Richer Sounds 6 Year Guarantee Supercare Mis-Sold? Can't get them to honor.

inunison7

OK.

Roll back to November 2015 I am in Richer Sounds Leeds wanting to buy a new projector. I remember the day well because the asistant who mis-sold the thing to me, whom I won't name publicly, gave me a free umbrella at the end so there is nothing wrong with my memory

I'll checking out for the projector and paying and the guy is like do you want the refundable guarantee for 6 years. I am like: "Refundable"? He said if anything goes wrong with it in 6 years they will sort it out. And "if you don't use it you get it back at the end anyway". I thought, that's great why would you not choose that?! So I said YES and was charged the ~£106 extra.

On my Certificate of Guarantee it says "SuperCare Department". On the website under the Supercare it says you get the WHOLE amount back if unused/pro rata refund.

I emailed customer service thinking "oh let's cancel the guarantee as I don't use the projector any more, and there is 9 months left so I will get a pro-rata of like £90 or something back so I'll do that now". A lady emails back and says NOPE. Your "type of" guarantee doesn't do ANY kind of pro rata or refund at all.

I escalate it to other people and finally someone says I can get a £12 refund!!! I don't know what they are looking at on their systems it is bizarre.

I explain I have a Supercare Guarantee document and was told when buying it is a fully refundable if not used/pro rata. They immediately come back to me and say "Well in the small print of your contract it doesn't say anything about being refundable".

At this point I am now thinking maybe things have changed or something in the past 6 years and the younger staff just don't understand these old Guarantees or something - maybe it is formatted differently these days - I don't know.

At no point has anyone so far addressed what happened in the store, or has asked me any questions about it. At this point I am trying to work out who it is that is playing me and misleading me: the store or the Customer Service. If you promise something to a customer you must honour it, especially if they are paying copious amounts of money for it and it is the deciding factor in the sale of the cover! >:O

On the website there seems to be two guarantees which are identical apart from one you don't get the money back at the end, and one where you do and pay 10% of the cost - "SuperCare".

I was not offered any options, just charged 10% of the sale price for the guarantee and as the guy said I get it back if not used, I thought why not. I would NEVER have agreed to this if it wasn't refundable because it is not worth £106 quid to guarantee a projector without the money back option!

The website also says that 'SuperCare Fully Refundable If Not Used' is not available on Projectors. Why had I been sold this on my projector? Also on the website the Supercare section is the only section that mentions the cost of "10% of sale price".

I don't understand how how I cannot have a SuperCare guarantee if my Certificate says "SuperCare Department" on it, and I paid the 10% fee which is listed under the SuperCare terms on the website.

This is obviously set up so that they can easily upsell something and claim it is something different 6 years on. Who would say no to a guarantee where you get the money back? It's literally a free guarantee - which is why I said YES.

I want to find out whether I was lied to at the store or whether it is the customer service lying to me about this. At this point I just want the money back now, I don't want to have to wait until November, I have been messed about too much so far, spent so much time on this, and I have had enough and want to know the truth. Either I was mis sold at Leeds or the Customer Service is fobbing me off. My Guarantee says "SUPERCARE DEPARTMENT" on it. On their website, Supercare is the one that gets refunded. I just don't know how many more emails back and forth with their Customer Service this is going to take for them to connect the dots.

I will be escalating it further.

Pete

2021BJ

You can claim the purchase price of your 6 Year Supercare Guarantee back within 30 days of its expiry, provided the unit has not been repaired or serviced under the terms of the Supercare Guarantee agreement, and that the unit has not been returned to Richer Sounds for exchange or refund.

Seems simple enough to me.

Your guarantee has not expired, so you can't claim the cost back.

inunison7

Hey, yeah, but I am gauging from their emails that they are saying I don't have the Refundable version of a guarantee. I think they have a brass neck to say it is not a Supercare if my Guarantee Document says "Supercare Department" on it. I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be writing the titles of different guarantees on people's other guarantees, that's just bizarre :S I have never seen anything like this—it is just so strange to me.

2021BJ

inunison7 said:

Hey, yeah, but I am gauging from their emails that they are saying I don't have the Refundable version of a guarantee. I think they have a brass neck to say it is not a Supercare if my Guarantee Document says "Supercare Department" on it. I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be writing the titles of different guarantees on people's other guarantees, that's just bizarre :S I have never seen anything like this—it is just so strange to me.

Maybe their screen just shows you as not being eligible for a refund as you're not in the refund window?  Maybe they're just trying to put you off claiming (as it's clear that giving a very small refund window at the end of 6 years is designed to benefit them as many will forget to claim until it's too late.)  Maybe you genuinely have a different policy that isn't refundable.

Either way, you don't really have a leg to stand on to complaining right now as you wouldn't be eligible for a refund for another 9 months anyway.  Try again in 9 months, just don't leave it too late.

Edit:  You did mention someone offering you £12.  Well, if you had the other guarantee which offers a pro-rata refund ,£12 is about right with 9 months left on the guarantee.  106/72x9 = 13.25.,  I'm not sure why you'd expect £90 back.

Ibrahim5

I have used Richer Sounds quite a lot over the years and have had warranties and claimed refunds. The warranty refund has always excluded TVs. Not sure about projectors though. I have heard similar reports of people being told they are refundable when sold but when they claim their money back it is refused. I know people have argued but not sure of outcomes. Most people don't have a record of the conversation when they were told it is refundable but they have a copy of the paperwork that excludes TVs. Of course most people don't read the small print until it is pointed out when they try to claim.

Lip_Stick

I have to admit being one of those that was told I would get a refund on a 6yr warranty for a tv, if not used, didn't read the small print when I bought it then was refused the refund. This is going back years though. Annoying as it was, I still like the company.

Jenni_D

inunison7 said:

So I said YES and was charged the ~£106 extra.

On my Certificate of Guarantee it says "SuperCare Department". On the website under the Supercare it says you get the WHOLE amount back if unused/pro rata refund.

I emailed customer service thinking "oh let's cancel the guarantee as I don't use the projector any more, and there is 9 months left so I will get a pro-rata of like £90 or something back so I'll do that now". A lady emails back and says NOPE. Your "type of" guarantee doesn't do ANY kind of pro rata or refund at all.

I escalate it to other people and finally someone says I can get a £12 refund!!! I don't know what they are looking at on their systems it is bizarre.

I explain I have a Supercare Guarantee document and was told when buying it is a fully refundable if not used/pro rata. 

Superfluous stuff removed.
If you have 9 months left of the 6 year warranty then you'd at best be eligible for 9/72 x £106 refund = £13.25.

The pro-rata refund was only related to the warranty cost, NOT the product cost! 🙄

elsien

Regardless of what’s on the website now, what do the terms and conditions you signed up to at the time say? 

Bobby3210

The OP means as he is claiming too early he doesn't expect £106 back but 63/72 of £106, just to explain why he said £90ish

Korkyb

Thanks for reminding me that I bought a Supercare Warranty which I'll have to remember to claim back at the appropriate time (which after checking turns out to be a year away still).

With regards to the op I still have the original email offering the "refundable warranty" which would have been bought around the same time as yours.

I've posted a copy of it below as it says that TV's are excluded but doesn't say anything about projectors.

Hope its useful.

roddydogs

Tvs get a free 6yr free gtee anyway, dont they?