Russel Hobbs Extended Warranty Problems

dozstanford

Greetings, I am hoping that someone might be able to advise if I have any recourse with the following situation.

My mother purchased a Russel Hobbs 20460 kettle from Argos 22/12/22 and registered the kettle the same day to get the extra years warranty, putting it under warranty until 22/12/25.

On 05/03/25 the button on the kettle handle ceased to function and when pressed it no longer released, or lifts the lid on the kettle.

The same day I went on to the Russel Hobbs website and filled in a warranty claim including uploading a photo of the receipt and a screen cap print off of the extended warranty that mum had attached to the receipt. A photo of the model/serial number label of the kettle that was located under the base, and a photo or the problem (not that it could be shown properly in a photo, but that was what the requested).

On 06/03/25 I received the following email in reply...
"Thank you for contacting us. Your request (***REF NUMBER REMOVED***) has been received.

Please note we aim to respond to your enquiry within 5 working days. Our opening hours are 8am-5pm Monday to Friday.

In the meantime, to help us action your enquiry as quickly as possible, please ensure you have sent the following information where relevant:

Full name;
Home address including postcode;
Telephone number;
Model Number of your product.

Thanks for getting in touch with us."

On 07/03/25 I received the following message...

"Thank you for reaching out and bringing this to our attention.

I am sorry to hear that you have an issue with your product. It is our number one priority to make sure that every customer is completely satisfied with our product and service. 
 
Please provide:
-    When did the issue start, actions taken to try fixing it. Did the product suffer any external damage?
-    Pictures of the inside of the kettle and videos of the fault 
-    A picture of your full receipt/invoice
As soon as we receive your response, we will be more than happy to further assist."

On 07/03/25 I replied with the following message...

"1. The fault started the evening before I made the claim online, so I guess looking at my emails that would be the 5th March 2025

2. No actions were taken, I suspect it's a spring failure or a worn down plastic part and I am not going to try and repair an electrical appliance that is under warranty, especially as I am not a qualified electrician.

3. The kettle has not "suffered any external damage".

4. I have added a photo of inside the kettle to this email.

5. I have add a video of the fault to the email.

6. I have already uploaded a photo of the receipt and extended warranty to the initial claim, I have added it again to this email."

Attached to this email I included the same photo of the receipt and extended warranty that I had already sent on the webform, a photo of the inside of the kettle as requested and a short video of the actual fault.

On the 11/03/25 I finally received the following reply...
"Thank you for contacting us.
 
Sadly, we are not able to find the item 20460 registered on your account under the email (***EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED***). Can you advise on what email account is it registered?
 
If you need any further information, then please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to assist."

The same day I replied with the following message...
"I have provided a photo of the receipt which also includes the extended warranty which shows the product purchased at Argos on the 22/12/22 and the extended warranty which expires 22/12/25, which shows that it was registered on the day of purchase.

The product is either registered to this email address (***EMAIL ADDDRESS REMOVED***) or (***EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED***).

Regardless which email it was registered to is irrelevant.

I have provided proof of purchase and proof of extended warranty and that the product is within the warranty period.

Why exactly are you making this so difficult to make a warranty claim ?"

On 13/03/25 I received the following reply...
"Thank you for contacting us.

 
I am very sorry to hear that, I assure you that we are not trying to this so difficult, sadly, the item does not appear as registered under any of those emails. Can you advise from what email account you have the picture of the registration?
 
If you need any further information, then please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to assist."

Unfortunately I was rather unwell at this point and had been unable to check my emails

On 16/03/25 I received the following email...
"Thank you for contacting Russell Hobbs, your request (***REF NUMBER REMOVED***) is still awaiting a response. If you no longer require assistance, this ticket will automatically close in 2 days."

On 17/03/25 I sent the following reply to that message...
"Yes I still want assistance, for 11 days I have been trying to claim on the warrant on my kettle and this is ridiculous, please provide a contact number so that I can speak to someone in person to resolve this as trying to obtain authorization to return a faulty kettle should not take this long."

On 19/03/25 I received the following reply...
"Thank you for contacting us.
 
I am very sorry to hear that. Our phone number is below. From what we can see, the item is registered for extended warranty, if there is no fregistration, calling will not provide a better fedback as there is no reason to return the kettle, we do not do repairs. In order for us to help, if the item is in warranty, we need to know under what email it was registered.
 
0345 658 9700
 
If you need any further information, then please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to assist."

Read that one again, it's an exact copy/paste, first saying the kettle IS REGISTERED, then acting like it isn't, not to mention the typos.

