Am I entitled to a full refund on faulty goods?

Catswann

On 2/9/25 my parents purchased an electric wheelchair with remote control. They reported the remote as faulty on 26/9/25. The company sent an engineer to inspect it on 29/9/25 and they confirmed the fault. My parents heard nothing more  so contacted them again on 7/10/25 requesting a refund. The company said they would call them back which they have not yet.
Are they entitled to a refund even though the official refund request was after 30 days? 
They have now been without a wheelchair for 2 weeks and they feel a replacement/repair would not be satisfactory as another fault could be life threatening and can no longer trust the product.
Many thanks

MyRealNameToo

Catswann said:

On 2/9/25 my parents purchased an electric wheelchair with remote control. They reported the remote as faulty on 26/9/25. The company sent an engineer to inspect it on 29/9/25 and they confirmed the fault. My parents heard nothing more  so contacted them again on 7/10/25 requesting a refund. The company said they would call them back which they have not yet.
Are they entitled to a refund even though the official refund request was after 30 days? 
They have now been without a wheelchair for 2 weeks and they feel a replacement/repair would not be satisfactory as another fault could be life threatening and can no longer trust the product.
Many thanks

Under the CRA you can reject goods with 30 days, you can however also accept a merchants offer to repair/replace it. If you do this the clock is effectively frozen and only restarts once the repair/replacement has been done. You then get either another 7 days to reject or the rest of the 30 days, whichever is longer. 

So yes, you asked for a repair within 30 days, the repair hasn't been effected yet and so you can still reject the goods. 

Catswann

MyRealNameToo said:

Catswann said:

On 2/9/25 my parents purchased an electric wheelchair with remote control. They reported the remote as faulty on 26/9/25. The company sent an engineer to inspect it on 29/9/25 and they confirmed the fault. My parents heard nothing more  so contacted them again on 7/10/25 requesting a refund. The company said they would call them back which they have not yet.
Are they entitled to a refund even though the official refund request was after 30 days? 
They have now been without a wheelchair for 2 weeks and they feel a replacement/repair would not be satisfactory as another fault could be life threatening and can no longer trust the product.
Many thanks

Under the CRA you can reject goods with 30 days, you can however also accept a merchants offer to repair/replace it. If you do this the clock is effectively frozen and only restarts once the repair/replacement has been done. You then get either another 7 days to reject or the rest of the 30 days, whichever is longer. 

So yes, you asked for a repair within 30 days, the repair hasn't been effected yet and so you can still reject the goods. 

Perfect thank you! I wasn't sure if we'd have to just accept a repair as that was what we'd initially asked for. Thanks for your help!

Okell

What MyRealNameToo says is correct.

The relevant legislation is in s22(3), (6), (7) and (8) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015

Alderbank

The Consumer Rights Act tries to be fair to both sides.

The Act says that since you have asked them to repair the remote control you need to allow them a reasonable time to do so.
'Reasonable time' is not defined, it will depend on factors such as how difficult it is to carry out the repair, how long they have to wait for parts, how difficult it is to get safety re-accreditation, etc.

However if giving them that necessary amount of time to carry out the repair would cause the consumer significant inconvenience, then the consumer can refuse to wait and can exercise their right to reject which they had placed on hold.

The relevant legislation is in s23(2) and (7) of the Consumer Rights Act.

You say, '...my parents purchased...' 
For the CRA to apply the purchaser can't be a bunch of people. It only applies if the purchaser was one individual, and only that person has consumer rights.
However if say your mother bought the chair for her disabled child it might well be that she suffered significant inconvenience even if she is not the user of the goods if not having use of the chair means she would have to make extra car journeys, miss work, etc.

Since it's just the remote control that is faulty, could the seller lend you another handset while yours is being fixed?

Catswann

Alderbank said:

The Consumer Rights Act tries to be fair to both sides.

The Act says that since you have asked them to repair the remote control you need to allow them a reasonable time to do so.
'Reasonable time' is not defined, it will depend on factors such as how difficult it is to carry out the repair, how long they have to wait for parts, how difficult it is to get safety re-accreditation, etc.

However if giving them that necessary amount of time to carry out the repair would cause the consumer significant inconvenience, then the consumer can refuse to wait and can exercise their right to reject which they had placed on hold.

The relevant legislation is in s23(2) and (7) of the Consumer Rights Act.

You say, '...my parents purchased...' 
For the CRA to apply the purchaser can't be a bunch of people. It only applies if the purchaser was one individual, and only that person has consumer rights.
However if say your mother bought the chair for her disabled child it might well be that she suffered significant inconvenience even if she is not the user of the goods if not having use of the chair means she would have to make extra car journeys, miss work, etc.

Since it's just the remote control that is faulty, could the seller lend you another handset while yours is being fixed?

Technically, my father purchased it for my mother. He is no longer well enough to push my mother in her wheelchair so needed an electric one. My mother is unable to control the wheelchair herself, hence having a remote control. The company who sold it have still not provided a replacement or repaired it or been in contact since 26th Sept. This seems unreasonable to me considering how important the wheelchair is. My mother has been unable to get out of the house.

Alderbank

Your father should phone them tomorrow to tell them that the delay has caused him significant inconvenience so he now wishes to enforce his rights to cancel the purchase under s23 of the Consumer Rights Act. He should tell them to make the refund to him without delay so that he can purchase a wheelchair from a more reliable company with better customer service.

Please tell us how the company responds.

Catswann

Thanks for your help everyone. My parents have finally got their refund. It was very difficult to get in touch with someone to sort it. They were often told the manager wasn't there and they'd get back to them but never did. Eventually, after persistently calling every day, the company collected the wheelchair and have issued a full refund.
Thanks!

photome

Catswann said:

Thanks for your help everyone. My parents have finally got their refund. It was very difficult to get in touch with someone to sort it. They were often told the manager wasn't there and they'd get back to them but never did. Eventually, after persistently calling every day, the company collected the wheelchair and have issued a full refund.
Thanks!

Naming the company could help others avoid a similar situation