Sharps unable to repair faulty wardrobe still under warranty. What redress should I get?

chssvl

I have a Sharps fitted wardrobe which was purchased a bit over seven years ago and is still under warranty. 

There have been a few faults with the wardrobe in the past, all of which have been fixed. However, a few months ago, one of the doors developed a "bubble" (i.e. the glue behind the foil started to fail so it has this section that is sagging).

I contacted sharps and they told me that they could replace the doors but that the colour of my wardrobe was no longer in production so I had to pick something else. They sent me a few samples, none of which is remotely close to the current one (mine has a natural/mid wood effect and was offered the options of either a white wood effect or a dark wood effect). Because of the design of the wardrobe, quite a lot of the structure is visible (I'd say about 50% of the external visible surface is the doors) so the recommended fix would look completely mismatched.

They took the door away to the factory to see if they could fix it but came back last week and told me that there was no way to fix it and that they could only offer to replace the doors with a new colour, i.e. an unacceptable solution.

I went back to them to tell them this was unacceptable and that I should get some sort of redress. They have come back with an offer of £300 cash (for reference, the wardrobe was somewhat over £3k), which they say is their final offer, and that accepting the offer would null the warranty (i.e. no more claims now or in the future).

Is this as good as I will get and should I just settle?

Pretty annoyed by the whole thing. We went with Sharps, which was the most expensive quote, because of the supposed quality and brand value that they offered and have now ended up in this situation.

marcia_

 Personally I think as you have had 7 years use out of the wardrobe you won't get much more than the £300 but I would argue for the warranty to continue to its end. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

In terms of consumer rights you have 6 years from delivery to make a court claim if you can’t get what you are entitled too, which has now passed.

However, my understanding is, a breach of the warranty would be at the time time it’s breached rather than when it started.

Do you have the warranty information? 

Can you post a copy of it or give us the gist of what it says they will do when this situation occurs and what they will do if they can’t honour the standard level due to situations like the product no longer being manufactured?

born_again

I would take the £300.

While it may have cost £3K, a door will be no where near that cost.

After 7 years seems like a great deal.

photome

What would make you happy?  

sheramber

Could you replace the door with a mirror door?

DullGreyGuy

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

In terms of consumer rights you have 6 years from delivery to make a court claim if you can’t get what you are entitled too, which has now passed.

However, my understanding is, a breach of the warranty would be at the time time it’s breached rather than when it started.

Do you have the warranty information? 

Can you post a copy of it or give us the gist of what it says they will do when this situation occurs and what they will do if they can’t honour the standard level due to situations like the product no longer being manufactured?

Simple contracts are 6 years from the date that the breach occurred. If you are saying the goods were defective and/or not appropriately durable then that means that was the case at the point of delivery hence thats when the 6 years clock starts ticking. 

Warranties are just the same however as you say the failure is the point of time they dont follow the terms and so would be "now" if they have actually breached the terms of the warranty. 

It would be a very poorly drafted warranty if it didnt include clause to deal with the case of a product no longer being in production especially for such a long warranty. Hopefully it would include what the basis of settlement should be in such an event. 

What was/is the price of a single door? Often if they cannot replace it they will give you the cash value of a replacement. 

ButterCheese

I think it is a good offer.  They have agreed to replace the doors but they can't replace what isn't made anymore.  The warranty terms, I assume, will probably say something like "we will attempt to replace like for like, but where this isn't possible we will offer a suitable alternative".  The £300 would cover paint if you wanted the mis-matched replacements and were to paint them all the same colour.  not ideal, but it's something.  Or you could get some sort of stick on edging strip which would cover it up maybe?

Also, although you paid a lot for the wardrobe, you would noy get £300 for it if you tried to sell it.  I've seen countless wardrobes for sale on marketplace for £300, £200, £100, FREE and still no takers, probably because no-one can collect and transport it.  So I would take the £300 quick as a flash, and either try to cover up the bubbling glue with something, or sand and repaint

Aylesbury_Duck

I agree with the general advice here.  Take the £300 and create some sort of cosmetic cover-up.

I presume your ideal outcome is a complete replacement of all visible parts so they match, but I think that's an unreasonable expectation after so long, unless the warranty offers it and they're breaching the warranty terms by not fulfilling that.

chssvl

Thanks for the replies. I guess I have no choice but it really annoys me. When we purchased the thing I remember a colleague at work suggesting I had overpaid (or, rather, that I had been ripped off) and just saying "well, but you know, it's Sharps so I'll pay for the peace of mind". 

The other thing that really annoys me is that in their communications they seem to imply that I'm being unreasonable for not accepting the replacement doors in another colour. Even suggesting that customers in my situation have been happy to change the doors for cream-coloured or stone. I attach the picture of the wardrobe and let you be the judge as to whether I'm being crazy that only changing the doors would look horrible.

TBH, a full replacement wouldn't be great either because all the furniture in the room was purchased with that colour in mind. 

Sigh....anyway, thanks for the advice. 

Boohoo

Silly question maybe but have you looked online for replacement doors for the wardrobe?

Do you have a picture of the faulty door to put on here to have look at?