BT Whole Home refund from Maplin

linge289 · 17 May 2018 at 8:23AM

Purchased 3 BT Whole Home discs last year to improve the Wi-Fi around the home. These were working perfectly until February this year when BT released a firmware update that means Wi-Fi is now dropping out on devices sporadically. This has been widely reported in the news, they cannot roll back the firmware and no fix is forthcoming. Myself and a large number of people have lost faith in this equipment, having been without reliable Wi-Fi now for most of this year, and with no fix on the horizon, a good number of people who have purchased these discs have now returned them on the grounds of not being fit for purpose. Amazon is well aware of the issue and is happily issuing refunds. However, I happened to purchase my discs from Maplin, who is now in administration and is not issuing any refunds on any products.

I literally don’t know what to do now because:

• I can’t use the things as they drop out every few minutes.
• I can’t take them back as I bought them through Maplin. Who have gone bust.
• I can’t do a Section 75 refund because I paid through flipping PayPal
• I can’t claim it through PayPal as it’s been over 180 days.
• I can’t sell them on eBay, as that firstly means lumping the problem onto some other poor soul, but also if they experience the same issues and complain to ebay i’ll end up dipping out. Also it’s unethical to sell something I know is faulty. Even though it’s not actually my fault that it’s faulty!

I emailed BT asking for help.... they told me to go back to Maplin

I emailed Maplin. They told me I had to apply to the administrators and I might get a percentage of my money back.

I need to buy some new equipment so I can use Wi-Fi around the home, which is more expense now. Have I just got to accept that BT have well and truely screwed me over and I have lost £200?

pmduk · 17 May 2018 at 8:30AM

I can't see how BT have screwed you over, you never had a contractual relationship with them for these items.

linge289 · 17 May 2018 at 8:35AM

Agreed, but it is their failure to fix the faults on their equipment (that they are still selling might I add) that mean I am in the position I am in now. If they could have fixed this issue they caused, I wouldn!!!8217;t be seeking to return it. Nor would many other people who purchased it from different retailers

SuperHan · 17 May 2018 at 10:32AM

pmduk wrote: »

I can't see how BT have screwed you over, you never had a contractual relationship with them for these items.

You don't need to have a contractual relationship with someone for them to screw you over...

I don't think you have any real recourse here, unfortunately. Maplins have the obligation, but as they're in adminstration they can't deliver on that obligation and so you won't get what you need from them.

You could try and rely on a manufacturers warranty, but if BT are aware of the issue, can't fix it and the issue will be the same on any replacement device, I can't see how this would be of any use either.

Your best bet may be to try and get on to BT for some goodwill, but they don't have any obligation to help you, so you would be relying on goodwill.

Geodark · 17 May 2018 at 12:20PM

One question though, were you forced to do the update or was it one that you had to apply manually?

Aylesbury_Duck · 17 May 2018 at 1:14PM

Geodark wrote: »

One question though, were you forced to do the update or was it one that you had to apply manually?

Good question. After a couple of poor experiences applying updates to iOS and a smart TV, I now hold off from applying any updates to anything until a few weeks/months have passed and the internet is clear of people complaining about problems caused by an update and the inability to roll back to a prior version. It does seem common for companies to release "upgraded" software that ends up chomping battery life, taking more memory, slows processes and so on, all so it can add some shiny new feature you probably won't use anyway.

BT Whole Home refund from Maplin

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