American fridgefeezer / Fridgemaster MS91515DFF/ -compressor stopped working after 18 months AO.com

born_again

You can, but do not expect a quick result.
S75 norm is months, rather than days. There is a lot of info required. 
Such as T/C (needed to check breech of contract etc) What is wrong & what you have done to resolve, so the info from zest will be part of this.
They could even decline on the basis that waiting for delayed parts is not a basis for a claim.

So I would carry on with zest, as that is going to be the quickest way to get it sorted.

taffer87

At the minute the full zest cost will be out of my pocket so the retailer will not bear anything which doesn’t seem fair?

Alderbank

I got the impression from your first post that you had purchased an extended warranty from Zest for £140. Is that correct?

If so, what do you get from that warranty?

taffer87

Alderbank said:

I got the impression from your first post that you had purchased an extended warranty from Zest for £140. Is that correct?

If so, what do you get from that warranty?

I only purchased it last Sunday for around £140 total annual cost - it was not an extended warranty as such but a 'repair and care plan' as they knew there was a fault when I purchased and then they also cover the next 12 months. So Zest have offered me a full refund or 2-3 weeek (but no guarantee on timelines) for a repair. Similar to extended warranty but those are probably cheaper and can only be bought when the product is under a normal warranty and is not already faulty. It is exactly the same as the "Repair and care" plan that Ao.com want to sell me for £200.

Now that I know what the fault is - I feel like the retailer should bear some cost at least that's why I was leaning towards an engineer report and then contact Ao.com. What the few engineers I have spoken to have told me is that the cost is likely going to be near the purchase price of the fridge as a compressor for an american fridge freezer alone will be around £200 + the joints that leaked + labour so it is possible that when Ao.com see the quote  and engineer report they just pay me the partial refund rather than pay for the repair (which they said they will do if the engineer report indicates fault with things that shouldn't go faulty this soon like a compressor)

tightauldgit

taffer87 said:

At the minute the full zest cost will be out of my pocket so the retailer will not bear anything which doesn’t seem fair?

It was your choice to take out the zest plan though in order to get a repair. If you want AO to contribute then you'll have to get the engineer's report and then see what they say - but they could just offer you a repair, so effectively you would have bought the Zest cover for nothing. But then you can get a refund on that it appears. 

It seems that either way you probably should get the engineer's report and then present that to AO.com - from their side they'll probably just look at what costs them the least money so if you said you'd be happy with a £140 partial refund then they might well go for that. 

How much is the fridge to buy? You could potentially ask AO if they would give you a substantial discount off a new one to short circuit the process if your priority is getting a working fridge. Failing that you can probably pick up an old fridge on Facebook or whatever to tide you over for a couple of weeks. 

It seems from the information you've given that if you get the engineers report, get the refund from Zest and just pursue things with AO then that would give you the best result financially but not sure how quickly you would get the outcome. 

taffer87

£550 to buy 

thanks for the guidance from all  

tightauldgit said:

taffer87 said:

At the minute the full zest cost will be out of my pocket so the retailer will not bear anything which doesn’t seem fair?

It was your choice to take out the zest plan though in order to get a repair. If you want AO to contribute then you'll have to get the engineer's report and then see what they say - but they could just offer you a repair, so effectively you would have bought the Zest cover for nothing. But then you can get a refund on that it appears. 

It seems that either way you probably should get the engineer's report and then present that to AO.com - from their side they'll probably just look at what costs them the least money so if you said you'd be happy with a £140 partial refund then they might well go for that. 

How much is the fridge to buy? You could potentially ask AO if they would give you a substantial discount off a new one to short circuit the process if your priority is getting a working fridge. Failing that you can probably pick up an old fridge on Facebook or whatever to tide you over for a couple of weeks. 

It seems from the information you've given that if you get the engineers report, get the refund from Zest and just pursue things with AO then that would give you the best result financially but not sure how quickly you would get the outcome. 

tightauldgit

You'd probably be looking at something like a £400 refund then if they don't want to repair or replace so would certainly seem like worth pursuing - I imagine at that kind of money they may well look to do a repair for you but they may decide it's cheaper to just send you a replacement new fridge. 

taffer87

Okay so I had to fork out £45 for an engineer report.

I checked and purhcase costs was £529

Ao.com have now offered me a partial refund of 4.5/6 as they say life expectancy of the fridge freezer is 6 years. Everything I have read suggests life expectancy is around 10 years. Any tips on how to negotiate with them?

They say they are will to pay £25 towards the engineer report as out of warranty - not sure why that is and why they don't pay £45 if there is an inherent fault 

Any advice will be much appreciated.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

taffer87 said:

Okay so I had to fork out £45 for an engineer report.

I checked and purhcase costs was £529

Ao.com have now offered me a partial refund of 4.5/6 as they say life expectancy of the fridge freezer is 6 years. Everything I have read suggests life expectancy is around 10 years. Any tips on how to negotiate with them?

They say they are will to pay £25 towards the engineer report as out of warranty - not sure why that is and why they don't pay £45 if there is an inherent fault 

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Send them a letter before action for the £45 and the fridge at 10 years minus 18 months use.  

https://lovetts.co.uk/uk-debt-recovery/letter-before-action/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=Letter Before Action&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1s6z8sf1_wIVQeN3Ch0eUAwXEAAYBCAAEgK1P_D_BwE

Don't know what "from" means but seems cheap on the face of it. 

Alderbank

So they have agreed it is faulty and have offered you £529 x 4.5/6 = £396.75 + £25 towards report = £421.75?

The key word is 'offered'.

They are trying to play hardball. Average life expectancy might be 10 years (my Samsung American fridge/freezer is still going strong at 17 years) but small claims court seems to accept that a straight-line depreciation of domestic white goods over 6 years is 'reasonable'. In other words that is likely to be what you would get if you went to court.

If you went to court you would claim the full cost of the report as an allowable expense. However until and unless you actually go to court it is just a matter of negotiation.

Court is always an option for you although a fair bit of preparation is involved. Court would involve AO in a lot of management costs and expenses which they would like to avoid. 

My opinion (others may will disagree) is that £421.75 is an opening gambit open to counter offers. If I were you I would push for at least £450, perhaps £500 but I would be willing to compromise. Perhaps see if they will offer a good deal on a different model? Fridgemaster are at the lower end of the quality and price scale.