Hi all.

A good friend of mine bought a £1000 TV from Curry's 36 months ago and the screen has stopped working (pixelated). He rang Curry's and they said it's out of warranty.

Are they right?

Thank you in advance.

This is the kind of shabby customer service story that we hear about Currys far too often.

The warranty has nothing to do with it. Your friend will be protected under the Consumer Rights Act or The Sale of Goods Act depending on whether the TV was bought before October 2015.

Under both of these pieces of consumer legislation, your friend is entitled to have a TV which is of satisfactory quality and remains that way for a reasonable period of time. I would of thought that a £1000 TV should last for 10 years without substantial investment being needed on repairs

Following on from BF's (accurate!) post :

Warranty is usually with the manufacturer, and offers some advantages where available (such as: it may be honoured even in other countries, avoids the need for expert reports, or even avoids the need to have a discussion with currys/ Dixons Retail Group staff about the nuances of consumer law .....). So, warranties aren't worthless, but often aren't as long-lived as your rights under consumer law.

Where there is no warranty and you want to rely on consumer law, you remedy is against the retailer. They'll often initially deny responsibility (sound familiar?) (although : I've found Apple to be much improved in this regard recently!)).

They might insist you get an independent experts report regarding the fault to show it has arisen as a result of manufacturing quality rather than misuse (within the first 6 months after purchase this is assumed, but expect them to insist after 6 months). If it is shown to be a manufacturing fault they should refund the cost of the expert's report too, but you may have to threaten (or even go to) court to achieve this.

(My recent experience with Apple : family member, MacBook laptop with a keyboard fault, out of warranty [3 1/2 years old]. Confirmed on (free) in-store initial diagnostics as a hardware fault.

We expected them to say "out of warranty" and / or insist on an expert's report but we didn't even have to mention consumer law ..... they said "we'll need to open it up, but provided there is no sign of damage [like coffee spilt on it] when we do, it will be repaired free of charge". We told them we knew it hadn't had liquid damage.

It took a few days longer than they'd initially said, but:

a) their worksheet shows they replaced the whole upper portion of the "keyboard 1/2" of the laptop, rather than just the keyboard, which might explain the extra few days, and

b) no liquid damage found, and true to their word it was repaired free of charge!

We didn't go in banging on about "our rights" but would have been prepared to point out the law if they'd been difficult, but we didn't need to : they went above and beyond what we expected!.

warranties aren't worthless, but often aren't as long-lived as your rights under consumer law..

Warranties are simply profit for the store as they usually get paid for flogging worthless warranties, UNLESS the warranty actually contains cover for anything other what is covered in your consumer rights, then it is money wasted, seriously!.

Warranties are simply profit for the store as they usually get paid for flogging worthless warranties, UNLESS the warranty actually contains cover for anything other what is covered in your consumer rights, then it is money wasted, seriously!.

I was referring to manufacturer's warranty (supplied within the purchase price), not an 'extended warranty', which is really a form of post-purchase insurance ..... and often isn't good value and just generates commission for the store staff....

My comments on the manufacturer's warranty are accurate. So, a big brand name might honour their manufacturer's warranty in another country, an example I gave, (and which should have made you think "hang on, BazzaS is talking about manufacturer's warranty, not 'extended warranty'")

Your comments on extended warranties are accurate for many extended warranties.

Following on from BF's (accurate!) post :

Warranty is usually with the manufacturer, and offers some advantages where available (such as: it may be honoured even in other countries, avoids the need for expert reports, or even avoids the need to have a discussion with currys/ Dixons Retail Group staff about the nuances of consumer law .....). So, warranties aren't worthless, but often aren't as long-lived as your rights under consumer law.

 

Where there is no warranty and you want to rely on consumer law, you remedy is against the retailer. They'll often initially deny responsibility (sound familiar?) (although : I've found Apple to be much improved in this regard recently!)).

They might insist you get an independent experts report regarding the fault to show it has arisen as a result of manufacturing quality rather than misuse (within the first 6 months after purchase this is assumed, but expect them to insist after 6 months). If it is shown to be a manufacturing fault they should refund the cost of the expert's report too, but you may have to threaten (or even go to) court to achieve this.

 

(My recent experience with Apple : family member, MacBook laptop with a keyboard fault, out of warranty [3 1/2 years old]. Confirmed on (free) in-store initial diagnostics as a hardware fault.

We expected them to say "out of warranty" and / or insist on an expert's report but we didn't even have to mention consumer law ..... they said "we'll need to open it up, but provided there is no sign of damage [like coffee spilt on it] when we do, it will be repaired free of charge". We told them we knew it hadn't had liquid damage.

