Toshiba TV - can this be right?

FormbyMax

Morning all,

I'd value your thoughts on this:

I purchased a 36" Toshiba CRT TV about 18 months ago and took out the 1 year warranty that came with it, figuring TV's rarely go wrong. Last month it did go wrong and clearly was out of warranty. I phoned mastercare who sold me a 1 year warranty if they could fix the TV. Today they called and said that no parts are available for the TV! It's only 18 months old for gods sake and Toshiba apparently have no spare parts for it.

I have written to Toshiba telling them that I couldn't believe that it was not possible to repair an 18 month old TV and I'm awaiting their response. Any ideas on other approaches. I don't think a £1300 TV should just pack up and be impossible to repair after only 18 months.

Thanks for your thoughts in advance

Max

Saveit

This suprises me, I swear by Toshiba, My first one lasted 17 years and the second is now 4 years old with no probems. I would normally recommend this make to anyone so I am quite shocked you are haveing problems and am more shocked they don't have the parts!!
I hope youa re able to get this sorted , a lot of money for this Tv and so little use. Good Luck. keep it posted how you get on.

specialK

I can belive anything with Toshiba, about 5 years ago we purchased a Toshiba W/S TV and after 12-18 months it would not come on unless it felt like. I had to watch the screen changing from red, blue and green and sometimes it would give out an almighty buzzy sound at full volume. So in effect I was lucky to get any picture.

After many calls and emails to toshiba I decided to phone out an engineer and surprise surprise he said it was a fault with Toshiba and the tube in the TV but they would notdo anything about it. They are fully aware of the faults but would sell me a tube at the reduced price of £500.00 then he would fit it for an extra £450.00.

The TV only cost me £750.00 in a sale! so I had to get a new TV, NOT Toshiba of course.

Unless Toshiba has had a big overhaul I think you are stuck here. It sounds like they haven't though. The engineer said they are the worst TV to buy (a few btw, just to confirm my findings) and they just stop making a TV when its found to be faulty and its of to the new model and new problems.

I personally think this sounds a bit extreme, but them in the business all say the same....stay away from Toshiba.

I sympathise with you on how annoying it is, I can remember when TV's lasted for years (grandparents and the like reminding me) but now everything these days is a fashion statement - a trend, so I suppose they are not built to last anymore.

grumbler

FormbyMax wrote:

... purchased ... about 18 months ago and took out the 1 year warranty that came with it ... Last month it did go wrong and clearly was out of warranty ... mastercare who sold me a 1 year warranty

:mad:

All appliances come with free at least 1-year manufacture's warranty. If you bought extended warranty, it started after 1 year and it is active now. What your T&C say? Usually it is something like this:

'If your product can’t be repaired, or if it takes longer than 6 weeks to repair you may request a replacement product.'


Also you can find some usefull information im my post in 'Faulty goods on credit cards question?' thread (not only on credit card purchases).

kevinyork

Hi,

If you dont get anywhere with regards to the extended warranty to might want to pursue the retailer under the Sale of Goods Act.

Although retailers generally offer a 12 month warranty, when things go wrong outside of the 12 months they will almost always say there is nothing they can do for you. The Sale of Goods Act 1979 however does not make any stipulation regarding the period of time goods are expected to last for and it is dependant on each type of item and on the view of a county court judge if it gets that far. The rule of thumb is when you buy a TV you expect it to ladst more than 12 months, especially in that price bracket. Therefore for it to go wrong in 18 months make it not ' of satisfactory quality ' and as such you could claim for your loss, either the repair cost or if irrepairable then the reasonable replacement cost after making a deduction for the wear and tear on your set.

Ive pursued 2 issues like this before. One was with Comet when my video went wrong after 15 months. Although they first denied any responsibility I wrote to them quoting the Sale of Goods Act and in the end they offered to repair it for me and I had to make a 25% contribution. As it wasnt much I went down that road. The second case is currently with Amazon and a digital camera that has failed after 14 months. Have had no luck with them at all so am about to issue a County Court Summons for the repair/replacement cost. This costs from £30 and can be done online. Ive issued lots of CCS and in all but one case have had total success and it is a route I would recommend.

If you search the net for sale of goods act and out of warranty items you should find lots of links to sites giving you the legal position.

You should first write a letter to the retailer though who you contract is with, i.e. who you purchased the set from and state your case. Include something like:

"However, irrespective of the guarantee, I believe implied into our contract under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) are certain “statutory rights”. One of these is that the (item) you supplied me should be of a Satisfactory Quality. To be of a Satisfactory Quality, goods must meet the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory bearing in mind the way they were described, what they cost and other relevant circumstances"

Hope this helps.


Kev

FormbyMax

Thanks Kev,

I think i'm going to pursue this route if I don't get anything satisfactory back from Tosh (which it doesn't sound like I will)

Max

trickytrolleys

if you have no luck then: SUE SUE SUE - its outrageous that the tele is no longer working, it wouldnt even get to court - they would settle sharpish imo, if u need any help pm me.

paul_h

Toshiba do no keep all parts on stock, most are supplied by their official parts distributors in this country. Many parts are generic, and I would be very surprised indeed if any part could not be sourced for this TV - most internal components are available for TVs going back 20 yrs.

I have heard of problems like this before with Mastercare, they say that they are unable to repair because a part is not available from the supplier - the 'supplier' usually being their own parts stores.

Although your immediate problem is with Mastercare, I agree with kevinyork about pursuing the retailer with the sale of goods act.

I would also be surprised if Toshiba do not eventually reply to your query.

Joto_2

On a different product, but could be a similar situation. My Panasonic Combi Microwave has just gone faulty. Although it is out of its 12 month guarantee, apparently some parts have a 3 year warrenty. I only found this out from the registered repairer of Panasonic since there is nothing in my details/instructions etc.

squirrelz

My toshiba TV is 7 years old an no sign of any problems wish it would go bang so the missus will let me buy a new snazzy one :dance:

LondonBen

This site maybe useful for anyone looking to persue their rights in situations like this.

http://www.howtocomplain.co.uk/