B & Q Taps fail after 2 years

outragouslylongusername

Having recently completed renovating my house, I have bought 5 new taps during the last 24 months. 4 of these taps were purchased from B & Q Stafford on a Trade Point  account. When the first tap began to fail, I looked at B & Q’s website and the reviews on their own taps. Upon reading the reviews on the taps that have been sold by B & Q over a number of years, it seems clear to me that B & Q taps fail after about 2 years. 

Finally our en-suite basin tap which had become stiffer and stiffer broke completely, just short of the two year prediction. Being extremely wary about replacing it with a B & Q tap I bought a replacement tap from Screwfix. The replacement tap was only £40 yet seems far superior to the £80 B & Q tap. 

The B & Q tap has a 10 year warranty so I took it back to B & Q. The young lady who was serving at the TradePoint counter said that she could not refund the £80, that I had to accept a replacement tap. I told her there was no way that I would accept a tap which would cause me have to go through this replacement nuisance again in another two years. I offered to accept a credit note but I will never again fit a B & Q tap in my house. Even though the tap in question is now a discontinued line, I was told that I had to accept a replacement tap or nothing.  I refused to accept what I was being told. She asked would I like her to get the manager and said yes. The manger was called and it was obvious from the moment that he appeared from around the corner that he had come to lock horns. This man was more interested in his own ego than in customer relations. I asked him if he had read the tap reviews on their own website. He told me he had. I asked him why he thought I would be happy with a replacement tap that I would be bringing back in another 2 years. He said that it was company policy to only replace taps with taps. I was irate! I told him to immediately close my TradePoint account, I left my tap on the TradePoint counter and walked away. The assistant asked if I wanted my tap. I said, what for? My wife went back to B & Q the next day to retrieve the tap. 

Surely if that tap is discontinued, B & Q must be obliged to give a credit note at the very least? I have 3 more of these unreliable taps in my house, it seems highly likely that I will be having the same problems with these too. 

Since I now have the faulty tap back in my possession, can anyone please advise me of the best way to proceed?

Bradden

I may be worng but my understanding is that Tradepoint is a B2B transaction and therefore you do not have consumer rights protection. 

elsien

You can’t expect to have a full £80 refund for a tap you have already had two years use out of, that’s just not realistic. 

if you are claiming under the warranty rather than under the consumer rights act then you need to be clear on what the warranty actually covers. So what specifically does it say? 

elsien

ETA if it’s one of their good home ones, the t&c state the following:

“If a product covered by a GoodHome Kitchen Product Guarantee is proven to be defective, we will repair or replace the affected part within a reasonable time. We reserve the right to instruct a third party to inspect the product to determine the cause of any alleged defect as part of the claims process. Where the product is no longer available, a replacement product of the same or similar specification may be provided at our discretion. These are the only remedies available under GoodHome Kitchen Product Guarantees.”

No mention of a credit note anywhere. 

Aylesbury_Duck

outragouslylongusername said:

Having recently completed renovating my house, I have bought 5 new taps during the last 24 months. 4 of these taps were purchased from B & Q Stafford on a Trade Point  account. When the first tap began to fail, I looked at B & Q’s website and the reviews on their own taps. Upon reading the reviews on the taps that have been sold by B & Q over a number of years, it seems clear to me that B & Q taps fail after about 2 years. 

Finally our en-suite basin tap which had become stiffer and stiffer broke completely, just short of the two year prediction. Being extremely wary about replacing it with a B & Q tap I bought a replacement tap from Screwfix. The replacement tap was only £40 yet seems far superior to the £80 B & Q tap. 

The B & Q tap has a 10 year warranty so I took it back to B & Q. The young lady who was serving at the TradePoint counter said that she could not refund the £80, that I had to accept a replacement tap. I told her there was no way that I would accept a tap which would cause me have to go through this replacement nuisance again in another two years. I offered to accept a credit note but I will never again fit a B & Q tap in my house. Even though the tap in question is now a discontinued line, I was told that I had to accept a replacement tap or nothing.  I refused to accept what I was being told. She asked would I like her to get the manager and said yes. The manger was called and it was obvious from the moment that he appeared from around the corner that he had come to lock horns. This man was more interested in his own ego than in customer relations. I asked him if he had read the tap reviews on their own website. He told me he had. I asked him why he thought I would be happy with a replacement tap that I would be bringing back in another 2 years. He said that it was company policy to only replace taps with taps. I was irate! I told him to immediately close my TradePoint account, I left my tap on the TradePoint counter and walked away. The assistant asked if I wanted my tap. I said, what for? My wife went back to B & Q the next day to retrieve the tap. 

