Need help with a faulty TV, out of warranty but manufacturer has authorised an uplift with the selle

FactoryFaultOLED18

Hi everyone,

I'm currently waiting to hear back from a retailer, John Lewis, regarding an uplift/refund I've been given by Panasonic for a TV fault. 

After a couple of weeks dealing with Panasonic support, providing links and images of the problem, they engaged with a local repair centre who came to take a look. The repairer also took photos, the serial, all the same information and presented that to Panasonic. Next thing, the repairer is calling me to advise the panels aren't made any more (so it can't be replaced) and that Panasonic have given me an uplift/refund authorization code to pursue with the seller, John Lewis.

The nature of the TV fault is that it was factory based, not due to usage. So in effect, it was sold in an unfit state from the off.

I'm looking for advice on what I should be expecting to receive from John Lewis, on the uplift/refund. The TV was purchased in early 2018, so is well out of the manufacturer warranty and the extended John Lewis warranty, by about a year to 18 months. Because this fault is known to be due to a manufacturing problem, rather than wear and tear (it's not image retention/burn in from post-purchase usage) and because Panasonic admit as much by entertaining such an out of warranty item replacement, what does that potentially mean for a replacement offer?

It was £1799. At the time, it was towards the upper end of the range (from what I recall) and obviously what I don't want to now have to deal with is someone making an arbitrary decision about what a suitable replacement would be in 2024.

Does anyone have any similar experiences dealing with this sort of situation with John Lewis? It's a pretty unique situation and I'm frankly worried about dealing with John Lewis CS, because when I first had this problem I was advised to contact the seller, not Panasonic and when I did and they got my order, and saw the date, they shut down all conversation due to it being out of warranty. But now here I am, back having to deal with them.


Thanks

born_again

You would get a refund from JL that reflects 6 years use of the TV. Given the TV is no longer made.

Never get why manufactures in these situations do not simply do the right thing & exchange.

FactoryFaultOLED18

born_again said:

You would get a refund from JL that reflects 6 years use of the TV. Given the TV is no longer made.

Never get why manufactures in these situations do not simply do the right thing & exchange.

 
Thanks for replying but just to ask, even though the fault is confirmed as being pre-purchase, so nothing that was caused via usage they'd still count 6 years of usage when determining the uplift?

What really frustrates about this situation is that at no point did Panasonic contact the seller and request the seller to contact buyers, to check their panels were OK. To know there was a problem and not do anything proactive, means people like me are now left in this situation.

powerful_Rogue

FactoryFaultOLED18 said:

born_again said:

You would get a refund from JL that reflects 6 years use of the TV. Given the TV is no longer made.

Never get why manufactures in these situations do not simply do the right thing & exchange.

 
Thanks for replying but just to ask, even though the fault is confirmed as being pre-purchase, so nothing that was caused via usage they'd still count 6 years of usage when determining the uplift?

What really frustrates about this situation is that at no point did Panasonic contact the seller and request the seller to contact buyers, to check their panels were OK. To know there was a problem and not do anything proactive, means people like me are now left in this situation.

Absolutely, as you have had six years use of the TV.

Worth mentioning, that if they don't offer or do anything then you will be out of time to bring a claim against John Lewis.

TELLIT01

As the TV is 6 years old and beyond the extended warranty offered by JL, and that Panasonic have acknowledged that it is a manufacturing issue, shouldn't the discussion simply be between the OP and Panasonic?  Why should JL have to get involved at all?

DullGreyGuy

Given there is an uplift code it may be JL give you full credit for it given the manufacturer will be refunding them... what happened with me with Currys. 

My experience with JL was more negative but the manufacturer in that case was offering to exchange it themselves but it was part of a matching set and they no longer made the finish I had. JL offered a discounted settlement for the one item but refused to entertain the other item nor the other losses sustained until court papers were issued. 

In principle they can reduce it to reflect use before the fault occurred. JL tend to do a discount of age in months divided by 72 (ie 6 years) so as yours is over 6 years old by their standard formula you'd get nothing and as its over 6 years old its also statute barred from court. 

Okell

FactoryFaultOLED18 said:

... I'm looking for advice on what I should be expecting to receive from John Lewis, on the uplift/refund. The TV was purchased in early 2018, ...

