TV faulty out of warranty - what are my rights?

Stu666

43" Toshiba Smart TV purchased back in 2018 from a large-ish online retailer for £300.  One year retailer's warranty stated at time of purchase.  

Recently the TV has developed an annoying blue tint to the entire screen and is noticeably dimmer than it used to be.  The retailer, predictably, shrugged and said, "Sorry, out of warranty, contact Toshiba tech support".  Toshiba went through some basic troubleshooting and performed a factory reset - no joy.  They advised there was nothing further they could do.  Retailer still maintaining not their problem, get it repaired yourself etc.

I am aware of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and while I appreciate it is not literally a six-year warranty like some would have you believe, I understand there is some provision that goods must be of a satisfactory quality and last a reasonable length of time.  My question is, what is a reasonable length of time, and could these provisions help me despite being well out of warranty, but still less than six years in?

To further complicate matters, perhaps in my favour, Google unveils a whole plethora of identical cases of similar TVs of that year and beyond suffering the blue tint.  It would seem the root cause is a batch of substandard LED strips used during manufacturing by Vestel, who are incidentally the manufacturer of my Toshiba TV.  These LED strips are prone to premature failure, allegedly due to cheap components being used during manufacturer, to cut costs.  When they start to pack up, you get the blue tint, followed by them giving up the ghost completely. I am hoping this will work in my favour should I go down the small claims court route - but would appreciate any advice on how to approach this, many thanks.

Manxman_in_exile

After 6 months - to pursue any remedy against the retailer under CRA 2015 - you will need to prove that the blue tinge is due to a fault that was "inherent" when you bought the TV.  If you can establish that substandard parts were used in the manufacture, that might work for you, but you probably need some kind of independent technical report saying so.  I'm not sure that evidence from Googling counts for very much.

Go back to the retailer.

Even if you convince the retailer, they will be entitled to reduce any refund to reflect the 3 years use you have had of it.  They might offer 50%?

Sandtree

Stu666 said:
My question is, what is a reasonable length of time, and could these provisions help me despite being well out of warranty, but still less than six years in?

In the first instance this is for a TV engineer to pass their expert judgement on and ultimately for a Judge to decide were it to get to court (though a 3 year old £300 TV is likely to get a partial refund of £150 or less and so wont get to court)

Normal route, if Tosh dont want to come out, is to commission a report to identify the problem, state the cause of the problem and estimated repair cost (or that its a write off). Send that to the merchant (assuming it supports your case) adding the cost of the report to your claim. If they dont respond then Letter Before Action and then MCOL

lincroft1710

Any consumer rights you have are with the retailer. If there is found to be an inherent fault (and you would need to obtain a written report from a qualified TV technician that the fault was inherent, you pay for the report, if fault is inherent then retailer should refund the cost) then the retailer has the choice to refund, repair or replace. 

Obviously they will go for the cheapest option which would be refund as it can take account of usage. So if the TV has a life expectancy of say 4 years, you won't get much money back as the value of a TV with less than 12 months life left is not very much.

Ergates

If you're going to need to speak to a TV engineer to get a report anyway, then it would be worth asking them if it's possible to repair it and how much it would cost.

Stu666

Thanks all.  I should make it clear that I am not expecting a full refund or replacement, as I've clearly had some good use out of the TV.  However, I would personally expect a new TV to last a good deal more than 3 years.   

lincroft1710 said:

Obviously they will go for the cheapest option which would be refund as it can take account of usage. So if the TV has a life expectancy of say 4 years, you won't get much money back as the value of a TV with less than 12 months life left is not very much.

This is the bit I am struggling to get my head around - how does one know what a reasonable or typical life expectancy of a TV is?  It would be easy to work out what a fair partial refund would be if I knew the answer to this.

DB1904

Stu666 said:

Thanks all.  I should make it clear that I am not expecting a full refund or replacement, as I've clearly had some good use out of the TV.  However, I would personally expect a new TV to last a good deal more than 3 years.   

lincroft1710 said:

Obviously they will go for the cheapest option which would be refund as it can take account of usage. So if the TV has a life expectancy of say 4 years, you won't get much money back as the value of a TV with less than 12 months life left is not very much.

This is the bit I am struggling to get my head around - how does one know what a reasonable or typical life expectancy of a TV is?  It would be easy to work out what a fair partial refund would be if I knew the answer to this.

£300 for a 43" tv is at the lower end of the market so it's not going to be long used every day. 

Al_Ross

lincroft1710 said:

So if the TV has a life expectancy of say 4 years

No one has ever claimed a tv should only last 4 years.What manufactures used to state was that  after 7 years of average usage the screen may start to show signs that it was going by giving s duller picture.

There are many lcd tv's, including mine over 7 years old and the pictures are as good as the first time they were first switched on.

But if asked for an average years life of a tv,I say 7 years.

Sandtree

Stu666 said:
This is the bit I am struggling to get my head around - how does one know what a reasonable or typical life expectancy of a TV is?  It would be easy to work out what a fair partial refund would be if I knew the answer to this.

Its not for you to know, its for the independent engineer that does the report on your TV to consider factoring in its price point etc

mobileron

Ensure when you purchase the replacement, u get from either Richersounds or John Lewis for the free 6 year warranty.

Yes its FREE

Grumpy_chap

Unfortunately for the OP, for as many people that say a TV should have a life expectancy of 7 years (or whatever), I suspect there are people that would consider a budget TV as a "disposable" purchase.  This 43" TV 3 years ago at £300 must have been at the budget end of the products available.  The cheapest 43" TV listed on the Curry's website today is £250. 

Whatever the depreciated residual for remaining life expectancy would be for this TV, given the OP has approached both the supplier and the manufacturer and not received a "goodwill" payment, I suspect this is one of those times to shrug and move on rather than expending any further energy towards a resolution.

Hope the OP's next TV lasts better.