TV purchased from Crampton & Moore - warranty queries.

Angelina4

Hi all

I purchased a tv through Crampton & Moore back in 2018 with an additional free 5 year warranty. The tv has always had problems with the wifi being useless and ive normally used something different to stream content with instead like a firestick etc. I recently upgraded my sound bar to a Dolby Atmos one and the tv I chose had support for Atmos, where the other content streaming sticks i have, don’t, so it’s become more of a problem as I use the TV apps more. Crampton and Moore were really quick to help and forwarded my problem to the company that handle their warranties - Domestic & General.

They have sent out engineers twice, but the first time they bought the wrong wifi card and the motherboard (which they told me they had to replace at the same time) was dead when they guy installed it and wouldn’t work. They sent out another engineer with the new wifi card but he forgot a new motherboard. The new card has actually made the wifi connection worse and I don’t know if that’s down to not replacing the motherboard that they said they had to do first? Or just because of the card? The engineer left and today I’ve had a call saying that D&G have decided not to repair and to replace it instead. I’m a bit annoyed with the repair company as well because they’ve obviously used up all the funds that D&G will give for repairs faffing about and not ordering the right products in the first place which has made D&G recall it.

They want the repair company to collect my tv first and then they will issue a link with options to choose a like for like.

I’ve read a previous thread on manufacturers possibly being different when TVs are replaced, (which im not looking forward to in case they offer a Samsung and I specifically didn’t purchase a Samsung because the one I had died after 1.5 years but there’s no point worrying about that at the moment because it might not be an issue) – but my query is slightly different to that one.

I’m wondering, if I choose a tv through their replacement service, will I still get an extended warranty or will the rest of my free 5 year warranty still be in place? In the T&Cs of D&G it says there’s only a 1 year warranty but that is (I think) for extended warranties purchased through D&G rather than a free one offered through Crampton & Moore? Or maybe it’s the same?

But the reason I purchased the tv from C&M in the first place was because of my previous bad luck with expensive TVs. What if something goes wrong just after a year and the £1300 I spent on a TV is lost again?

I could just refuse to let them collect the tv and live with the faulty wifi card – but I wonder if that will invalidate my warranty somehow as the TV is now listed as faulty? And I might be cutting off my nose to spite my face as we may get a new TV that will last longer than the original 5 year warranty anyway.

I can’t see any options that they will offer until they’ve taken the TV away and I wont be entitled to get the tv back once I let it go, I’m so worried I’ll make the wrong decision.

Does anyone have any experience with replacement TVs through D&G?

Cheers

[Deleted User]

The warranty will continue to run.

Go for the new TV.

Manxman_in_exile

I would expect all your questions (eg will the balance of your current free warranty transfer over to the replacement TV or will you just have a new warranty for a year) to be answered in the T&Cs of the existing warranty.  Have you read them?  (But having said that, your current warranty expires next year anyway, doesn't it?)

If the current warranty offers a "like for like" replacement, then it might not be the same make as your current TV and it might well be a Samsung...  (Does the warranty say "same make"?)

Angelina4

Manxman_in_exile said:

I would expect all your questions (eg will the balance of your current free warranty transfer over to the replacement TV or will you just have a new warranty for a year) to be answered in the T&Cs of the existing warranty.  Have you read them?  (But having said that, your current warranty expires next year anyway, doesn't it?)

If the current warranty offers a "like for like" replacement, then it might not be the same make as your current TV and it might well be a Samsung...  (Does the warranty say "same make"?)

I'm having trouble locating the actual T&Cs - because the warranty was originally through Crampton & Moore, the documentation they sent me didnt really include much. I contacted them over the phone and they they transferred me through to D&G and everything was done over the phone so i havent had anything sent through about the T&Cs - i've looked on the D&G website, but I can only find information for people who have purchased an extended warranty through D & G rather than them handling a claim for Crampton & Moore. However looking on their website it does say it may be a different manufacturer - if that's the case then will approach that when it comes to it. im hopeful that it wont be a Samsung because it does say like for like and Samsung only offer QLED on their older models rather than OLED which mine was, but as long as there's some kind of warranty it may be ok anyway. I previously bought a Samsung that cost £2k and within 1.5 years there were loads of problems with the pixels on the screen and it had huge purple/blue spots.

