I bought a Sony tv kdl43w755c roughly 12 months ago and have had faults on it since i bought it.

I bought it for my son but as he works away sometimes we didn't realise it was faulty until after the time Richer Sounds would replace it.

Since then we have been in the hands of Sony, who unfortunately have been poor at resolving the issue and to be honest poor customer service as i had to get Richer sounds customer service team involved to get them out to repair it.

We have spent about 5 hours on the phone doing troubleshooting to look into the issue and eventually they had a repair engineer out to replace the main processor board but this has not resolved the issues we are having.

Once again Sony want to start the process again and to be honest i cannot go through this again.

I have spoken to Richer sounds customer service team and they also want us to do it again however i have been informed that under the CRA the repair agent has one attempt to repair the problem then if still faulty i can ask for a refund or replacement

I am a loyal customer and advocate of Richer Sounds and to be fair the customer service from your staff has all ways been very good.

I have seen the email address for John Clayton of Richer Sounds and sent him this email as well am i right in thinking we are

entitled a refund or credit note

hoping Richer sounds come through

If you had troubles from day one then it should have gone to them 1st off as its a cra/soga issue not the retailers they are not under that scheme

Anyway RC and the rep here are very good and yes it should be a refund

The information you have had about the Consumer Rights Act is right but actually, also wrong.

Within the first six months of a defect, you have to give the seller of the item an opportunity to repair it. If the repair fails or if the seller refuses to repair it you then have the right to reject the item for a replacement or a refund.

In your case, you have exceeded the six months from the date of the purchase of the item.

You now have to fall back on your ordinary contractual rights. This shouldn't cause a problem because those rights are very good.

You haven't told us what the faults are and how they are interfering with your use of the TV set. This is very important to know.

If the fault is serious so that you are effectively deprived of the use of the TV set then this is known as a breach of condition – or a fundamental breach of the contract. The fault effectively destroys the purpose of having entered into the contract for you. If this is the case then you are entitled to say that Richer Sounds have terminated the contract by the breach and you are accepting that. In that case, you were entitled to a refund or a replacement – at your option. Of course, if you wanted you could settle for repair but it is up to you.

If the defect with the TV simply amounts to an inconvenience – such as knobs falling off, or a wonky stand et cetera, then this would be known as a breach of warranty. This kind of breaches a breach which does not destroy the purpose of the contract. In this case you would be entitled only to insist on a repair – although if it could not be repaired then eventually you can claim some compensation.

If you can tell us more about the fault then we can give you better advice.

However, I'm assuming that there is something wrong with the TV which prevents you watching it. On the basis of what you have been doing so far – because you want to be is reasonable is possible – I would suggest that you write a letter to Richer Sounds, outline in a bullet-pointed form everything that has happened in a chronology.

Include the attempts you have made to have it repaired. Tell them that you now consider that you have taken all reasonable steps to remedy the problem and that you now consider that the fault is so serious that it has terminated the contract and that you now want a replacement or a refund. Tell them that you want to make arrangements to return the set to them.

The next bit is up to you. If you want this to go on and on and become protracted then you will simply are some for a response and asked them what they want to do. If you want to bring it to a rapid conclusion, then you will frame your letter in the form of a letter before action and explain to them that if you do not get your refund or replacement within 14 days that you will bring an action in the County Court.

On the basis of what you have told us here, I expect that your chance of success are better than 90%. However, you would have to be prepared to carry out your threat. It's not worth bluffing. Do bit of background reading here about County Court claims so that you can be certain that this is what you would want to do.

One thing you should be aware of is that because there will be assumptions made that you have had some use out of the TV, there could be a reduction in the amount of money refunded to you, or richer sounds could reasonably ask you to contribute to the price of a new set. If we assume that you have had 12 months use out of the set, then the reduction would be calculated on the expected life of the set, say, seven years minus one year so you could reasonably expect to claim 6/7 of the new price.

You may want to say that even during those 12 months you are unable to use a set, but I gather from what you have said that you didn't appreciate the faults and you didn't bring it to the attention of the sellers until after 12 months.

