Lidl colour changing kettle - Bought at discount but refused replacement at same price

christophercharles

screech_78 said:

If you wanted to exercise your rights with the warranty, you would have to have contacted Salter. Lidl aren’t responsible for the warranty, however you do have consumer rights against them. 

As others posters have mentioned, getting a full refund of what you paid is over and above what you’re actually entitled to. 

The warranty T&C's said for the first 12 months the warranty is with the retailer.

 I didn't want a refund, neither am i arguing for a full price refund. I wanted a replacement. 

christophercharles

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm sorry if my post wasn't clear about what I wanted but I'm happy to say this now has a positive conclusion.

I went back to the store today and after some deep breathing relaxation and self confidence pep talk in the car (lol) I went and argued my case again. It turns out the store manager today (who was different to the one yesterday) agreed with me and said it wrong not to let me have the replacement as it was indeed the closest replacement and at equal price and that the voucher does carry over. I think she also confirmed this by speaking to someone higher up in the organization as she went into the back office for a while and then came back with the answer. 

I was told however if I ever wanted a refund for this item or any voucher item, it would only be at the discounted £14.99 which of course was fine by me. 

She also asked me if I knew the name of the manager who refused my exchange, hopefully there will be some consistency in the future. She was very polite and helpful and listened to me patiently. Full credit to her for doing such a stellar job.

Its a shame that I feel I have to avoid the other manager in future though. I'll also probably think twice about guarantees in future as well, given the replies here really shocked me as to what I thought I was entitled to. I'm glad this happened before black Friday.  

mattyprice4004

A good outcome in the end! 
I would have a good read through your rights so you're equipped for next time - while they did everything they needed to by law in the first place, I'm glad their customer service went a step above. 

MarvinDay

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Normally I'd agree, but from what OP posted about the warranty terms, it appears that Lidl are responsible for fulfilling the warranty obligations in the first 12 months.  That would mean that they should have offered OP the similar kettle.  It's moot now, because OP accepted the refund, but there's no harm in them writing to Lidl to ask for the remainder of their refund, as the warranty terms seem to oblige them to provide, even if in voucher form.

IMO, it would all boil (no pun intended) down to what their definition of similar is.
As the replacement kettle the OP wanted was a different shape to their original one and the lid wasn't hinged like the original, Lidl & Salter could argue that it was too different to be classed as similar.

Aylesbury_Duck

MarvinDay said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Normally I'd agree, but from what OP posted about the warranty terms, it appears that Lidl are responsible for fulfilling the warranty obligations in the first 12 months.  That would mean that they should have offered OP the similar kettle.  It's moot now, because OP accepted the refund, but there's no harm in them writing to Lidl to ask for the remainder of their refund, as the warranty terms seem to oblige them to provide, even if in voucher form.

IMO, it would all boil (no pun intended) down to what their definition of similar is.
As the replacement kettle the OP wanted was a different shape to their original one and the lid wasn't hinged like the original, Lidl & Salter could argue that it was too different to be classed as similar.

A fair point.  Elements of it were different. 

diinozzo

I think the positive outcome hinged on speaking to a different manager.

screech_78

Aylesbury_Duck said:

screech_78 said:

If you wanted to exercise your rights with the warranty, you would have to have contacted Salter. Lidl aren’t responsible for the warranty, however you do have consumer rights against them. 

As others posters have mentioned, getting a full refund of what you paid is over and above what you’re actually entitled to. 

I would normally have agreed, but OP says that the warranty terms include this:

"All products come with a standard 12 month warranty, which lies with the retailer that the product was purchased from."

Which suggests that Lidl are responsible for fulfilling the warranty obligations in the first year, on behalf of Salter.

Apologies, I did miss this. 

christophercharles

MarvinDay said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Normally I'd agree, but from what OP posted about the warranty terms, it appears that Lidl are responsible for fulfilling the warranty obligations in the first 12 months.  That would mean that they should have offered OP the similar kettle.  It's moot now, because OP accepted the refund, but there's no harm in them writing to Lidl to ask for the remainder of their refund, as the warranty terms seem to oblige them to provide, even if in voucher form.

IMO, it would all boil (no pun intended) down to what their definition of similar is.
As the replacement kettle the OP wanted was a different shape to their original one and the lid wasn't hinged like the original, Lidl & Salter could argue that it was too different to be classed as similar.

diinozzo said:

I think the positive outcome hinged on speaking to a different manager.

I think with it being a different manager, thats probably true, as is what "similar" is defined as which can be down to the personal opinion. This is why I posted here, i thought if i could get a confident "you were right" or "no you're wrong" from others I would know what to do and also feel better that I would know what was a just and fair outcome, whatever the consensus was.

Makes it a bit of a hollow victory and if this new kettle breaks I dont think id have the courage to risk the same experience. Not a nice feeling to think everytime i buy something, i have to think how easy its going to be to return it if it goes wrong. Was hoping for an air fryer and new iron and some other small things over black friday, but now ill probably skip over a lot of it. Which is a shame andI know in the end, its me that loses out because of it. Not the big shops. 

macman

What you are entitled to in any particular situation will very according to each retailer's warranty. There is no standard warranty and no legal minimum. If you are looking for a consistent entitlement then you need to claim via your statutory rights under CRA 2015, which can be more onerous than going via the retailer's warranty.