Sorry 2018 was a typo - it was Sept 2019, so still a fair bit to go  

Sandtree

Arrangements with D&G vary by the route that the warranty was provided by... with their own direct customers they will simply provide you with a link to an alternative form of AO.com with a budget and some recommended models, you can choose a higher model and pay the difference. Obviously some companies dont want you to be able to switch brands (if its a manufacturer supplied warranty) or buy from a competitor (if its a retailer supplied warranty) and so options can be more limited or take a totally different path.

If you bought in 2018 then its somewhere close to its 4th year of the warranty already and so even with the standard 1 year manufacturers warranty the difference is going to be a matter of months. If the existing warranty continues on the replacement set depends on the exact terms of the warranty.

We have had both LG and Samsung TVs and always found that streaming apps work much better via external devices (in our case an AppleTV) but never gotten to the bottom of why... plus depending on how you connect the TV to the soundbar you may be limited to DD+ for Atmos as ARC and optical do not support DD TruHD whereas external devices do (eARC does though) 

Manxman_in_exile

Well if I were you I'd make sure I stood my ground on what "like for like" means ( and if Samsung don't provide a "like for like" say you don't want it if they offer one) and also on insisting that the balance of the existing warranty is carried over to the replacement TV.

But if you don't know what the existing warranty actually covers, you aren't in a particularly strong position to negotiate or insist on what you would prefer as opposed to what the warranty entitles you to...

Angelina4

Sandtree said:

Arrangements with D&G vary by the route that the warranty was provided by... with their own direct customers they will simply provide you with a link to an alternative form of AO.com with a budget and some recommended models, you can choose a higher model and pay the difference. Obviously some companies dont want you to be able to switch brands (if its a manufacturer supplied warranty) or buy from a competitor (if its a retailer supplied warranty) and so options can be more limited or take a totally different path.

If you bought in 2018 then its somewhere close to its 4th year of the warranty already and so even with the standard 1 year manufacturers warranty the difference is going to be a matter of months. If the existing warranty continues on the replacement set depends on the exact terms of the warranty.

We have had both LG and Samsung TVs and always found that streaming apps work much better via external devices (in our case an AppleTV) but never gotten to the bottom of why... plus depending on how you connect the TV to the soundbar you may be limited to DD+ for Atmos as ARC and optical do not support DD TruHD whereas external devices do (eARC does though) 

Hiya 
Yeah sorry 2018 was a typo - i'm a new member so i cant seem to edit my original post. It was Sept 2019. 

My current TV has eARC, so that's how the sound bar is connected. I'm actually really happy with the LG menu and apps - they're excellent and i've never had any problems. I never felt the need to purchase a better firestick for some of the other content that we watch because it's all available on the TV and the firestick was just a cheap way to get around the wifi problem. 
If i'm able to choose a tv through Crampton & Moore again, then that would be great, as I assume the warranty would still continue and also, they've been great. I just worry if i get palmed off onto Currys or AO. Currys were who i had problems with previously.  I'll call C&M and see what they say about it. Thanks  

I appreciate that the extra 2 years (or 1 after a manufacturer warranty) doesnt sound like much - but I really dont have the best luck and will take anything I can get. As it stands, my first tv was faulty within 1.5 years and the second within 2 years (although tbh, its brilliant and i still love it - except for the wifi card problem and i kind of wish i hadn't bothered saying anything to them in the first place and just dealt with it - but it's a bit late now) haha! I was so careful to make sure I got a 5 year warranty this time and paid on CC just in case after the last time, but now I realise that i wasn't careful enough. I did try to buy from Richer Sounds originally, but they didnt stock the model that i wanted


Thanks for your help!

