Broken TV - Argos want Independent TV Report - Help needed
Basically bought a TV from Argos in November 2015, it's packed up last week, I have sound but no picture, think the backlight has gone.
Contacted Argos and they said as it's outside it's 12 months warranty I need to get an Independent report done before they will look into it any further.
Anyone had experience of this before? Who would I get an Independent report from? And is it worth it or are they likely to just try and fob me off even after getting the report?
Any help would be appreciated.
Contacted Argos and they said as it's outside it's 12 months warranty I need to get an Independent report done before they will look into it any further.
Anyone had experience of this before? Who would I get an Independent report from? And is it worth it or are they likely to just try and fob me off even after getting the report?
Any help would be appreciated.
Have you tried contacting the manufacturer ?
My old Samsung gave up after 3 years and although it came with a 2 year written warranty they still gave me money back on it, you might not get the full amount paid back as youve used it for a year but a high percentage back at least.
That's the way to do it.
Contact the manufacturer asap
Original Poster
Managed to get through to Philips who said they will send an engineer out to fix it free of charge - had spoke to someone in their customer services last week who told me it wouldn't be under warranty any more - the advisor I just spoke to disagreed and said it will be repaired free of charge. Result!
Philips. Great customer support.
Nice one
Original Poster
Well it worked for me?
It only partially worked for you on the call the manufacturer everything else was wrong.
And how do you figure that. Electrical goods cover a 2 year warranty, The op just proved it by contacting the manufacturer. A lot of sour grapes on these questions. People voting cold when they think they know better but are proven wrong.
Bunch of wazzocks.!
Source or you made it up? Very few offer anything more than the basic 1 year (eg. samsung, apple). The two year EU guarantee isnt valid in the UK as we opted out. As for the 50,000 hours use.... I lolled
The European Directive 1999/44/EC still stands, Sorry I didnt realise we had already left the EU, I thought were still in it for another 2 years.
But the Sale of goods act will meet or EXCEED the directive, meaning you get a minimum of 2 years.
Goods must be as described; they must be of satisfactory quality, which is determined by description, price, durability, and they must be fit for purpose. It is not written in stone but it is expected a tv lasts 50,000 hours which equates to an average of 5 years.
I do not need to prove to someone like you who clearly knows nothing of this that I got Samsung to reimburse me. I had no problems with their service at all, they sent out engineers who fixed it once but then the second time they couldnt fit it they gave me a percentage of its cost back as Id been using it for 3 years, I didnt even have to argue the point with them.
We are still in the EU.
You don't have a contract with the manufacturer but the retailer and yes there is the EU warranty process but after a year you have to prove the defect. So most of what was written was wrong, the manufacturer has helped out but they didn't have to, but many will as it keeps the goodwill with the brand.
Yes on contract.
Not quite on 1 year - burden of proof reversal comes at 6 months.
Glad op got result direct through manufacturer though. Note to self do not buy electrical goods from Argos as when are they going to ask for same report at 6 months at customers expense.
How the hell did you work that out? oO
This is correct - after 6 months technically you still could be covered for a further 18 months under SoGA but you'd have to get some proof that there was a manufacturing defect, they won't just arbitrarily give you your money back. The best course of action for this is to contact the manufacturer, who will in many cases just replace the device anyway - as in this case.
Hmm except SOGA was replaced with the consumer rights act and the extra 18 months is actually in total 6 years under both - but that is nit picking.
You're right, my bad. The 6 years things is a stretch - almost no chance of getting anywhere after two years unless you have some really solid proof that the TV had an underlying fault that remained latent for 2 years+. I guess it applies more to white goods and suchlike.
Yeah, that's why I was saying it is nit picking as reality and what is in those acts isn't an exact match and of course you get into the rabbit hole of valuing how much usage you have gained is worth - as with all legislation it is ultimately about being reasonable (that woolly chestnut).
The EU part (which is where the 2 year quote comes from) adds weight to reasoning that debate although different companies will vary in how they handle it. The thing I find with Argo's response above is that it marks they are aware they have a liability here but rather than use their own resources (costs them far less than you) they want the consumer to incur the cost to prove knowing it will deter claims from those that can either be bothered or not want to incur the costs to pursue. IMO other retailers offer better customer service than in this example, fortunately for op manufacturer has eliminated the issue for them.
I think the OP hasn't taken reasonable steps to validate the fault. In the case of my TV, I rang and told them what steps I'd been through in order to validate the fault, and that I had also contacted the manufacturer for advice (since I'm reasonable enough to acknowledge that people in call centres are not always au fait with every electronic device they sell). Judging by what was written on here (and I may be wrong, apologies if so) the OP hasn't even tested any other source before requesting a refund or swap from Argos - despite the fact that it is surely the first thing you should check.
Going entirely on what was written here, I would say that Argos's response to this particular situation was reasonable.
Just wondering if you are mixing this up with the other tv fault on here posted a few hours apart (the guy who hadn't done any diag's and had one sky box go out of sync and also asked if it was reasonable to request a full discount at the price he paid 15 months on for them to supply of a different new tv?)
However reasonable is woolly as it differs from perceptive and brings many variances.
In this context though there are other companies that by default give you min 2 years (one example I can think of gives 5) and also those that have processes in place that would assess to disprove first they are not liable before requesting you incur costs to find out if they are responsible or not (one that value repeat custom and have a higher focus on quality service).
Tbh though Argos' is not the first retailer that jumps to mind if thinking of buying a high quality tv set - perhaps a cheap rebranded budget set that may or may not work fully on delivery.
You might be right - it's been a busy day so it's easy to get confused
There are lots of possible reasonable approaches just the one presented to the OP in this case of pay an independent company (not the manufacturer and not us) to prove the fault is not your own creation to get a resolution for a failed unit that the op should not have in the first place is, imo, not great.
Perhaps the customer service agent should have stated that the SLA's they have (their contract not the OP's) is with the manufacturer who they should try first and if no joy to come back to us to consider other possible options (due to eslicks' point on who the OP's contract is with).
However, it could also be reasonable for the OP to state that he would agree to incur this diagnostic fee with an independent firm on the basis that if proven they would agree to refund roughly 80% of what was paid (15 months removed from 6 years as per the acts) as he would not wish to be in the same position with such a poor quality product and incur further costs down the line due to no fault of his own. Reality here though is to reach a mutually beneficial compromise.
Of course all irrelevant in this example as fortunately Op got a good result by going direct to manufacturer.
cause I'm an expert at bullcrap