£900 Soundbar defective after 24 months- do I have any options.

Korkyb

Hi all

I bought a £900 soundbar from Currys 24 months ago which has wireless rear speakers and subwoofer.

The unit has now stopped connecting to the rear speakers and soundbar completely.

I have contacted the manufacturer (Samsung) and been through their troubleshooting and they confirm repair is required.

The purchase was made with Giftcards which were purchased with Amex through Edenred (they give a NHS discount on Currys Giftcards).

The giftcard purchase shows on my Amex statement as "CURRYS WEB ON LINE CURR".


I haven't contacted Currys yet but am wondering.

- Am I right to expect a £900 soundbar to last more than 24 months?

- Is it worth contacting Currys?

- Will I have any Credit Card protection?

- Should I just chalk it up to experience?

Thanks for any advice!

RefluentBeans

So CRA says you have 6 years of protection. That doesn’t mean it guarantees every product will be working for those 6 years but if there’s any manufacturing defects that take time ti show, you’re well protected. These rights are with the retailer and not the manufacturer, so I would contact Currys. 

Regarding if a sound bar should last that long - hard to say. I would expect so, but equally CRA doesn’t cover wear and tear, so if it’s in use all the time it may not last as long as if it’s used to watch The Chase every night. Price doesn’t mean that it’ll last longer. 

You’re unlikely to have S75 protection as you paid by gift vouchers. Doesn’t matter how you procured those vouchers, the payment method is gift vouchers, and I believe they’re treated as cash. 

You can contact Currys and I would. But be prepared for them to decline - you still have rights but after 6 months you have to prove the product was faulty originally and the fault has just taken its time to become clear. So it’s down to you to argue that it has been there and/or get an engineer report to confirm that it was likely present at sale and just taken time to become evident. You can normally claim this cost back from them if it’s successful, but there is an initial outlay. 

They can repair/replace, or refund. If the refund option is used they may knock the price down a bit - normally using the portion of time that they expect a sound bar to last for that’s outstanding (so if they expect the sound bar to function for 6 years, and you’ve had two heads out of it, expect a 66% refund). This is hard to predict for consumer electronics. Sometimes it’s based on manufacturing warranties, sometimes it’s based on actual data they have, and sometimes it’s based on the 6 years of protection from the CRA you have.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Korkyb said:

- Am I right to expect a £900 soundbar to last more than 24 months?

- Is it worth contacting Currys?

- Will I have any Credit Card protection?

- Should I just chalk it up to experience?

Thanks for any advice!

I think most people would expect a £900 sound bar to last longer than 24 months. 

There's 3 options really

1) Send to Samsung for repair (I assume they want to charge for this).
2) See if there are any local places that can repair for a smaller fee
3) Contact Currys.

They will likely say it's down to you to show there is a "fault" with the soundbar (or say it's nothing to do with them), you'd then need to have an independent inspection to get something in writing to say what the problem is and ideally that it's unlikely to be caused by user error/misuse. 

Independent inspection goes back to a local place that can repair such items. 

Currys could offer to repair or replace but if they refuse that leaves you with the choice of a price reduction/final right to reject for a refund reduced to account for usage (typically lifespan vs time owned). 

It's a question of headache vs what Samsung are going to charge for a repair and sadly often the cost is less than the headache  

DullGreyGuy

Ultimately an engineer would need to opine on what is the reasonable lifespan for such an item at that price point.  Personally I would certainly say over 24 months should be expected 

What have Samsung said? What warranty do they offer on this item?

Currys is where your statutory rights are but they aren't the best known for playing nicely. As the item is over 6 months old though it's technically up to you to prove it's a fault rather than reasonable wear & tear or user created issue. This is normally done by an independent engineer report.

Even if it is accepted that it is faulty it then is Curry's decision on if to repair, replace or refund. A refund can be marked down to represent the use received before the item became faulty and so realistically you'd most likely be talking £600 or less back. 

There will be no credit card protection as the credit was used to buy gift cards from another merchant and those gift cards operated as expected and so no breach of contract on the sale involving credit

Korkyb

Thanks

That is what I thought the situation might be.

I had a peek into the innards of the unit yesterday (out of warranty so what the heck) and the "board" that I could see that would be most easily swapped out (2 screws and one connector) is labelled "WiFi / BT Transceiver" (Model WCT730M).

As the unit still connects to Wi-Fi and my phone via bluetooth I didn't think this might be the culprit but saw that replacement (used) modules are available on ebay for £10 - £20.

I've just spoken to an independent repair shop who said that his 1st action would be to check that very module so I've just ordered one from fleabay for £10 delivered to swap out myself (If no joy the it will be off to the helpful repair man).

If this works I'll be a very (lucky) happy chappie :-)

born_again

Korkyb said:

Hi all

I bought a £900 soundbar from Currys 24 months ago which has wireless rear speakers and subwoofer.

The unit has now stopped connecting to the rear speakers and soundbar completely.

I have contacted the manufacturer (Samsung) and been through their troubleshooting and they confirm repair is required.

The purchase was made with Giftcards which were purchased with Amex through Edenred (they give a NHS discount on Currys Giftcards).

The giftcard purchase shows on my Amex statement as "CURRYS WEB ON LINE CURR".


I haven't contacted Currys yet but am wondering.

- Am I right to expect a £900 soundbar to last more than 24 months?

- Is it worth contacting Currys?

- Will I have any Credit Card protection?

- Should I just chalk it up to experience?

Thanks for any advice!

As you used gift cards for the purchase No...
The fact you used CC to buy the gift cards makes no difference.

km1500

not 100% sure what connectivity you are using, but if btooth you could consider buying a BT receiver from Amazon and plugging into AUX or OPT if the soundbar has those inputs