Angelina4

Following Sandtree's advice - i've managed to get C&M to send me out a copy of the T&Cs with D&G. 
Alas, the odds are not in my favour and it seems the warranty will end as soon as I accept the replacement. properly gutted. i assume should anything go wrong outside of the manufacturer warranty, then i also wont be covered by sec 75 anymore as the product is different to the one I purchased.
Im wondering now if i'm better off keeping my tv and letting the warranty run - if it will still cover it - i cant find anything about that on the T&Cs ... but it doesnt mean they wont later dig it out from some dark corner. 

Thanks for your help all. 

liggerz87

Sorry not much help but maybe you could use way back machine to check the t and c maybe also you could speak to your credit card and see what they say

Sandtree

Angelina4 said:

Following Sandtree's advice - i've managed to get C&M to send me out a copy of the T&Cs with D&G. 
Alas, the odds are not in my favour and it seems the warranty will end as soon as I accept the replacement. properly gutted. i assume should anything go wrong outside of the manufacturer warranty, then i also wont be covered by sec 75 anymore as the product is different to the one I purchased.
Im wondering now if i'm better off keeping my tv and letting the warranty run - if it will still cover it - i cant find anything about that on the T&Cs ... but it doesnt mean they wont later dig it out from some dark corner. 

Thanks for your help all. 

S75 simply replicates your rights against the retailer to your credit provider, it doesnt give any additional rights.

So, if you can make a claim against C&M in relation to the new TV based on your original contract of sale then you most likely could make that same claim against the card issuer... S75 does add another layer of complexity around the D-C-S chain and the addition of D&G in the provision of the replacement could muddy the water further.

Personally, I think it would be a very significant up hill struggle to prove any liability on C&M and therefore slight more of a struggle under S75. The warranty terms are clear that it doesnt continue onto the new device but its the warranty provider not C&M replacing it so arguing under consumer rights will be hard.

Also remember that if you could argue under consumer rights (inc S75) the refund would be less useage and so given you are worried about post manufacturer warranty expiry then that would be at least a 3.5 year old from the original purchase at which point you are looking at a fairly modest percentage refund... as per a post by someone else here, at 4 years old its somewhere between 20%-40% of oriinal price

Angelina4

Sandtree said:

Angelina4 said:

Following Sandtree's advice - i've managed to get C&M to send me out a copy of the T&Cs with D&G. 
Alas, the odds are not in my favour and it seems the warranty will end as soon as I accept the replacement. properly gutted. i assume should anything go wrong outside of the manufacturer warranty, then i also wont be covered by sec 75 anymore as the product is different to the one I purchased.
Im wondering now if i'm better off keeping my tv and letting the warranty run - if it will still cover it - i cant find anything about that on the T&Cs ... but it doesnt mean they wont later dig it out from some dark corner. 

Thanks for your help all. 

S75 simply replicates your rights against the retailer to your credit provider, it doesnt give any additional rights.

So, if you can make a claim against C&M in relation to the new TV based on your original contract of sale then you most likely could make that same claim against the card issuer... S75 does add another layer of complexity around the D-C-S chain and the addition of D&G in the provision of the replacement could muddy the water further.

Personally, I think it would be a very significant up hill struggle to prove any liability on C&M and therefore slight more of a struggle under S75. The warranty terms are clear that it doesnt continue onto the new device but its the warranty provider not C&M replacing it so arguing under consumer rights will be hard.

Also remember that if you could argue under consumer rights (inc S75) the refund would be less useage and so given you are worried about post manufacturer warranty expiry then that would be at least a 3.5 year old from the original purchase at which point you are looking at a fairly modest percentage refund... as per a post by someone else here, at 4 years old its somewhere between 20%-40% of oriinal price

Thanks for taking the time to explain this! Makes perfect sense! Much appreciated.

I think it's just a case of waiting to see what happens after they've collected my TV. I definitely can't keep my current TV and it's warranty now that it's been written off according to the person I spoke to.

I'll def come back and update the thread in case anyone is searching for a similar thing later. 

Thanks for all of your help everyone. I really appreciate it.