Plasma Stand - need help with a complaint letter please

[speedracer]

Posting this here as the dixons chat seems a bit dead and they have now changed their name to Currys Digital.

Dear All,

My first posting so be gentle with me....

I bought a plasma tv 11 months ago from Dixons online. At the time they did not have stock of the stand for the tv online so I went to a nearby Dixons store and bought the stand from there.

Fastforward 6 months and the tv starts playing up. Dixons technician visits and says it needs a new power supply but these are not in stock and need to be ordered. For the following five months I received a letter from the Tech guys advising the power supply was on order. I regularly called during this period to check on progress and the new power supply order was cancelled at least twice.

Eventually they decided that it would be better to just replace the tv with a new one. This was delivered this week, but the new tv (a later model than the first one) had a stand included and the old stand was not suitable for the new tv.

I phoned the online service team and they said there would be no problem returning the stand to the Dixons store that I bought it from. Wonderful. Unfortunately This seemed only sensible as if I had bought the stand online at the same time as the tv there would have been no problem returning the stand when the old tv was collected.

I made a special trip and visited the Dixons store where I bought the stand yesterday with my receipt and dropped off the stand (approx 25kg) to their loading bay and then went round to the store for the refund. Staff were helpful but advised there was no way I was getting a refund. I asked them to call the online team who also advised I wasn’t getting a refund.

I am planning to write to the Managing director Peter Keenan via customerservices@dixons.c o.uk and ask that my money be refunded.

Any suggestions on specific words or phrases I should use?

[rosiecotton]

Hmm, it's a tricky one as they've effectively replaced the stand with a new one, so you're not actually in a worse position due to the TV being faulty.

In my opinion you don't legally have a very strong argument for getting a refund, however you can try the argument that a refund had been agreed by the online service team.

I'm not sure if they record their calls, might be worth finding out, as otherwise it could be hard to prove what they said verbally if the store refuse to budge.

I don't see that you have any statutory legislation that you could reasonably refer to, so all I can suggest is that you write stating that you were promised a refund for the stand by the online service team and therefore you are holding them to that promise and you expect a refund by [date].

It'll be tough to try and take it further though, if they're not responding.

[speedracer]

I do not need to mention the new stand - just the fact that the old stand is not suitable for the new tv. I paid for the old tv and the old stand as separate items. They effectively gave a refund for the old tv and I happened to buy a new tv from them when the old one was taken away.

The old stand is no use for anything now as it only suits the old tv so I expect a refund for it. Not unreasonable I think.

Thanks though as you have pointed out that my wording needs to be exact and emphasise this point.

[blacksheep1979]

I don't think you stand much chance on this one - maybe if they were bought together at the same time as a package or if the new tv didn't have a stand etc. You wouldn't be moaning about this if they had given you the new model TV with no stand and the new TV fitted the old stand would you? Unless there is something fantastically different and better about the old stand then you won't get very far with this.

[rosiecotton]

No, the trouble is that there's nothing wrong with the old stand, and there's no liability on the trader to refund for goods that are not faulty.

If the new TV had come without a stand, and the old stand didn't fit, then you could have a claim for consequential losses to replace the stand. However, as you already have a stand that fits the new TV, you're not losing out practically.

Unfortunately all you can do is press home that you were promised a refund by the online team, but proving this might be hard and I think you'd have a weak case to take it further.