Hi everyone, Thank you for your responses, very helpful indeed, it certainly seems that more people should be made aware of the SoGA as I can think of several circumstances in my life when it would have to applied to goods which I have just accepted I need to replace at cost when in fact I could have sought partial compensation (including my last laptop! Hence my grumpyness over this one). As I said, I am awaiting Currys diagnosis and its possible it could still be an easy fix but in the worst case this is all valuable information. I also contacted the Citizens Advice consumer helpline who were very helpful in clarifying my rights as well. Interestingly they do agree that the "reasonable wear and tear" argument is the grey area in all of this, and that if all else fails it would fall to a judge in the claims court to decide if reasonable usage had been had from the laptop before the thing packed up. However they also advised me that in the event Currys did not respond or offer suitable assistance with the repair, my next step would be to contact a 3rd party conflict resolution scheme - perhaps one that Currys is a member of, or else an independent one which Citizens Advice could recommend, who would then contact the retailer to try and find a resolution suitable to both parties without going to a court claim (which lets face it is preferable for the sake of a few hundred pounds). Just thought it was worth mentioning here for anyone else digging up research, they said the small claims court should be a last resort and there are other ways to pursue the claim before reaching that point. Well worth speaking to them on issues like this as they have some good advice. Thanks again for your help, I shall certainly be paying more attention to this in future and advising everyone I know of their rights! Cheers Jon

Hi there, New to this forum but it all looks helpful. Im sure this question has been posed here before but im just seeking clarity on my legal position. Bought an £800 sony vaio laptop from Currys (for my sins) in Oct 2013. It was the most expensive windows laptop in the shop, sold to me after I explained I use it for work and it gets lots of use so needs to be a machine which will stand up to it rather than a cheap laptop that will struggle to keep pace... It has been repaired once by Currys already in Summer 2014 (software failure, they reinstalled windows for me and thats about all). Last week, after 2 years 3 months, it has died completely. I have returned it to Currys for them to asses, but I am expecting it could be a motherboard failure and as such pretty much a write off and time to buy a new one. I have a friend who works for Currys repair centre, and he has advised me that Currys are obliged to repair or replace under the Sales of goods act regardless of warranty, something he described as retails best kept secret. Having raised this point with Currys the lady was quite firm in her denial ("in thrity years of working here ive never heard of a free repair to a 2 year old machine" ...etc). She claimed that wear and tear on the key board and case showing it has been used a lot as opposed to someone using it once a week to check facebook has to be considered when assessing what is reasable to expect in terms of the life of a laptop. While I take the point that number of hours use affects overall years of use, I feel that 2 years 3 months is not a reasonable time for a laptop to fail to the point of replacement, especially not for an £800 machine sold on the basis of its durability. I feel the amount of use is irrelevent given the short time frame, as to support that argument is to say that the laptop was not suitable for business use or capable of being used for anything other than light domestic home use, contrary to advice given at point of sale and contrary to the price tag. Having read some other threads here I am under the impression I may be entitled to some compensation if not a full repair/replacement, on the basis that the sales of goods act states it must "reasonably not be expected to have failed" which I think is the case. The issue of "fault being present from manfacture" can only be prooved by virtue of the fact it has failed, and would only fail after time not necessarily when first purchased. If an indpendent report was needed I can arrange it, I certainly havent spilled anything or dropped it, or otherwise caused reason for it to be faulty and the nature of it being inside the laptop means its hard to really break a motherboard any other way. I would appreicate advice on how to approach the issue given Currys known stubborn attitude to these problems and a better understanding of my legal rights. If needs be I will buy a new laptop (elsewhere), but I do feel I am being robbed of at least a couple of years use of a machine and therefore should be compensated towards the cost of a new one. Many thanks in advance Jon