Hi

Thanks for answering, because its my son who uses it we didnt realise it was faulty until about it was 2 months old , we went to Richer sounds and they said because was more than 30 days they wouldn't replace it, so we went to Sony who took 3 months of troubleshooting and messing me about before they had an engineer to look at it who then changed the main processor board but its still the same 2 months later, we have rang Sony again and they want to start going though the troubleshooting again.

the faults are

Netflix doesn't work

turns on by itself

Very slow - TV takes a long time to catch up with itself, if you are watching a program and want the tv guide, it takes ages to catch up and display it, then another 10/15 seconds until you can browse the TV guide.

- Turning the TV off - Every now and again (1 in 4 times probably) when you turn the TV off, the program and screen will turn off but the volume continues play in the background for 15 seconds or so.

- When you go to turn the TV off, sometimes it can take 20/30 seconds for it to do it (Not the remote batteries etc as i have checked)

- Channels - I have tested the ariel with another TV which when it scans it finds all the channels, on the Sony one it doesn't, it only shows around half. Have to re scan all the time.

- TV crashes and you have to turn on and off a lot.

- Often forgets the network connection and you have to re do it.

I bought a Sony tv kdl43w755c roughly 12 months ago and have had faults on it since i bought it.

 

I bought it for my son but as he works away sometimes we didn't realise it was faulty until after the time Richer Sounds would replace it.

 

Since then we have been in the hands of Sony, who unfortunately have been poor at resolving the issue and to be honest poor customer service as i had to get Richer sounds customer service team involved to get them out to repair it.

 

We have spent about 5 hours on the phone doing troubleshooting to look into the issue and eventually they had a repair engineer out to replace the main processor board but this has not resolved the issues we are having.

 

Once again Sony want to start the process again and to be honest i cannot go through this again.

 

I have spoken to Richer sounds customer service team and they also want us to do it again however i have been informed that under the CRA the repair agent has one attempt to repair the problem then if still faulty i can ask for a refund or replacement

 

I am a loyal customer and advocate of Richer Sounds and to be fair the customer service from your staff has all ways been very good.

 

I have seen the email address for John Clayton of Richer Sounds and sent him this email as well am i right in thinking we are

entitled a refund or credit note

 

hoping Richer sounds come through

Dear Mr Taylor,

I was obviously most concerned to read of the problems you've been having with your TV and offer my sincere apologies.

Indeed, I have received your email and responded to it so that I may assist in resolving the matter.

Once again, I offer my apologies, I look forward to hearing back soon.

Many Thanks

John Clayton

Operations Director

Richer Sounds

Hi

Thanks for answering, because its my son who uses it we didnt realise it was faulty until about it was 2 months old , we went to Richer sounds and they said because was more than 30 days they wouldn't replace it, so we went to Sony who took 3 months of troubleshooting and messing me about before they had an engineer to look at it who then changed the main processor board but its still the same 2 months later, we have rang Sony again and they want to start going though the troubleshooting again.

the faults are

 

Netflix doesn't work

turns on by itself

Very slow - TV takes a long time to catch up with itself, if you are watching a program and want the tv guide, it takes ages to catch up and display it, then another 10/15 seconds until you can browse the TV guide.

- Turning the TV off - Every now and again (1 in 4 times probably) when you turn the TV off, the program and screen will turn off but the volume continues play in the background for 15 seconds or so.

- When you go to turn the TV off, sometimes it can take 20/30 seconds for it to do it (Not the remote batteries etc as i have checked)

- Channels - I have tested the ariel with another TV which when it scans it finds all the channels, on the Sony one it doesn't, it only shows around half. Have to re scan all the time.

- TV crashes and you have to turn on and off a lot.

- Often forgets the network connection and you have to re do it.

Well I'm interested to see that Richer Sounds initial response to you showed an awareness of your statutory consumer rights. Let's hope that they don't suddenly become amnesiac about it now that you are raising the matter again.

In view of what you have said, it seems to me that as you have raise the matter within the six months and they have attempted to repair, you are now entitled to full back on the provision in the Consumer Rights Act which entitles you to insist on a replacement or refund – at your option. Given the fact that this occurred in the first six months, any reduction for use would be negligible.

I see that John Clayton, the Operations Director is reading this thread – so I hope that he takes note

Well done Richer Sounds, i was offered a replacement but as they dont sell the tv we had anymore we have swapped it for a better spec for £21 more from Richer Sounds. One happy customer

Thanks John and Tim at Richer Sounds

good result everyone...

dx