Dyson Aftercare

Ricey1974

Is anyone having problems with Dyson, the aftercare from them has been horrendous and looking at feedback sites such as Trust Pilot its a common thread. How are they allowed to act in the way they are without any ramifications.
My issue was with a hairdryer, costing over £300.. a couple of months after the 2 years warranty, it started with an intermittent fault by shutting down. After numerous conversations with them they reluctantly agreed to, FOC to send it away for repair. What happened after that amazed me !.

Not only did they lose our contact details, everytime we called them for an update it took 20 mins each call to identify our product and where it was in their repair chain. On the call we would ask them to update our records, even using phonetics (Alpha, Bravo etc etc) to ensure our email was correct and each time they got it wrong. 

After a further 6 weeks, still no update, via email or phone call, and on the last call, after again finding our device they advised us they have disposed of the unit ! To then offer us 25% discount for a new unit or a reconditioned  unit for £99... I cant believe it. We have gone from having an expensive device with an intermittent fault, to no device and having to pay £200 after discount for a replacement or £99 for a device they have repaired. I told them they didnt have approval from us to dispose of our property and we wanted it back ! Looking through forums they are doing this all the time.. surely this cant be legal ?

Aylesbury_Duck

Ricey1974 said:

Is anyone having problems with Dyson, the aftercare from them has been horrendous and looking at feedback sites such as Trust Pilot its a common thread. How are they allowed to act in the way they are without any ramifications.
My issue was with a hairdryer, costing over £300.. a couple of months after the 2 years warranty, it started with an intermittent fault by shutting down. After numerous conversations with them they reluctantly agreed to, FOC to send it away for repair. What happened after that amazed me !.

Not only did they lose our contact details, everytime we called them for an update it took 20 mins each call to identify our product and where it was in their repair chain. On the call we would ask them to update our records, even using phonetics (Alpha, Bravo etc etc) to ensure our email was correct and each time they got it wrong. 

After a further 6 weeks, still no update, via email or phone call, and on the last call, after again finding our device they advised us they have disposed of the unit ! To then offer us 25% discount for a new unit or a reconditioned  unit for £99... I cant believe it. We have gone from having an expensive device with an intermittent fault, to no device and having to pay £200 after discount for a replacement or £99 for a device they have repaired. I told them they didnt have approval from us to dispose of our property and we wanted it back ! Looking through forums they are doing this all the time.. surely this cant be legal ?

Nothing illegal about it.  If you'd exercised your consumer rights with the retailer, you perhaps would have got back less than half of the value of the broken unit after two years, so being able to buy a reconditioned one for less than a third of the original price doesn't sound unreasonable.  You might push for a bigger discount on a new one, though.

ArbitraryRandom

I would disagree - the CRA entitles the customer/obligates the seller to carry out a repair or provide a replacement before the customer has the right to require a partial refund. 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/23/enacted

In this case, a refurbished hairdryer of the same model is a perfect replacement (no betterment), so I would suggest that is the most appropriate remedy. 

(Arguably the OP should have proved the fault was inherent, but Dyson having disposed of the unit has made that impossible.) 

Aylesbury_Duck

ArbitraryRandom said:

I would disagree - the CRA entitles the customer/obligates the seller to carry out a repair or provide a replacement before the customer has the right to require a partial refund. 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/23/enacted

In this case, a refurbished hairdryer of the same model is a perfect replacement (no betterment), so I would suggest that is the most appropriate remedy. 

(Arguably the OP should have proved the fault was inherent, but Dyson having disposed of the unit has made that impossible.) 

Yes, I see what you mean, but I was working on the likelihood that this is being handled through the warranty, so was trying to compare the offer with what might have arisen through consumer rights.  OP might have purchased directly from Dyson and be handling it through consumer rights, in which case your guidance is better.

Ricey1974

Thanks for the feedback, doesnt make it right and it isnt world class service as you would expect, feels like its a mechanism for continual revenue, compounded by the fact they agreed to repair the device free of charge. If they hadnt we wouldn't have sent it back in the first place.

Ricey1974

@ArbitraryRandom

What do recommend the next step is, weve sent them a formal email generated from a government website below

To whom it may concern,

Complaint about faulty goods

I bought a Dyson Hairdryer from #########################

I now find the goods have the following fault:

Ive spoken to your team on a number of occasions that the Hairdryer started with an intermittent fault shortly after the 2 year warranty had expired. You then agreed as a gesture of good will to collect the device for repair in November of 2023. Since then and after numerous attempts to contact you, having had the incorrect details for me, you subsequently received the hairdryer and without any positive confirmation with me disposed of the dryer without my consent. Furthermore, after agreeing to fix the device FOC, you then advised that i could have a 25% discount on a new device or a refurbished device for £99.00 after "disposing" of my device.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods you supply must be of satisfactory quality. As there was a problem with the goods after I bought them, I request that you give me a full refund.