When in early 2018?  If it was more than 6 years ago your chances of getting anything out of JL might be zero if they don't co-operate with the uplift/refund request from Panasonic.

The reason being that after 6 years the Limitation Act 1980 (legislation.gov.uk) basically prevents you from taking legal action in this situation.  So if you are more than 6 years after purchase you are out of time to enforce any legal rights you may have against JL.

Of course JL might be under some sort of contractual obligation to Panasonic that we don't know about to comply with Panasonic's request, but as you aren't a party to that agreement you can't enforce it.

If JL won't comply and you are past 6 years, you'll have to go back to Panasonic.

(And yes - even if JL do comply with a refund they are entitled to deduct 6 years of use from it.  Why should you get that 6 years for free?)

Rodders53

What model TV is it (as a pure matter of my devious technical interest wrt the fault).

I wonder why haven't Panasonic offered a replacement TV via their online store front?  https://panasonicdirect.store.panasonic.co.uk/c-55-televisions.aspx

Richer Sounds' Guarantee would give you 40% of the original purchase price during year 6 of ownership; as a benchmark for what you might expect. Over 6 is nowt.
JL warranty is 5 years of course.

Their offer is likely to be down to what Panasonic are giving them to do this.  Have you got anything in writing wrt this uplift code/refund from Panasonic / local (Panasonic?) repair centre and its detail/terms?

Alderbank

TELLIT01 said:

As the TV is 6 years old and beyond the extended warranty offered by JL, and that Panasonic have acknowledged that it is a manufacturing issue, shouldn't the discussion simply be between the OP and Panasonic?  Why should JL have to get involved at all?

Because the OP has no contractual relationship with the manufacturer.

Panasonic sold the TV to JLP under a B2B contract of sale. Subsequently JLP sold the set to the OP under a consumer contract. OP only has a contract with the seller, JLP.

By contrast if the set had been electrically unsafe and had injured the OP or indeed injured anyone else then Panasonic could have had both civil and criminal liability regardless of whether they had any contract with the injured party.
Perhaps you are thinking of the tort of negligence?

born_again

Alderbank said:

TELLIT01 said:

As the TV is 6 years old and beyond the extended warranty offered by JL, and that Panasonic have acknowledged that it is a manufacturing issue, shouldn't the discussion simply be between the OP and Panasonic?  Why should JL have to get involved at all?

Because the OP has no contractual relationship with the manufacturer.

Panasonic sold the TV to JLP under a B2B contract of sale. Subsequently JLP sold the set to the OP under a consumer contract. OP only has a contract with the seller, JLP.

By contrast if the set had been electrically unsafe and had injured the OP or indeed injured anyone else then Panasonic could have had both civil and criminal liability regardless of whether they had any contract with the injured party.
Perhaps you are thinking of the tort of negligence?

I get what you are saying. In terms of contractual relationship.

Given Panasonic have admitted a manufacturing fault, despite TV working for 6 years..
 But this is where a manufacture should go over & above, given admitting fault. 
Rather than admitting fault, then palming customer off back to retailer. Who if over 6 years can easily say go away, not our issue anymore.

FactoryFaultOLED18

Thanks all, interesting replies.

The TV is a 55EZ952B and was bought in January 2018.

As an aside, after 2 hours onto several different John Lewis CS reps this morning (I just knew it would be a nightmare) I now have to wait for them to contact Panasonic about this uplift authorization. 24-48 hours. Their problem seems to be that the hardware is out of the 5 year warranty and they seemingly have zero provision for these sorts of extraordinary circumstances.

By contrast, I called Panasonic back immediately after 2 hours of hold with JL and within 10 mins, the Panasonic rep confirmed that the uplift code is for the full value of the original sale, and that the code should clearly call out to JL that if JL refund me the sale value, Panasonic will then refund JL the sale value. The Panasonic rep also then said that if JL continue to mess me around, they'll look at the replacement or refund directly. Within 10 mins, I'd got more value from the Panasonic rep than over 2 hours with several JL reps.

Anyway, I'm giving JL 48 hours and if its going nowhere, I'll deal with Panasonic directly.