Hillary’s Blinds - guarantee withdrawal

Jaleca

Hi, we purchased remote controlled blinds from Hillarys in June which were fitted in August. Since then they have been back multiple times due to operating/fitting problems and one of three blinds was replaced completely. They had said that we would be due compensation. We rejected their first offer as it was less than 10%. They have now come back with a better offer but are not willing to put it in writing as they have said that as they are proposing 25% they would no longer guarantee the blinds or replace them if the fault continued as it has still been doing so on an intermittent basis.  Are they allowed to do this?

KatrinaWaves

Yes they are. It’s up to you whether to take less compo and keep the guarantee, or take the higher compo.

(this doesn’t affect your statutory consumer rights) 

Why have they only replaced one out of three, if all of them are showing the fault? 

Jaleca

Thank you for your reply - we were really not sure that this was legitimate. They have adjusted the other two although they are still not always operating as they should 100% of the time. It seems unfair when they have made more than six visits and that this is still not fully rectified that they won’t just issue compensation for their poor service. It seems like we lose out either way as their representative thought that they had replaced all the blinds and because of that said that they wouldn’t replace them again. We corrected her as only one has been replaced so far - this begs the question of what value their actually has.

KatrinaWaves

Are you wanting the compensation and the fix, or is the compensation instead of a fix? 

Jaleca

We want compensation and the guarantee to be honoured as we don’t have any confidence that these won’t go wrong again. We also don’t want to be left with faulty blinds that don’t work and have to be removed, decor made good across the length of the bifold doors and only have 25% of our money back.

DiddyDavies

Jaleca said:

It seems unfair when they have made more than six visits and that this is still not fully rectified that they won’t just issue compensation for their poor service. 

I would contact Hillary's again and tell them that as they are no longer going to be providing a guarantee, you feel that you have no option but to rely on your statutory rights as granted by the Consumer Rights act (specifically section 24) and that you wish to reject the blinds and get a full refund. (which you are entitled to as the purchase was made less than 6 months ago).
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/24/enacted

The following is from the CRA explanatory notes:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/notes

Section 24: Right to price reduction or final right to reject

134.This section provides for the consumer’s rights to reduction of the purchase price or to reject the goods and obtain a (partial) refund. These are generally available if repair or replacement of the goods has not been possible or has not corrected the fault. Under subsection (4), if the consumer transferred something other than money for the goods, and the thing transferred cannot be returned in the same state or divided sufficiently to give back to the consumer the appropriate amount the consumer may not seek a reduction in the purchase price.

135.This section largely corresponds to section 48C of the SGA and section 11P of the SGSA, but there are some changes as outlined below.

136.The section provides that, if repair or replacement was impossible or if the consumer’s goods continue to be substandard after the consumer has either:

• already undergone one repair or replacement of the goods by the trader; or

• sought a repair or replacement but this was not carried out within a reasonable time or without significant inconvenient to the consumer,

the consumer may either:

• keep the goods and insist on a reduction in the price; or

• reject the goods and obtain a refund which may, in some circumstances, be subject to a deduction to take account of any use the consumer has had of the goods.

This may focus their minds a bit and get them to fix the blinds once and for all or to offer a bit more compensation.