Lakeland's Lifetime Warranty

born_again

MalMonroe said:

Is 8 years the expected lifetime of a vacuum cleaner? I don't think so. My Mum's old Goblin (anyone remember them?) lasted 23 years. Then she went to Hoover (pre-silly offers time), which was good but not half as good as the Goblin.  Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

According to Consumer Reports, vacuum cleaners last a median of eight years. 

🤷‍♀️👍
🤣
Just wondering how many more pages this will run too 

jon81uk

Manxman_in_exile said:

The relevant wording dug up by @jon81uk says this:  "... We hope you'll be delighted with our products, but if for any reason at all you're not 100% satisfied, we'll happily refund your money without delay... no 'ifs or buts' from Lakeland!... "

The OP said:

drt1710 said:

I bought a Gtech AirRAM cordless vacuum, admittedly it was 8 years ago, but I chose Lakeland as the place to buy from as at the time they offered a "Lifetime no quibble warranty"

Well, now our much loved Gtech has died....

I think that if this ever got anywhere near a court and the OP was asked:  'Mr D, in the eight years that you have used your "much loved Gtech" cordless vacuum cleaner, can you honestly say you have ever been less than 100% satisfied with it?' then the OP might be hard pressed to give an honest answer of "Yes".

I think that if I described a vacuum cleaner as "much loved" after eight years it would be disingenuous of me to suggest now that I'd ever been dissatisfied with it.

(Aaargh!  Now I can't get the image of Doofy Gilmore from Scary Movie out of my head!)

This is my thinking too, the original wording of the guarantee is about being delighted with the items and is more about getting a quality product on day one. It doesn't mention "lifetime warranty" anywhere and there is no linked T&Cs. As the OP had eight years of much loved use I would say the original intent of the guarantee has been met. No product is going to last forever and ever and a reasonable person would not expect them to give a refund of 100% of the product value for ever and ever.

I would be fairly happy with eight years use and take it as an opportunity to upgrade to the latest model.

drt1710

Seems that the Lakeland lifetime guarantee was good after all.
Contacted head office after customer services just referred me to the 3-year guarantee.
The vacuum sent back, and within a week a cheque arrived in the post! 
Outstanding service from Lakeland in the end!

Manxman_in_exile

Good for them and well done for persevering.

(It often pays off even when others - like me - say you have no argument)

HillStreetBlues

drt1710 said:

Seems that the Lakeland lifetime guarantee was good after all.
Contacted head office after customer services just referred me to the 3-year guarantee.
The vacuum sent back, and within a week a cheque arrived in the post! 
Outstanding service from Lakeland in the end!

I doubt you are the first Lakeland had to pay out on.
I expect they knew that they would have to pay out if it you persisted.

Looks like their policy is to reject claims they know should pay out on in the hope the customer doesn't know what legal consequences  that guarantee had to Lakeland. But then back down and pay up if they find the customer does know their rights.

drt1710

Sorry, I should have said, thank you for all the great advice in this thread!

Cloth_of_Gold

Well done on persevering and on getting your refund. Well done to Lakeland too.

One thing I find amusing about this thread (or maybe depressing) is how some people think that 8 years is a decent lifetime for a vacuum cleaner. How things have changed. My parents bought a twin tub and a fridge in the 1950s and they were still working fine 20 years later when they replaced them. When my mother died in 2004 her Pifco hairdryer, bought in the 1960s, was still working perfectly and had never been repaired, other than to have the fabric covered cable replaced by my father, sometime in the late '70s/early '80s.

Cut to today and our £700 odd AEG washer/dryer broke just over two years after we'd bought it, and our expensive Stoves cooker had so many problems from day one it was replaced after a few weeks. Its replacement quickly developed faults too. I now spend a significant sum each month on household goods insurance, something totally unnecessary for my parents' generation.

drt1710

Cloth_of_Gold said:

Well done on persevering and on getting your refund. Well done to Lakeland too.

One thing I find amusing about this thread (or maybe depressing) is how some people think that 8 years is a decent lifetime for a vacuum cleaner. How things have changed. My parents bought a twin tub and a fridge in the 1950s and they were still working fine 20 years later when they replaced them. When my mother died in 2004 her Pifco hairdryer, bought in the 1960s, was still working perfectly and had never been repaired, other than to have the fabric covered cable replaced by my father, sometime in the late '70s/early '80s.

Cut to today and our £700 odd AEG washer/dryer broke just over two years after we'd bought it, and our expensive Stoves cooker had so many problems from day one it was replaced after a few weeks. Its replacement quickly developed faults too. I now spend a significant sum each month on household goods insurance, something totally unnecessary for my parents' generation.

Thank you, it took some effort!
I think depressing is the correct word.  We have become a throwaway culture.  Appliances have, or rather were cheap, so cheap that we'd use them, and if they broke out of guarantee we'd just replace them, it is often faster, less hassle and most of the time cheaper!
I agree, your parent's appliances were definitely made to last!
For smaller appliances and items, a great place idea is Repair Cafe, people really need to try them, but from recent social media posts, not many people know about them.
For Wales it's https://repaircafewales.org/ gives an idea of what they do, and upcoming events
For England it's https://www.repaircafe.org/en/
Or look on social media
All the best

Aylesbury_Duck

To counter the valid points about longevity of modern appliances, aren't they significantly cheaper, in real terms, than their predecessors?  A basic washing machine costs £300.  It cost the same 25 years ago when I bought my first one.  Is it a case of manufacturing to price expectations, which has consequences for quality?

user1977

Aylesbury_Duck said:

To counter the valid points about longevity of modern appliances, aren't they significantly cheaper, in real terms, than their predecessors?  A basic washing machine costs £300.  It cost the same 25 years ago when I bought my first one.  Is it a case of manufacturing to price expectations, which has consequences for quality?

Indeed, you can get a sense of this (and generally feel old!) by looking at the archive of Argos catalogues at https://retromash.com/argos/

For example, in the 1973/4 catalogue if you wanted a basic vacuum cleaner then that would have been a Hoover Junior at £23.94, equivalent to £367 today - whereas vacuum cleaners start at £50 in Argos today.

Washing machines (assuming you weren't still going for twin-tubs!) started at £74.50, equivalent to £1,150 now - cheapest washing machine today is £195.

While not everything would necessarily have been any more reliable, it's no wonder there was much more of an expectation and industry around repairing the devices rather than just chucking them away and getting a new one.