it isn't up to the standard of the old one, and it won't work with the laptop either. 

KatrinaWaves

So you’ve already accepted the replacement? 

Aylesbury_Duck

If you've accepted the replacement, I think that's case closed.

Were_Doomed

As the replacement came with an additional cost then this is actually a new transaction ... the old unit's partial refund was merely part-payment towards the new device.

Have you contacted Argos to advise them that the new device doesn't work?

Bexxy4573

Oo, so we could return the completely unopened new item under argos' 30 day no quibble returns thingy? We were going to go and see if we could hopefully get the original system back as that was better, and fight occulus to fix it, who are still denying responsibility. We only went to argos as occulus told us that as we purchased from their authorised retailer we would have to contact them. Then hubby was talked into the upgrade (?) by the woman who told him he would get a gift card for very little back, which wouldn't replace the vr system. We really don't want a gift card, as we don't shop at argos and certainly not over £300 worth. 

mattyprice4004

Bear in mind that most stores have daily collections for returns, so you'll need to act quickly if you want your old one back.
Once collected, it's usually impossible to track down a specific item as they're all grouped together to be auctioned off in bulk. 

KatrinaWaves

What system did you have and what system do you have now? I’m not sure why the replacement is considered worse? We have both a Quest and, erm, whatever the new white one is, and the newer one is better than the Quest. 

Bexxy4573

We had the original rift, with external sensors, plus additional ones to get really good tracking. They sold us the rift s which doesn't use external tracking sensors, so you can't add extra and reading up on it a lot of people say the tracking isn't as good on games etc. Kids already complained about tracking issues with the rift, so expect them to not be happy with the tracking on the s. Also have the issue that it uses display port rather than hdmi, so can't be plugged into laptop! 

Were_Doomed

On the latter point, DP to HDMI converters/adapters are easy and cheap to source.