Who is my warranty with?

benjii1

I bought a graphics card from Currys that is now having issues. Their website shows that it came with a 3 year warranty. The page listing for the item itself is no longer up, this is just what the people on the phone have told me. However, if I enter the serial number of the graphics card into the manufacturer online warranty checker, it shows that it has a 4 year warranty which is still valid for a few more weeks. I did register my graphics card with the manufacturer when I bought it.

Currys are refusing to help me with it and am telling me I should contact the manufacturer. I would just like some feedback as to whether that's a reasonable response or they're trying to fob me off.

I did send a tech support email (not an RMA request) to the manufacturer 8 days ago, but I haven't received a response yet.

DE_612183

How old is the card?

If it's nearly 4 years old I would think the warranty sits with the manufacturer - you can hardly claim after 4 years the item was faulty when you bought it.

benjii1

I bought it Jan 2021, so it is nearly 4 years old. Can you only claim on a warranty if it was faulty at the time it was bought? I thought warranties covered the degrading of a product over time, if it's still within warranty.

eskbanker

Retailers can and do offer warranties but they're more often provided by the manufacturer.

Separately, you do have consumer rights with the retailer but in this scenario you'd probably need some sort of independent report to assert a manufacturing flaw in order to succeed with a claim under the Consumer Rights Act.

DullGreyGuy

If the manufacturers system is saying its in warranty then its in warrant as far as the manufacturer is concerned or they have a terrible system

benjii1

Let's say Currys listed a 3 year warranty when I bought it, but the manufacturer gave me an extra year when I registered it. That would mean I would have to contact the manufacturer, right?

I don't know this is what happened, but I guess it could have.

Okell

benjii1 said:

... Currys are refusing to help me with it and am telling me I should contact the manufacturer. I would just like some feedback as to whether that's a reasonable response or they're trying to fob me off...

Why are you so keen for currys to deal with it if it's still under the manufacturer's warranty?

After 4 years you are probably better off with the manufacturer's warranty* rather than trying to enforce your statutory consumer rights against Currys.


*  I'm assuming you get a relacement or repair under the warranty, but you haven't bothered to give us any details as to what the warranty covers...

Alderbank

benjii1 said:

Let's say Currys listed a 3 year warranty when I bought it, but the manufacturer gave me an extra year when I registered it. That would mean I would have to contact the manufacturer, right?

No.

With a warranty you have to do exactly what the warranty says.

Could be the manufacturer, could be the retailer, could be neither. For many of the types of goods that Currys sell, such as TVs or washing machines, you contact the nominated third party repairer who is identified in the warranty. Domestic & General is one that is commonly used.

What does your warranty actually say?

Okell

benjii1 said:

I bought a graphics card from Currys that is now having issues. Their website shows that it came with a 3 year warranty. The page listing for the item itself is no longer up, this is just what the people on the phone have told me...

Further to my earlier post, the fact that Currys advertised that it comes with a three year warranty doesn't necessarily mean that Currys are giving the warranty.  It might mean that Currys are selling it with a 3 year manufacturer's warranty.

As others have said, whatever remedies you have under the warranty - and who you have them against - are determined by whatever the T&Cs of the warranty said three or four years ago.  We can't see what those terms were, but presumably you did see them and know what they said?

born_again

benjii1 said:

I bought it Jan 2021, so it is nearly 4 years old. Can you only claim on a warranty if it was faulty at the time it was bought? I thought warranties covered the degrading of a product over time, if it's still within warranty.

If you took it to currys to deal under Consumer rights. You would need a 3rd party report on the issue. If there was nothing they could do you would be looking at a refund for the item, that would be reduced by 4 years use. So something around 25% or purchase price.

benjii1

I don't know the specifics of the warranty. It's whatever a standard warranty is that comes with PC hardware, I didn't pay for anything extra. My experience with that in the past is if something goes wrong, they take it back and fix it/replace it while the warranty is valid.

I wanted to deal with Currys because I was getting radio silence from Gigabyte. They just responded to me today, 9 days later, and told me to contact the retailer. I got absoultely nowhere with Currys on the phone and they just state their system shows 3 years and I should contact the manufacturer.

I have responded to Gigabyte and told them that Currys said to talk to them, I guess I just have to wait and see where that goes.