Can claim a refund on a faulty briefcase

mawallace

I bought a briefcase last November and have used it since then.

Yesterday the catch broke - it snapped in two. I am careful not to put too much pressure on it.

 I bought it via Amazon and asked for a replacement or refund. The retailer said that they no longer sell the briefcase, and it's past it's 30 days replacement period - so they can't replace it. They have offered me a 10% of the purchase price, as a goodwill gesture, to be used as a credit against anything that I might buy.

Questions

1 - is it unreasonable to want a refund?
2 - can they insist on not paying cash - not a discount? 

Aylesbury_Duck

mawallace said:

I bought a briefcase last November and have used it since then.

Yesterday the catch broke - it snapped in two. I am careful not to put too much pressure on it.

 I bought it via Amazon and asked for a replacement or refund. The retailer said that they no longer sell the briefcase, and it's past it's 30 days replacement period - so they can't replace it. They have offered me a 10% of the purchase price, as a goodwill gesture, to be used as a credit against anything that I might buy.

Questions

1 - is it unreasonable to want a refund?
2 - can they insist on not paying cash - not a discount? 

The precise date of purchase is important here.  More or less than six months ago?

Murphybear

Was it Amazon or Amazon Marketplace? I dont use the latter very much but use Amazon a lot.  I bought a small electrical item for about £30 and a week before the 1 year guarantee was up it stopped working.  I contacted their customer services and explained what happened.  I got an immediate apology and a replacement and they didn’t want the original one back.  This happened again and they sent me another replacement.  When it happened a third time my husband said he thought it was a design fault, he used to work in the industry.  

With the help of Amazon I sent it to the manufacturer, fortunately in England not China.   . They fixed the fault and said I had been using it “incorrectly”.  This made us laugh, I emailed them and said I had learned to read when I was 4 and was fairly competent at electrical items as I had used many of them while doing my Physics degree.

They never responded.  Amazon decided to reimburse me the original amount and I bought a similar item from them but a different manufacturer.  This was 5 years ago and its still working perfectly.

if I could give Amazon 10* out of 5 for customer service I would have done 

mawallace

Aylesbury_Duck said:

The precise date of purchase is important here.  More or less than six months ago?

It was ordered on 5th November 2021. I reported the fault to them on 10 May 2022

Aylesbury_Duck

mawallace said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

The precise date of purchase is important here.  More or less than six months ago?

It was ordered on 5th November 2021. I reported the fault to them on 10 May 2022

That's a shame, because now six months has elapsed, the onus is on you to prove the fault was inherent or inevitable.  The retailer is within their rights to ask you to do so, which normally would involve you having it inspected by someone.  If that report showed the fault to be inherent or inevitable (rather than a result of wear and tear, or misuse) then the retailer has the choice to repair, replace or refund, taking into account the six months' use you've already had.

So to return to your original post, I'd weigh up the hassle of doing that against what they've offered, and see which you think is the best option.

Edited to add:  it was ordered over six months ago, but did it arrive less than six months ago?

Olinda99

Also was it a £30 briefcase or  £300 briefcase ?

mawallace

£50 briefcase