Call Out Fee - Misdiagnosis

Adam173

Hi Everyone

Just wondering if anyone can help. My Samsung fridge freezer recently broke down out of warranty....no problem, these things happen! 

I rang the Service number on the inside of the fridge and Samsung passed me onto their trusted repair company North West Appliance Repairs Ltd. who informed me verbally that there would be a £120 call out fee to diagnose the problem...again no problem.

Engineer comes out, tests the fuse on the freezer (id already done that so knew there wouldnt be an issue) and informed me that the problem was the main PCB board, again no problem, he went away to order parts. 

2 Weeks of chasing and i finally get through to North West Appliance Repairs Ltd who inform me that they cannot source the parts and therefore my fridge freezer was unrepairable....damn!

Not to lose a battle i had a quick youtube search and found the same issue which is actually caused by the ice making board. I ordered one of these online for £60, fitted it myself and the fridge freezer is now working. GREAT!

By gripe is about the £120 call out fee. I've paid North West Appliance Repairs Ltd to diagnose an issue as a Samsung trusted repairer, not only have they misdiagnosed the issue (which was a simple fix by myself) but i was on the verge of having to buy an entirely new fridge freezer because they said it was unrepairable. 

I guess my question is, do i have any consumer rights to get my £120 call out fee back given that they provided a substandard service and didn't actually diagnose the problem?

Thanks in advance

Alderbank

In the absence of anything more specific in a contract terms & conditions, the Consumer Rights Act expects the trader to carry out the contracted service with reasonable care and skill. In this case that is the skill of a competent trained engineer familiar with Samsung freezers.

Since he couldn't diagnose the fault correctly yet you as a layman did so just by Googling and watching YouTube videos it is pretty clear that standard was not met. 

Legally you are entitled to a price reduction of up to 100% of what you paid.
You might argue that their solution was worse than useless, not only did it fail to identify the easily fixed problem but would have cost you significant unnecessary expense if you had followed it, therefore you are entitled to a full refund.

However they might argue that they did send someone to have a look so they are entitled to their time costs and travel expenses of say £50, depending on how far you are from Preston.
They might also say that you agreed to a contract term of a minimum call out fee of £120 even if they were unable to fix it. Did they say that to you on the phone before you agreed to them coming out?

Adam173

Thanks for the reply!

All they said on the phone was that the £120 fee was to diagnose the issue to see what parts were required to fix it (or if it could be fixed) 

If they had turned around and said it couldnt be fixed.....and genuinely couldnt be fixed then id have been fine with that, its the fact that they mis diagnosed the issue....that i have a problem with. 

In my eyes, they havent provided the service that they promised....ie to diagnose the issue

Okell

Have you spoken to NWA Repairs yet?

If you do not get a satisfactory reply from them then:

(1) I'd contact Samsung and make a complaint to them about their "trusted repair company", and 

(2)  You could consider suing NWA Repairs.  As their "diagnosis" would appear to have been wrong and incompetent based on what you have told us. The service was not delivered with reasonable care and skill and therefore you could argue that they are not entitled to a call out fee even if it forms part of their T&Cs.  The call out fee must be conditional on them fulfilling their responsibilty under the legislation to provide the agreed service to you with the aforesaid care and skill.  Their T&Cs can't override that...

See s49(1), s54(3)(b) and s56 here:  Consumer Rights Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)

But go back to them first and put these points to them

Adam173

Okell said:

Have you spoken to NWA Repairs yet?

If you do not get a satisfactory reply from them then:

(1) I'd contact Samsung and make a complaint to them about their "trusted repair company", and 

(2)  You could consider suing NWA Repairs.  As their "diagnosis" would appear to have been wrong and incompetent based on what you have told us. The service was not delivered with reasonable care and skill and therefore you could argue that they are not entitled to a call out fee even if it forms part of their T&Cs.  The call out fee must be conditional on them fulfilling their responsibilty under the legislation to provide the agreed service to you with the aforesaid care and skill.  Their T&Cs can't override that...

See s49(1), s54(3)(b) and s56 here:

Hi Okell

many thanks for that, really helpful. Yes I’ve gone back to NWA and they said that they will investigate, I’m just trying to find out my rights/ options in case they come back and tell me they won’t refund the call out fee.

unfortunately until they came to visit and left me their details I didn’t actually know the company name, if I had then I’d have googled them and checked out their history first. Their customer service history seems somewhat lacking and I’m far from the first to have issues with them it would appear.

HillStreetBlues

How did you pay the £120?
You employed someone to diagnose the problem the fee was £120. This task wasn't carried out, as the problem that caused the issue wasn't  diagnosed.
You didn't get the service you paid for, so I feel should be refunded in full.

Adam173

HillStreetBlues said:

How did you pay the £120?
You employed someone to diagnose the problem the fee was £120. This task wasn't carried out, as the problem that caused the issue wasn't  diagnosed.
You didn't get the service you paid for, so I feel should be refunded in full.

Hi, yeh I had to pay up front. Luckily on a credit card so if worst came to worst I could possibly go down the section 75 route but would rather understand my rights and give them the opportunity to sort it before going down that route

Okell

If the company gives you no joy I'd go back to Samsung and point out to them how disappointed you are at the trusted repair company that they referred you to, and that Samsung thereby caused you to waste £120.  Emphasise that their recommended company charged you for producing a wholly wrong diagnosis of the fault.  Ask them what they'll do about it.  Nothing probably, but still worth complaining in my book.

If you paid by credit card you could try a s75 claim before resorting to suing NWA repairs.  If you try a s75 claim the grounds would be the same as I suggested in my earlier post - ie breach of the implied term under s49 of the Act to deliver the service with reasonable care and skill.

The problem with a call out charge is that the company might be able to argue that the payment is entirely separate from the provision of the diagnosis service.  But that would be daft in my view as I could set myself up as an IT specialist with a £250 non-returnable call out fee and turn up at your house - knowing absolutely zilch about IT - do nothing and be on a nice little earner!

At the end of the day you either write the £120 off or do what you can.  That might include having a punt at suing them - or at least threatening to do so...

Adam173

Thanks Okell, all sound advice. Yeh I won’t be going down the suing them route, there’s better things to do with my time but a few emails to Samsung, which etc etc will be flying around. Even if I get no joy then if I can stop another person having the same experience then it will be worth it.

Jumblebumble

Alderbank said:

In the absence of anything more specific in a contract terms & conditions, the Consumer Rights Act expects the trader to carry out the contracted service with reasonable care and skill. In this case that is the skill of a competent trained engineer familiar with Samsung freezers.

Since he couldn't diagnose the fault correctly yet you as a layman did so just by Googling and watching YouTube videos it is pretty clear that standard was not met. 

Legally you are entitled to a price reduction of up to 100% of what you paid.
You might argue that their solution was worse than useless, not only did it fail to identify the easily fixed problem but would have cost you significant unnecessary expense if you had followed it, therefore you are entitled to a full refund.

However they might argue that they did send someone to have a look so they are entitled to their time costs and travel expenses of say £50, depending on how far you are from Preston.
They might also say that you agreed to a contract term of a minimum call out fee of £120 even if they were unable to fix it. Did they say that to you on the phone before you agreed to them coming out?

If you think it is reasonable for a company to charge a fee for an unskilled person coming out and misdiagnosing you must be every cowboy's dream customer

screech_78

I would give them time to respond.

We work regularly with them and they are generally one of the better repair agents. 

I don’t agree that you’re due a full refund however as someone did attend.