Surely if that tap is discontinued, B & Q must be obliged to give a credit note at the very least? I have 3 more of these unreliable taps in my house, it seems highly likely that I will be having the same problems with these too. 

Since I now have the faulty tap back in my possession, can anyone please advise me of the best way to proceed?

Dear oh dear...

1. If you buy on a trade account, you probably don't have consumer rights legislation protection.
2. That leaves the warranty, the terms of which are what you need to read up on.  If the warranty provides for replacements, not refunds or credit notes, then B&Q have done nothing wrong.  Getting irate, demanding to see managers and having a tantrum without understanding your exact position wasn't a good idea.  It appears you might be in the wrong.
3. The best way to proceed?  Ask you wife to go back with your tap and ask to exercise the warranty.  Then sell the replacement for whatever you can get for it.

lincroft1710

Replacing a 2 yr old faulty tap with a brand new one is a better deal than you would have had with Consumer Rights (had you been eligible) 


You may find you will have to replace the Screwfix taps in 2 yrs time.

Aylesbury_Duck

lincroft1710 said:

Replacing a 2 yr old faulty tap with a brand new one is a better deal than you would have had with Consumer Rights (had you been eligible) 


You may find you will have to replace the Screwfix taps in 2 yrs time.

I think Screwfix and B&Q are part of the same business.  Lots of products are common to both retailers.  I've bought electrical components from Screwfix that were much cheaper than the exact same products at B&Q.

cymruchris

As above - take the tap - sell it as 'new unused' on facebook marketplace or similar.

Even under consumer law you'd not be entitled to a full refund or credit note after two years, unless you could prove the fault was there from the start (and if it was - why would you have waited 2 years to take it back). As much as it's not nice having to take stuff back, throwing toys out of the pram and storming off probably isn't the best way to handle it, especially as the terms of the warranty appear to be easily accessible outlining what they'll do in the event of an item failure. 

With this potentially being a B2B transaction - (Even though you're likely not a business) - it's a good offer after 2 years use.

If a retailer under regular consumer law were to offer a refund or credit note, then they could adjust the amount accordingly for the use you've actually had out of it - so at 2 years, you might have gotten 20-30 percent back if they did offer that option. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Aylesbury_Duck said:

outragouslylongusername said:

Having recently completed renovating my house, I have bought 5 new taps during the last 24 months. 4 of these taps were purchased from B & Q Stafford on a Trade Point  account. When the first tap began to fail, I looked at B & Q’s website and the reviews on their own taps. Upon reading the reviews on the taps that have been sold by B & Q over a number of years, it seems clear to me that B & Q taps fail after about 2 years. 

Finally our en-suite basin tap which had become stiffer and stiffer broke completely, just short of the two year prediction. Being extremely wary about replacing it with a B & Q tap I bought a replacement tap from Screwfix. The replacement tap was only £40 yet seems far superior to the £80 B & Q tap. 

The B & Q tap has a 10 year warranty so I took it back to B & Q. The young lady who was serving at the TradePoint counter said that she could not refund the £80, that I had to accept a replacement tap. I told her there was no way that I would accept a tap which would cause me have to go through this replacement nuisance again in another two years. I offered to accept a credit note but I will never again fit a B & Q tap in my house. Even though the tap in question is now a discontinued line, I was told that I had to accept a replacement tap or nothing.  I refused to accept what I was being told. She asked would I like her to get the manager and said yes. The manger was called and it was obvious from the moment that he appeared from around the corner that he had come to lock horns. This man was more interested in his own ego than in customer relations. I asked him if he had read the tap reviews on their own website. He told me he had. I asked him why he thought I would be happy with a replacement tap that I would be bringing back in another 2 years. He said that it was company policy to only replace taps with taps. I was irate! I told him to immediately close my TradePoint account, I left my tap on the TradePoint counter and walked away. The assistant asked if I wanted my tap. I said, what for? My wife went back to B & Q the next day to retrieve the tap. 