In support of my claim I have enclosed: ##################################

Please respond within 14 days of receiving this letter.

Yours faithfully,

#######################

born_again

Re above.
Where did you buy it from?

ArbitraryRandom

Yes, your next step depends on who you bought the appliance from - if it was Dyson, then the approach is different (because your consumer rights are with the seller) than if it was from say Currys and you went to Dyson out of warranty. 

Edit, just dropping these here for later: https://www.dyson.com/inside-dyson/terms#Repairs%20and%20Servicing

Aylesbury_Duck

Ricey1974 said:

@ArbitraryRandom

What do recommend the next step is, weve sent them a formal email generated from a government website below

To whom it may concern,

Complaint about faulty goods

I bought a Dyson Hairdryer from #########################

I now find the goods have the following fault:

Ive spoken to your team on a number of occasions that the Hairdryer started with an intermittent fault shortly after the 2 year warranty had expired. You then agreed as a gesture of good will to collect the device for repair in November of 2023. Since then and after numerous attempts to contact you, having had the incorrect details for me, you subsequently received the hairdryer and without any positive confirmation with me disposed of the dryer without my consent. Furthermore, after agreeing to fix the device FOC, you then advised that i could have a 25% discount on a new device or a refurbished device for £99.00 after "disposing" of my device.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods you supply must be of satisfactory quality. As there was a problem with the goods after I bought them, I request that you give me a full refund.

In support of my claim I have enclosed: ##################################

Please respond within 14 days of receiving this letter.

Yours faithfully,

#######################

If you didn't buy directly from Dyson then I'm afraid that letter can simply be ignored because the CRA doesn't apply to Dyson.

If you want a CRA resolution, a letter needs to go to the retailer.  Given that more than two years has elapsed, the retailer may insist you prove the fault exists, which will now be difficult because you don't have the item.

Personally, I'd accept Dyson's offer of a £99 refurbished model, or push for a better discount on a new one.  Even if you could pursue this with the retailer, the remedy might only be a partial refund.  You're not entitled to a full refund of the price paid.

As for service, I'm afraid that to expect "world class service" from Dyson just because their products are expensive, is unrealistic.  Like Apple, they are expensive box-shifters and expert marketeers whose products and services aren't inherently better than every other manufacturer's.  They're just shinier.

ArbitraryRandom

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Personally, I'd accept Dyson's offer of a £99 refurbished model, or push for a better discount on a new one.  Even if you could pursue this with the retailer, the remedy might only be a partial refund.  You're not entitled to a full refund of the price paid.

Again I disagree... the OP either has the CRA right to a replacement OR can quote the Dyson T&C for a replacement (as pasted above):

"If your machine is lost or damaged beyond repair while in Dyson’s possession, we will replace the machine at no cost to you. "

Dyson accepted the item back to repair - so unless they're claiming the OP abandoned it (and I can't see 60 days elapsed without contact at any point in the timeline), then according to their own policy they owe the OP a new hairdryer at no cost. 

(I would agree the letter is a bit of a mess and needs rewriting either way - which we can help with as soon as we know if Dyson were the retailer or just the manufacturer). 

Aylesbury_Duck

ArbitraryRandom said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Personally, I'd accept Dyson's offer of a £99 refurbished model, or push for a better discount on a new one.  Even if you could pursue this with the retailer, the remedy might only be a partial refund.  You're not entitled to a full refund of the price paid.

Again I disagree... the OP either has the CRA right to a replacement OR can quote the Dyson T&C for a replacement (as pasted above):

"If your machine is lost or damaged beyond repair while in Dyson’s possession, we will replace the machine at no cost to you. "

Dyson accepted the item back to repair - so unless they're claiming the OP abandoned it (and I can't see 60 days elapsed without contact at any point in the timeline), then according to their own policy they owe the OP a new hairdryer at no cost. 

(I would agree the letter is a bit of a mess and needs rewriting either way - which we can help with as soon as we know if Dyson were the retailer or just the manufacturer). 

Ah...I hadn't seen the pasted sections, they weren't showing for me when I started my reply.  That does change things.

On the matter of the CRA right to a replacement, did I read in another thread that the retailer can choose not to replace if not economically preferable or something like that, and can elect to partially refund instead?  Or does that only apply to repairs?