Ratailer refuses to honour manufacturer's warranty, instead offers refund, after price increase

prowla

la531983 said:

prowla said:

la531983 said:

You havent made a £250 loss, you have been returned to the position you were in before you had the item.

If the item had gone down in price by £250, and you received a £700 refund, would you be telling them to keep the £250?

They're saying that if they want to replace it like-for-like it'll cost them £250 more.

I know that. But they still havent made a loss.

My point was if the item was now £250 less to buy, they would hardly be telling them to "keep the change".

And my point was that the OP said "effective loss", ie. what it would cost them to be with the given item again.

But yes, they haven't made an actual loss.

ipanel

Sorry for not posting back sooner - I was following things up with the manufacturer (De'Longhi), and didn't get any notifications of this thread being updated.

Yeah, I obviously get that I'm not entitled to anything more than £700 refund, obviously. Thanks for everyone telling me that :-)
Clearly my point is that I bought it because I wanted it.  After a refund, and the price hike since, it's obviously an *effective* loss for me of £250 to replace it.  What I wanted to do was force a warranty replacement or repair rather than refund.
However, the point is somewhat moot.  Horrifically, it seems they don't do repairs (coolant handling engineers less cheap?), and both the seller, and now (seasonally) the manufacturer are both out of stock, so I realistically have 3 options as I see it:

1. Live with it - it then becomes a security risk on my network, even without peer-to-peer (if it even work in that configuration), I'm not keen on that.
2. Take the £700 now, and hope that at the start of 2026, following supply and demand, the price will be back down to £700 and replace it then.  It might be, but that's a big gamble, not keen.
3. Forget it for now, and restart the warranty process in spring 2026, when stock is available again, either with the seller, or directly with the manufacturer. Of course my model may be discontinued then, a risk.

Having spoken to the manufacturer, option (3) seems my best bet.  Finger's crossed.
A pesky situation, just unlucky I guess :-(  It's the second De'Longhi device I've bought, that's gone up at least 35% after my buying it.  Maybe I should start trading them :-)

born_again

ipanel said:

Sorry for not posting back sooner - I was following things up with the manufacturer (De'Longhi), and didn't get any notifications of this thread being updated.

Yeah, I obviously get that I'm not entitled to anything more than £700 refund, obviously. Thanks for everyone telling me that :-)
Clearly my point is that I bought it because I wanted it.  After a refund, and the price hike since, it's obviously an *effective* loss for me of £250 to replace it.  What I wanted to do was force a warranty replacement or repair rather than refund.
However, the point is somewhat moot.  Horrifically, it seems they don't do repairs (coolant handling engineers less cheap?), and both the seller, and now (seasonally) the manufacturer are both out of stock, so I realistically have 3 options as I see it:

1. Live with it - it then becomes a security risk on my network, even without peer-to-peer (if it even work in that configuration), I'm not keen on that.
2. Take the £700 now, and hope that at the start of 2026, following supply and demand, the price will be back down to £700 and replace it then.  It might be, but that's a big gamble, not keen.
3. Forget it for now, and restart the warranty process in spring 2026, when stock is available again, either with the seller, or directly with the manufacturer. Of course my model may be discontinued then, a risk.

Having spoken to the manufacturer, option (3) seems my best bet.  Finger's crossed.
A pesky situation, just unlucky I guess :-(  It's the second De'Longhi device I've bought, that's gone up at least 35% after my buying it.  Maybe I should start trading them :-)

Why is a a/c unit going to be a security risk & this is the 1st time you have mentioned this.
So just what the fault?

Sadly prices rise all the time. Especially on devices like this, where old stock are sold off & new products are brought out. 
So I would not hold out hope that a claim later will get a replacement. As that is going to depend on the wording of the warranty.

Undervalued

ipanel said:

Sorry for not posting back sooner - I was following things up with the manufacturer (De'Longhi), and didn't get any notifications of this thread being updated.

Yeah, I obviously get that I'm not entitled to anything more than £700 refund, obviously. Thanks for everyone telling me that :-)
Clearly my point is that I bought it because I wanted it.  After a refund, and the price hike since, it's obviously an *effective* loss for me of £250 to replace it.  What I wanted to do was force a warranty replacement or repair rather than refund.
However, the point is somewhat moot.  Horrifically, it seems they don't do repairs (coolant handling engineers less cheap?), and both the seller, and now (seasonally) the manufacturer are both out of stock, so I realistically have 3 options as I see it:

1. Live with it - it then becomes a security risk on my network, even without peer-to-peer (if it even work in that configuration), I'm not keen on that.
2. Take the £700 now, and hope that at the start of 2026, following supply and demand, the price will be back down to £700 and replace it then.  It might be, but that's a big gamble, not keen.
3. Forget it for now, and restart the warranty process in spring 2026, when stock is available again, either with the seller, or directly with the manufacturer. Of course my model may be discontinued then, a risk.

Having spoken to the manufacturer, option (3) seems my best bet.  Finger's crossed.
A pesky situation, just unlucky I guess :-(  It's the second De'Longhi device I've bought, that's gone up at least 35% after my buying it.  Maybe I should start trading them :-)

Whilst I am aware that some "smart" household appliances can be a weak point on a home network, is that a "fault" as such. Or is it more akin to buying a cheap door lock which is easier to pick than a more expensive one?

Presumably this just allows you to turn the AC on before you get home, the opposite to "smart" heating controls? Or maybe use online weather data to decide whether to run at all?

AFAIK there is no legal requirement for manufacturers to provide updates to this aspect of their devices for any particular length of time (or at all?). Obviously if its network hardware actually failed that would be a valid consumer rights or warranty claim.

So if this aspect is of significant concern to you then I'd take the money and do some serious research before rebuying.