 

It took a few days longer than they'd initially said, but:

a) their worksheet shows they replaced the whole upper portion of the "keyboard 1/2" of the laptop, rather than just the keyboard, which might explain the extra few days, and

b) no liquid damage found, and true to their word it was repaired free of charge!

 

We didn't go in banging on about "our rights" but would have been prepared to point out the law if they'd been difficult, but we didn't need to : they went above and beyond what we expected!.

Hi guys and thank you for some brilliant advice.

Here's the bad news - I've now spoken properly to my friend and it seems that he took Curry's for their word and is currently having it repaired by a local repair shop to the tune of £400.

Is there anything he can do now? He's not afraid to launch a court claim (MCOL) if this is possible!

I've now spoken properly to my friend and it seems that he took Curry's for their word and is currently having it repaired by a local repair shop to the tune of £400.

Is there anything he can do now? He's not afraid to launch a court claim (MCOL) if this is possible!

Your friend should have paid for the shop to do an independent inspection, if this inspection proves that the failure is down to a manufacturing defect then he could have had the TV repaired as well as the refund of the inspection report by the TV's manufacturer.

If your friend just authorised the repair and no independent inspection report exists prior to the repair then i feel it is highly unlikely that any Court claim will be won.

Stigman

Yes, he could bring a small claim for the money – but the problem is that he spoke to curries on the telephone and I'm absolutely certain that he didn't record the call so that he has no evidence that Currys disclaimed liability.

Although you could simply sue on the basis of the verbal evidence, it would make it much easier if you had something in writing. I would suggest that you try a little trick on Currys. Write to them and say that following on from the conversation you have had from them on the telephone in which they said that your TV of 36 months old which now has a fundamental problem rendering it unusable, was no longer covered by warranty and that any repair would have to be paid for. You are writing to them once again to urge them to consider that for a television worth £1000 to have broken down so fundamentally after only three years indicates that there must have been a defect in it and that no reasonable consumer would expect such a breakdown of their £1000 television so soon. You are asking them to accept the TV for a warranty repair.

It is almost 100% certain that if Currys reply, they will reply with a refusal. I would then use this letter as the basis for a legal action. I wouldn't worry about the date of the letter and the date of the refusal being after the date of the repair. The fact is that it would be good written evidence supporting your position that Currys were refusing to honour your consumer rights.

Of course, there is a slight chance that Currys might say fine – send it in and we will do that. In that case I'm afraid you will have to put it down to experience and consider that you have lost your money and you should have been more careful about asserting your rights and that your friend should be less trusting of these big companies – especially Currys.

Write the letter. Send straightaway. Send it recorded delivery. Keep copies. – In other words start being sensible and intelligent about the way that these people are dealt with.

In future record your calls. Read our customer services guide and implement the advice there. In addition to the letter that I have proposed to you above, once you have followed our customer services guide, you could usefully have another telephone conversation with them and asked them once again if they will honour your rights in respect of your £1000 television. This time you will have their refusal on the record. A recorded call and also a written refusal – or even if they simply failed to respond to your letter, should be enough to persuade a judge.

Incidentally, you may not expect to get the full price for repairs. Don't forget that you are dealing with a three year old television which might only have a life expectancy of 10 years. This would mean that you would be entitled to expect 70% of your repair bill refunded to you.

I would certainly recommend that your friend brings a County Court claim for this. Currys get away with this kind of thing far too often and they need a slap. Your chances of success are better than 85%. The cost of being such an action is pretty low and of course because it would be a small claim, you wouldn't risk the costs of Currys.

Watch curry spring into action. In order to save a bit of 400 quid they will instruct solicitors or take whatever other action they think is appropriate and the value of all of that will come to at least two or £3000. They're not interested in making business decisions. They're not interested in customer facing. They simply want to squash you

I was referring to manufacturer's warranty (supplied within the purchase price), not an 'extended warranty', which is really a form of post-purchase insurance ..... and often isn't good value and just generates commission for the store staff....

 

My comments on the manufacturer's warranty are accurate. So, a big brand name might honour their manufacturer's warranty in another country, an example I gave, (and which should have made you think "hang on, BazzaS is talking about manufacturer's warranty, not 'extended warranty'")

 

Your comments on extended warranties are accurate for many extended warranties.

currys staff, just so you know, dont get paid commission for selling warranties. it IS a targeted measure, and virtually all retail has targets of some sort.

the company sacked off commission based selling in the mid 2000s.

the only incentives currently paid out, as i'm informed by my partner who still works for them, is for a succesfull switch of a customers broadband/tv package. bonus is paid from the customer service score, which is based on customers replying to txts and giving the store a score.

carphone works exactly the same way for bonus, but they DO get commision from every sale of a contract.