LG tv damaged at the repair centre or by delivery company - what are my rights?

carina_an_b

Hi all,

New to MSE so apologies if I'm doing any of this wrong. I bought a 55 inch LG OLED TV from John Lewis in January 2020. Stupidly I didn't purchase the accidental damage cover, because in a freak accident of something falling off a shelf, the screen was damaged in Jan 2021. I knew that I would have to pay for the screen to be replaced and took the financial hit because a new tv with the same spec would have been a few more hundred pounds. Due to Covid, LG weren't able to organise a repair until November 2021. They took the TV away, presumably repaired it, and brought it back by the end of Nov 2021. We had been using another TV and didn't unbox the repaired TV immediately because we wanted to get a wall bracket to wall-mount it, and due to Christmas etc didn't do anything about it. (If I'm honest, we were also a little nervous about going anywhere near it because of the sensitive screen!)

Anyway, we decided that we weren't going to get the wall bracket any time soon, and we had to give my sister back her TV, so we finally unboxed it yesterday and...the screen is cracked (in a different place to where the original damage was)

We have not moved or touched this TV since it was delivered to us! The crack was underneath the screen-protecting plastic. There is no way we did anything that could have caused that crack - we are certain of that.

LG wants to charge me for this repair because I didn't say anything within 5 days. They didn't tell me that rule - if they had, I would of course have checked the TV within 5 days!

I should note that it was not packaged very well - it had one layer of bubble wrap, one layer of that very thin plastic/polystyrene coating, and a small block of polystyrene roughly taped into the middle. I would have expected there to be polystyrene on each corner to stabilise the TV within the box, but there was none. It seems possible that it was damaged by the couriers while delivering.

What are my rights in this situation? I really don't want to have to pay another £999 for something which was definitely not my fault, just because I unboxed it late, not being aware of this 5 day rule. 

Thank you for any advice. LG couldn't find a manager for me to talk to so they are calling me back and I would love to be prepared.

Carina

TELLIT01

You are going to have great difficulty proving to either the carrier or LG that the damage has not happened since it was returned.  Whether or not you were aware of a 5 day time limit for reporting damage on return, not checking for 2 months is excessive.

You may be certain that you have done nothing to cause the new damage, but proving it is going to be close to impossible.

Aylesbury_Duck

You have a right to argue your case, but no obligation to a free repair.  Remain calm and polite and see where the conversation leads, but if LG stand firm, you are going to have to decide whether to have it fixed or write it off.

bris

It a bit of a story to believe tbh.

You had a TV repaired and didn't even check it was fixed? Instaead you left it for 2 months, do you really expect anyone to believe that. 

Now I am not saying it.s not true, just playing devils advocate on a very hard to believe story.

Alderbank

In my opinion the safest place for a large flat screen tv set is on a stand or wall mount in full view, so people will see it and give it a wide berth.
If this was just stood in its narrow box on the floor for two months including the Christmas and New Year period it is possible that a visitor might have innocently bumped into it or even knocked it over.

carina_an_b

Hi, to reply to Alderbank first - it was in a spare room that wasn't used so not possible anyone bumped it or knocked it over. We were also away for three weeks over Christmas and New Year, and the TV was returned on 30th Nov/1st Dec.

I appreciate that it may seem hard to believe but if the TV was repaired why would I feel the need to check it? We were redoing the living room, so didn't want to take it out of the box until we were ready to put it on the wall exactly because of how sensitive the screen is. I can't believe that that's not what some people do while planning to redo their living room.

We took a video of us peeling the screen film off to check if the crack was just on the film so it's clear we hadn't been using the TV prior to that moment.

Grumpy_chap

Is this thread a different case to this one earlier today?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6331235/lg-electronics-damaged-my-tv#latest

Alderbank

It sounds like the same delivery guys!

Manxman_in_exile

carina_an_b said:

...I appreciate that it may seem hard to believe but if the TV was repaired why would I feel the need to check it? ...

Erm...  can you perhaps see now why it might have been a good idea to check it when it was returned to you?

diinozzo

carina_an_b said:

I appreciate that it may seem hard to believe but if the TV was repaired why would I feel the need to check it? 

....because it's always a good idea to check that what you have paid for has remedied the damage? Goods can be checked and put back in their boxes until they are needed. There's countless threads on here about people not checking goods on receipt or soon after and then finding a problem.