Surely if that tap is discontinued, B & Q must be obliged to give a credit note at the very least? I have 3 more of these unreliable taps in my house, it seems highly likely that I will be having the same problems with these too. 

Since I now have the faulty tap back in my possession, can anyone please advise me of the best way to proceed?

Dear oh dear...

1. If you buy on a trade account, you don't have consumer rights legislation protection.

The OP made a consumer purchase, the type of account they’ve purchased via doesn’t affect this.

If OP is a plumber/builder, buys stuff for their trade and just purchased a couple taps for their home they may well find it harder to show that purchase was as a consumer but a trader can not simply write terms that take away consumer rights otherwise all traders would be “trade only”.

I had a look at their trade site a few years back, at the time they was happy to give an account if you could show a business card which is hardly a way of ensuring all purchase will be trade only.

OP the answer is, as it’s over 6 months, you’d have to show the taps didn’t conform to the contract in terms of durability, the trader would have the option to repair/replace first and after that a refund could be reduced to account for usage.

Personally I would have taken the free replacement and sold it on eBay.

Aylesbury_Duck

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

outragouslylongusername said:

Having recently completed renovating my house, I have bought 5 new taps during the last 24 months. 4 of these taps were purchased from B & Q Stafford on a Trade Point  account. When the first tap began to fail, I looked at B & Q’s website and the reviews on their own taps. Upon reading the reviews on the taps that have been sold by B & Q over a number of years, it seems clear to me that B & Q taps fail after about 2 years. 

Finally our en-suite basin tap which had become stiffer and stiffer broke completely, just short of the two year prediction. Being extremely wary about replacing it with a B & Q tap I bought a replacement tap from Screwfix. The replacement tap was only £40 yet seems far superior to the £80 B & Q tap. 

The B & Q tap has a 10 year warranty so I took it back to B & Q. The young lady who was serving at the TradePoint counter said that she could not refund the £80, that I had to accept a replacement tap. I told her there was no way that I would accept a tap which would cause me have to go through this replacement nuisance again in another two years. I offered to accept a credit note but I will never again fit a B & Q tap in my house. Even though the tap in question is now a discontinued line, I was told that I had to accept a replacement tap or nothing.  I refused to accept what I was being told. She asked would I like her to get the manager and said yes. The manger was called and it was obvious from the moment that he appeared from around the corner that he had come to lock horns. This man was more interested in his own ego than in customer relations. I asked him if he had read the tap reviews on their own website. He told me he had. I asked him why he thought I would be happy with a replacement tap that I would be bringing back in another 2 years. He said that it was company policy to only replace taps with taps. I was irate! I told him to immediately close my TradePoint account, I left my tap on the TradePoint counter and walked away. The assistant asked if I wanted my tap. I said, what for? My wife went back to B & Q the next day to retrieve the tap. 

Surely if that tap is discontinued, B & Q must be obliged to give a credit note at the very least? I have 3 more of these unreliable taps in my house, it seems highly likely that I will be having the same problems with these too. 

Since I now have the faulty tap back in my possession, can anyone please advise me of the best way to proceed?

Dear oh dear...

1. If you buy on a trade account, you don't have consumer rights legislation protection.

The OP made a consumer purchase, the type of account they’ve purchased via doesn’t affect this.

If OP is a plumber/builder, buys stuff for their trade and just purchased a couple taps for their home they may well find it harder to show that purchase was as a consumer but a trader can not simply write terms that take away consumer rights otherwise all traders would be “trade only”.

I had a look at their trade site a few years back, at the time they was happy to give an account if you could show a business card which is hardly a way of ensuring all purchase will be trade only.

OP the answer is, as it’s over 6 months, you’d have to show the taps didn’t conform to the contract in terms of durability, the trader would have the option to repair/replace first and after that a refund could be reduced to account for usage.

Personally I would have taken the free replacement and sold it on eBay.

Yes, that's a fair point, I stand corrected.  Or perhaps I should get irate at you, and send my wife back tomorrow to delete my post 

I suspect the warranty route and selling the replacement will still prove better than exercising consumer rights.

born_again

I wonder if the reason the tap is discontinued, is that B&Q have realised it is costing them ££ so have replaced it with one that is more robust & lasts longer. 
So how could the OP get the same tap that had failed?

Sadly the Op may just have shot themselves in the foot here.