John Lewis Ducking & Diving

bigjeeze

Hi, I bought a Samsung Fridge Freezer from John Lewis in 2021 - in November 2023 it stopped working. I called John Lewis who told me that as it was out of warranty I had to call Samsung.  I did- had to wait 3 days for an engineer. When he came he told me that the Fridge Freezer was totally dead and could not be repaired. This Fridge cost £2300 - and we had it for 2 years 7 months. I then went back to John Lewis and bought a new fridge freezer  - and arranged with John Lewis to remove the old one and then wrote and complained.  I basically was told that as they needed the old unit to see if they could repair it that I had no recourse but they would offer me £150.  I countered with the fact that no one told me I had to keep the old unit - nor explained where I should have kept it. Neither did anyone give a damn that I had already been without the thing for a week and a half so couldn't leave it.   Do I have a case here or are they free and clear?

Mark_d

After the John Lewis response to your £2300 failing, you wanted to spends a significant amount of money with John Lewis again?  Why did you have the old fridge disposed of when it was subject to an open complaint?

I understand that you didn't want to be without a fridge for an extended period but I can't understand why you destroyed the evidence of the problem?

I had a loosely similar experience with JL when a smartwatch I'd bought stopped working shortly after the warranty expired.  I was having no luck with the team at my local store, was told different things by the remote tech support team and was ultimately told that "my manager will tell you the same thing I'm telling you".  But as soon as the complaints team reviewed my complaint, they issued full refund conditional on me returning the faulty watch to them within a set timeframe.  Problem solved.

DullGreyGuy

What do you have by way of an engineers report to state what the problem was, the cause of the problem, cost to repair it etc?

BoGoF

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Undervalued

BoGoF said:

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Forthright but correct!

screech_78

The onus would have been on you after this length of time to show there was an inherent fault. Do you have a report from Samsung? I genuinely can’t understand why you go and order another straight away instead of trying to enforce your rights. 

Of course, if a repair wasn’t possible and they no longer stocked the same fridge freezer, you would have been looking at a partial refund to take into account the usage you’ve had of it. But much better than forking out for a new one right away. 

The £150 goodwill gesture is quite generous under the circumstances. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

BoGoF said:

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Undervalued said:

BoGoF said:

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Forthright but correct!

Actually it isn't correct in my view, telling OP as it's out of warranty  they need to call Samsung is misleading them about their rights by omission. 

JL should have told the OP to get it inspected to show a "fault" and come back for a remedy or contact Samsung.

OP you are in sticky situation without the fridge to show a fault existed, I'd go back and complain they've mislead you about your rights and ask for more.  

I'd also put in a Subject Access Request for a copy of the call. 

https://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/corporate_information_home/corporate_information/legal_notices/customer-rights.html

ArbitraryRandom

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

BoGoF said:

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Undervalued said:

BoGoF said:

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Forthright but correct!

Actually it isn't correct in my view, telling OP as it's out of warranty  they need to call Samsung is misleading them about their rights by omission. 

JL should have told the OP to get it inspected to show a "fault" and come back for a remedy or contact Samsung.

OP you are in sticky situation without the fridge to show a fault existed, I'd go back and complain they've mislead you about your rights and ask for more.  

I'd also put in a Subject Access Request for a copy of the call. 

https://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/corporate_information_home/corporate_information/legal_notices/customer-rights.html

I agree to get a copy of the call recording and agent notes (and to do so quickly as they may only keep it 4 months). 

I wouldn't automatically assume they misled you as it will depend on specifically what you asked them and what they said - so I wouldn't make a complaint until after you've had a chance to listen to the call recording... 

Okell

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

BoGoF said:

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Undervalued said:

BoGoF said:

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Forthright but correct!

Actually it isn't correct in my view, telling OP as it's out of warranty  they need to call Samsung is misleading them about their rights by omission. 

JL should have told the OP to get it inspected to show a "fault" and come back for a remedy or contact Samsung...

I think that's right.

RefluentBeans

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

BoGoF said:

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Undervalued said:

BoGoF said:

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Forthright but correct!

Actually it isn't correct in my view, telling OP as it's out of warranty  they need to call Samsung is misleading them about their rights by omission. 

JL should have told the OP to get it inspected to show a "fault" and come back for a remedy or contact Samsung.

OP you are in sticky situation without the fridge to show a fault existed, I'd go back and complain they've mislead you about your rights and ask for more.  

I'd also put in a Subject Access Request for a copy of the call. 

https://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/corporate_information_home/corporate_information/legal_notices/customer-rights.html

To me this is yet another case of consumers not claiming their rights. The warranty terms are often a lot more generous than the CRA. JL haven’t said there’s nothing they can do, and in fact when the OP went back they said they needed the fridge back to inspect the fridge. 

It’s not retailers jobs to educate people on their rights, and consumers should be aware of their rights and how to claim them. If the OP has chucked the fridge away now then there is nothing left to pursue, as JL could well have asked to attempt to repair the fridge themselves (something they’re legally allowed to do) and if they failed they would have to issue a refund. Instead they have a get out of jail free card. Goodwill is the only option now really.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

RefluentBeans said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

BoGoF said:

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Undervalued said:

BoGoF said:

John Lewis should counter it's not their job to educate you on the CRA. A goodwill gesture is all you can expect. You gave them the get out of jail free card.

Forthright but correct!

Actually it isn't correct in my view, telling OP as it's out of warranty  they need to call Samsung is misleading them about their rights by omission. 

JL should have told the OP to get it inspected to show a "fault" and come back for a remedy or contact Samsung.

OP you are in sticky situation without the fridge to show a fault existed, I'd go back and complain they've mislead you about your rights and ask for more.  

I'd also put in a Subject Access Request for a copy of the call. 

https://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/corporate_information_home/corporate_information/legal_notices/customer-rights.html

To me this is yet another case of consumers not claiming their rights. The warranty terms are often a lot more generous than the CRA. JL haven’t said there’s nothing they can do, and in fact when the OP went back they said they needed the fridge back to inspect the fridge. 

It’s not retailers jobs to educate people on their rights, and consumers should be aware of their rights and how to claim them. If the OP has chucked the fridge away now then there is nothing left to pursue, as JL could well have asked to attempt to repair the fridge themselves (something they’re legally allowed to do) and if they failed they would have to issue a refund. Instead they have a get out of jail free card. Goodwill is the only option now really.

From the OP

" I called John Lewis who told me that as it was out of warranty I had to call Samsung."

If they had added, or get a report and come back to us for a remedy that's fine*. 

Our good old friend the CPRs makes any omission that would alter the transactional decision of the consumer prohibited practice. 

I don't see any response other than the retailer informing the consumer of their rights that meets this requirement.   


*Maybe they did and the opening post is short on the details but I can only answer based on the info given.