TV fault issue

[Stainless]

Hi,

I was hoping to pick everyone's brains on an issue I have.

Last month I bought an LG TV and Home Cinema package from Currys.

When I got it home the Home Cinema System was clearly faultly so I took it back to the store. After much wrangling about whether or not I could return just the Home Cinema System (they were trying to make me bring the TV back as well) they gave me a refund.

Now I wish I had taken it back as the TV has now developed a fault that renders it pretty much unusable. This happened on Friday evening, but I was away from Saturday to Monday so had no chance to do anything about it. After a proper test on Monday I was certain it was faulty and rang Currys yesterday to make sure they'd exchange or refund before I packed it up (it's 37" so not exactly light). It turned out that the Saturday was the last day of their '28 days returns policy' and that I would now have to get it repaired.

I explained very calmly that the fault occured on day 27 (within their policy period) but was not physically able to do anything about it as I wasn't at home for 3 days. The customer serices rep didn't seem to care and tried to arrange a repair, telling me it could take up to 28 days. I explained that I felt this was unreasonable as the fault was clearly there at the point of purchase as I've barely used the TV and it's already screwed. The repair could take nearly as long as I've had the TV! And they are unable to book the engineer at a time convienient to me (they told me to take a whole day off work!)

To cut a long story short, he kept quoting policy but suddenly said "well, if you take it to a store, it's up to them. They might take it back".

So that's exactly what I'm going to do. However, I'm not the best at retailer confrontations. I want to be calm and sensible but strong enough to get my case across. What I really want is a refund as I have no faith in LG products as I've had to return 2 in one month (I'm sure there's 1000's of happy LG customers out there, I've just had a bad experience). I just want my money back to be able to do some further research and buy a more reliable TV.

Any advice on this? I feel it's quite unfair to be so picky over a couple of days. It's almost not a 28 day policy as what are the odds of someone who works full time being able to dash straight back to the store on day 27/28?

The whole process has left me feeling like I'm the bad guy here. I just want to resolve this as quickly as possible.

[old_andrew2007]

bump

[gyzmo]

Their returns policy is diddly squat. Statutory rights supercede anything they say. Even so, as you say, it broke down within the 28 day period. Either way - you have the upper hand.

You have a reasonable length of time to examine goods to ensure they conform to the contract. This time frame is subjective and is for a court to decide.

I would go in and state that the goods do not comply with s. 14 in terms of durability etc. Their store returns policy could be seen as an offence under CPUT regs, as there are times where 28 days will pass and you will have a statutory right to return goods for a refund.

A reasonable timeframe has not passed to examine the goods to ensure they conform to the contract, and as such, you are rescinding the contract in full and require a refund.

If they insist on a repair, ask to speak to the manager and just say you have been in this situation before (if you are not averse to white lies) and had Trading Standards contact the manager to get a refund. You do not want to have to go through that again but will if you have to.

If they still refuse, report it to Consumer Direct and request that Trading Standards become involved. And do please keep us updated.

[Stainless]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice. Very detailed and informative. I've already got a bit of an update.

I managed to get home early enough yesterday to take the TV back to my nearest Currys. As expected they didn't care too much that the fault had occured within their 28 day period and that I'd already had to return the other half of the package.

Unfortunately the store manager wasn't in (or so they told me), so I ended up dealing with a junior manager. He insisted that his hands were tied and that it would have to be repaired. However, after much discussion, he said that the part that was mandatory was that the fault needed to be confirmed by an engineer, after that, he said it was down to the discretion of the store manager to issue a refund.

So the end the 30 minute battle was that I had to leave the tv there and an engineer is looking at it today. I should get a phone call sometime this afternoo and then it will probably be round 2.

[Stainless]

Another update. The engineer just called me, and is now telling me that the tv is working! I'm not an idiot and did a ton of tests before I had to accept it was faulty. The last thing I wanted to do was take it back. It's a randomly occuring problem so they've obviously not tested it for long enough.

Now the engineer wants to take it away for 'a while' and do some more tests. It's just turning into a month long joke and I wish I'd never bought it.

What should I do now?

[gyzmo]

Contact Consumer Direct and ask for a TSO to assist. It will probably be a case that they will allow the seller to test the item. See what happens then. It will also be worth your while giving exact details of the problem in order to asist them in their investigation.