Faulty Hot Tub - Outside Warranty

dh058977

Hi All, 

We have a hot tub that we purchased from a local company in Jan 2019 which meant that the 2 year warranty was up in Jan 2021. 

Last week the tub developed a fault (No power, nothing on the screen etc) and we had to pay for a service visit to diagnose the issue. The call out was £115 and the guy who turned up checked if there was power and then replaced the board which resolved the issue - This ended up costing me £515 total. 

My issues are as follows - 
- I wouldn't reasonably expect the part to fail after 3 years, I would expect a hot tub to last 5 - 20 years and Google says roughly the same.
- I wasn't informed that the call out charge would cover subsequent visits so I felt pressured into making a decision there and then to avoid a further £115.
- I wasn't actually given the option to reject the replacement - It was replaced and then a bill was stuffed under my nose along with a call to pay over the phone. 
- Research shows that the part they charged me £400 for is for sale online for just under £200 and is plug and play (The guy said 'you could do this yourself')

Realistically, other than a complaint to the company in question do I have any other options?

Thanks,  

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Who did you contact, the shop you purchased from or someone else?

jon81uk

If you were told that it was manufacturing fault  to that circuit board then you can go after the original seller under your consumer rights if you have soething in writing stating the fault would have been there or caused by soething present at manufacturer.

As to the other questions it would have been up to you to study the terms of the call out and the charges when they happened.

tacpot12

I agree that you should have been offered the option of having the repair for £400 or sourcing your own replacement board (given that it is user-replacable - it's not like you doing the work was going to invalidate the warranty!)

I think you should complain about this. If it were me, I would ask them to pay me £100, as I should have had the option to source my own board, but their operative had opened the box and put a new one in before I could stop them. At least this way you have a warranty on the new part (probably for 12 months and no longer.)

You could argue that the product wasn't of sufficient quality as it didn't last for 5 years. A judge might award you 2/5ths of the cost of the tub if you went to court and were successful in arguing that any hot tub should last a minimum of 5 years, but as it could be repaired for a relatively low cost, I think the judge would limit any award to the cost of the repair you paid for, so £515.  But goingt o court is risky, you could end up losing or only winning a very small amount after your costs.  

Alderbank

The hot tub hasn’t failed! It is still going strong and probably will for another ten years.

 One ancillary, albeit critical, component failed but all was back to normal as soon as that was replaced.

 The engineer was a bit pushy but actually you could have refused. ‘How much? Take it back out – I’ll buy my own’. He might have dropped the price there and then, he might have phoned his boss, he might have rubbished the one from Amazon but none of that matters because the Consumer Rights Act allows you a cooling off period of 14 days, precisely because you feel pressured when cornered in your own home.

 IANAL but my opinion is that you paid separately for call out and diagnosis of the fault and you are entitled to reject the subsequent sale. You would have to take that PCB out and return it but the smart response of the company when you say you are rejecting would be to drop the price to £200 as a gesture of goodwill.

The contract might say you agree to pay for all recommended parts but I think that would infringe your statutory rights