So Today I went to my mothers, gave her all the info from above, and she called the number provided by Russel Hobbs...

Firstly the guy mum spoke to was unbelievably rude and condescending, constantly interrupting her, talking over her and even told her to "shut up and listen to me", the way she was spoken to was frankly disguising.

He would not listen to anything she said just constantly repeating that they cannot see the kettle registered to either mums of my email address and when she tried to complain about the way he was speaking to her he refused to pass the call on to a supervisor.

Eventually after 15 minutes or so, and asking repeatedly the guy looked at the photo that was sent that included the image of the receipt and screen cap print off of the extended warranty registration, and the guy instantly went silent.

Honestly at this point I think this is the first time that anyone actually looked at any of the images that were sent either through the webform or email.

After some silence, he said that he would get someone to contact my mum back, just as mum was about to hang up, I said "do they have your phone number" to which they did not, so mum tried to gave it to the guy AND HE REFUSED TO TAKE IT!!!, he said they would reply by email and promptly hung up.

So, my question is this, does my mother have any legal recourse ?

Thank you kindly for your time reading this and in advance for any assistance offered in this matter.

Kind regards

Aylesbury_Duck

Warranty rights are those described in the warranty, and if it's not registered for whatever reason, that's that.  Any legal action would be on the basis of consumer rights.

How much was the kettle?  A two year old kettle is unlikely to be worth much, and that's the value you'd be able to claim if a consumer rights claim were successful.  Is it worth it?

powerful_Rogue

Did you actually register for the extended warranty with Russell Hobbs?

dozstanford

As stated earlier, when I first made a warranty claim online and later again by email when requested by Russel Hobbs a photo was sent of the receipt from Argos, that photo also included a screen cap print off of the extended warranty registration...

This photo is of a screen cap printout of the warranty registration...
ibb.co/HpY2fwCb

I checked my email and my mothers both inbox and bin and can find no email relating to the kettle registration, I only found a copy of the receipt from Argos in my mothers inbox.

I have never personally registered a product with Russel Hobbs so I do not know if there even is an email confirmation, I only have that print out that my mother had printed off when she registered it, that I found attached to the Argos receipt that she had.

I'm not saying anything as fact, but at this point I suspect she may have input her email address incorrectly when she registered it, or there is or was a problem Russel Hobbs end... or Russel Hobbs are doing everything they can to dodge honoring the warranty.

The kettle was £35 at the time of purchase and is about the same now, while I wouldn't waste my time with legal action over such an amount, that said on principle and the way that my mother was spoken today, I'm cheesed off to say the least. 

I have just noticed that you can log into the Russel Hobbs website and see products registered with the site, after doing some password resets I got into my mothers account and found her Toaster registered with them and nothing else and there does not appear to be an account linked to my email address... at this point I'm certain that she must have input the wrong email address... such as a typo.

That said looking at the warranty registration for the toaster, it looks identical (other than the screwed up print at the bottom of the page), to that of the kettle registration page...

Does such a simple mistake invalidate the registration, even though there is a receipt and proof that it was registered albeit to the wrong email address ???

Aylesbury_Duck

If the warranty terms are that it must be registered and that the owner must have an email confirmation of registration, then that's that.  It's silly, but that's how it is.

Personally I'd let it go, buy a new kettle and don't touch RH products again.  People often recommend a particular kettle from Asda that's about £15 and seems to last forever.

The alternative is probably a lengthy process of having it inspected at your cost, then going to the retailer for a resolution,  taking the retailer to small court if the inspection confirms a premature failure that wasn't your mother's fault and if the retailer won't help.  The problem is that the kettle is probably worth a fiver by now, so that's what you'd get.

dozstanford

Not the response I had hoped for but is the response I expected, it's sad, but what you say makes sense, thank you for your time and assistance

More than anything I was angry the way my mother was spoken to today which spurred me to dig deeper for a means of recourse as there was no way to speak to the superior of the clown that my mother engaged with on the phone.

I don't know what I expected to be able to do, but I'm not involving Argos as they've done nothing wrong.

Thanks again.

Mr.Generous

Very poor service from what I thought was a decent brand. I'd be mad too. A good reason to never buy a rip off extended warantee I guess.

powerful_Rogue

Mr.Generous said:

Very poor service from what I thought was a decent brand. I'd be mad too. A good reason to never buy a rip off extended warantee I guess.

The Russel Hobbs brand was bought out by an American company back in 2010. This wasn't a paid for extended warranty.