In May 2015 I purchased a Snooper DVR-3HD dashcam from Amazon sold by Amazon

in October this year it developed power related faults including turning on, battery holding no charge etc

I returned it to Snooper via their technical support who recently emailed back saying that although it was out of the 12 month warranty (I'd owned it 1 year 5 months) it was not a model that they stock anymore and that they do not have spares for the device and therefore cannot repair it.

They have therefore offered me a newer model the DVR-4HD at a discounted price of £99.99 instead of the regular RRP of £149.99. However I do feel that although this is an upgraded model I feel it is only giving me the option of paying £99.99 for a replacement direct from Snooper and if I don't, then I am stuck with a faulty dashcam which I have paid £139.99 for and lasted only 17 months.

Obviously there is the issue under the Sale of Goods act of arguing that goods must be fit for purpose for up to 6 years and I would consider a dashcam of that price to be more towards the higher end of the dashcam market compared to many other cheaper models and therefore expect it to last longer than 17 months before being faulty and then unable to be repaired.

The SOGA also says that the claim should be against the retailer (Amazon in this case) but it is Snooper who have dealt with the repair via their technical support and have not exactly told me what the fault was yet. Should I be directing my claim towards Amazon instead and should I be requesting either a replacement or at least a partial refund from them seeing as it can't be repaired?

Or is it fair to consider that a £139.99 dashcam can be classed as "dead" after just 17 months (i.e. only expected to last that long), or that £99.99 is a reasonable price to pay for a replacement model which now retails at near enough the same price as the old one when effectively the only main difference between the two is that the new one would be at the start of a new 12 month warranty?

If they were to make a cash offer then I would accept that you dont get the full amount back,

amortisation of business assets is usually over 5 years

so they should refund 60% of the original cost.

the aternative is to replace like with like so do they have anything of a similar spec at the moment?

Your contract is with Amazon so tell them that you want a new one,

reconditioned one of similar spec or a refund of £98

- this being the residual value left in an item of this value after 15 months use.

You can sue them if they dont agree and with proper reasoning, quoting the relevant legislation and some previous cases you will win using a standard calculation like this one

I had an issue similar to this, dashcam purchased from Amazon 3rd party seller... Failed after 5 months. Seller tried to fob me off until I complained to Amazon who instructed the seller to repair/replace item... Seller then demands I ship the faulty one to China at my expense (Royal Mail quoted me £43 shipping). I again complained to Amazon about their unreasonable demands and asked that they either arrange for shipping or refund me.

Amazon then decided to hide behind their 30 day refund policy and refused to help further... refused to refund me and because I had purchased the item using a gift card I received for Xmas... I was screwed and couldn't even do a charge back.

I would never suggest that you purchase another dashcam through a different friend/family account, nor would I suggest that you then return the faulty one as being non working on arrival and get a refund... that would just be wrong.

BTW... NEVER get a Mini 806 dashcam or anything remotely like them... they're all utter garbage... I would however highly recommend the Nextbase range as reliable and good quality... It's caught some complete and utter idiots on the roads.