Pandora Bracelet & Customer service

[poppie173]

I have a Pandora bracelet and over the last 18 months have collected loads of charms, having them as birthday and Christmas presents.

I've probably got about £800 worth of them .

 

The bracelet is out of the standard one year warranty (by 7 months), but

 

recently despite only being worn for special occasions, it broke and fell off my wrist.

 

Luckily I was at home so didn't lose anything.

 

The bracelet itself is in excellent condition, in fact only days prior to this I had it professionally cleaned in a Pandora store.

 

I've taken it to two jewellers and both say its clearly a manufacturing fault in the clasp.

 

Pandora are not interested and refuse to help, although they did say I should take it to a store to see if it can be repaired and that I'd have to pay.

 

I thought that every product has to be fit for purpose, clearly this one isn't.

 

Do I have any legal rights?

Any help greatly appreciated !

[ericsbrother]

Pandora do have a responsibility as the manufacturer when there is a fault that becomes apparrent after time.

 

Ask the shop that looked at it for you to write a note on their headed paper to that effect and then contact Pandora again

and tell them you intend to fax this to them as the start of a claim against them and could you have the fax number of the company Chief Executive for the UK?

 

When you have this fax number, send a covering letter saying that it is an intrinsic or latent fault and you expect them to repair

or replace the clasp under the SoGA and to what address do you send your bracelet for repair.

 

give them a week to respond then send a second letter that if they do not agree with this could they provide you with the name and address

of the person that legal papers should be served on as tyou would wish to correspond with that person only from now on.

[poppie173]

THANKYOU ! Will do...I know it's probably easier and less stressful to buy a replacement, but their attitude has astounded me.

I'll get the ball rolling asap !

[ericsbrother]

Ok, save the service of leagl papers bit for if and when you dont get a response from your enquiry about where to send it for repair under law as the item has a "latent" or intrinsic fault. This means that the manufacturer is liable, not the retailer as it is a manufacturing problem. To be honest, the replacement of these catches is a 2 minute job for their workshop and the cost to them will be about a pound so it is not as though you are asking for the earth.

[raydetinu]

Contract is with retailer, not maker! you must take action against retailer, if that is Pandora then so much the better.

How much is it to replace catch? Is it worth the stress, unless you like a battle.

[poppie173]

Pandora make their own products and sell via franchise outlets all under the Pandora brand. The catch can't be repaired, so I need a replacement.

The bracelet itself is about £60, so not a huge amount but once you factor in the charms, these are expensive bracelets, especially considering they're only silver.

The store keep saying they have to follow head office policy..ie out of warranty so tough ! I'm going to have a huge battle I know...but hopefully

it'll get resolved !

[raydetinu]

send them photos etc. with claim.

[ashmk]

You would be surprised how common this is. I know a place you can buy broken Pandora bracelets from and they always have loads in. The majority have broken clasps so there is clearly a fault with the design.

 

Pandora are well aware their bracelets break easy and for them to fob you off because it's 'out of warranty' is a bit petty.

 

Get on Twitter and start complaining, they are: @PANDORA_UK

 

Can someone add @PANDORA_UK to this thread so Pandora pick up on it.

[poppie173]

Ok, so I emailed Pandora again asking who I need to send my report to from my local jewellers regarding the manufacturing fault.

They've replied and again said their policy is one year warranty as they consider that 'ample' time to discover any manufacturing faults !!The warranty is determined by the material used and is not a reflection on the life expectancy of the product !! Faults outside this time are deemed wear and tear and NOT manufacturing faults.

 

Further more, they are " not at liberty to give out personal contact information of Pandora staff !!!

They're really going to make me work hard for this £60 bracelet, but its a matter of principle now.

[Janie1962]

The CEO of Pandora Jewellery UK Ltd is Peter Andersen, and the address is 33 George Street, London, W1U 3BH. Sorry, I can't find his email addy.

[raydetinu]

Of course their response is non-sense!

Looks like you may have take them to court!

[ericsbrother]

Letter before action sent recorded delivery. Give them 14 days notice to offer to rectify the problem otherwise you will use the small claims procedure to recover your losses.

Head it letter before action, lay out the details of ther problem, indicate that it is clearly a design/manufacturing problem and thus a latent fault and thus they are responsible, not the retailer. give them a set time to put matters right and say what you want them to do (accept it in to one of their stores and replace fastner) and then state that if you dont hear from them within the time allocated you will sue them under the Sale of Goods Act for selling faulty goods via the small claims procedure of the County Court. State that from that date on all of your costs will be added to your claim.

[poppie173]

Thanks ericsbrother !! Great advice, I wouldn't have know where to start !

[redfragglebiker]

Thanks ericsbrother !! Great advice, I wouldn't have know where to start !

 

Bit of a long shot waiting on a reply but I wondered if you ever had any luck with this at all. I'm in a similar position, finally managed to get a response from Customer Services via email and was told basically that it's tough cos it's out of warranty. Have replied back to them stating the Sales Of Goods Act which states that an item should be of reasonable quality and fit for purpose. Fully willing to go down letter before action and small claims court if I need to though.

[poppie173]

Hi

No joy AT all !! Pandora really don't care about customer service. I had three options, 1. Pay Pandora to repair their faulty bracelet 2. Pay a jeweller £12 to fix it, or 3, sue them through small claims court.

I went for option 2, as far less stressful. I think that's what they count on, wearing people down until they go away. I'll NEVER buy a Pandora product ever again and I've encouraged friends and family not to either.

[2ltr16valve]

This needs someone to go thorough small claims to set a mark to make them repair their sub standard product

[redfragglebiker]

Thanks for the reply poppie - I'm arguing SOGA with them at the moment but due to how they have treated me I intend to go all the way to small claims if need be. I know the repairs would probably be less than the small claims fee but it's more about the point of it now. They've sold me a bracelet that is clearly faulty and are basically saying well it lasted out longer than the warranty period so tough. I sterling silver bracelet such as this should last longer than 18 months. Mine has a lot of sentimental value so I'm really careful with it and I refuse to be fobbed off by them. What REALLY annoys me is I'm actually already on my second bracelet. The original was bought 3 years ago and broke after 18 months. When I took it into the local store they agreed it was a fault and replaced it free of charge. Fast forward ANOTHER 18 months and EXACTLY the same fault has occured only this time they tell me they'll have to send it off for repairs and they intend to charge me for these repairs. Also they reckon it will be away for repair for a minimum of 6 WEEKS! I will keep you updated on progress if you like as I am not going to let this one lie. I am sick to the back teeth of large companies such as Pandora treating people like dirt just because they're the big guys and we're the little guys. All I am asking is that they carry out a repair or replacement on something that was clearly not of satifactory quality or fit for purpose! If anyone wants me to answer any questions about what I've done so far, where I've got to or what progress (if any) I make with Pandora then please let me know as I'm happy to keep folk updated.

[redfragglebiker]

UPDATE:After several emails to both Head Office and my local store I was advised by the CAB (who have a dedicated consumer rights team) to write to both my local store and copy in Head Office quoting SOGA (found a really useful template which I can link to if people are interested)Head Office wrote a latter advising me to get the bracelet assessed by either their jewellery team (which they would do free of charge) or an independant jeweller. I was all set to go via an independant jeweller as I didn;t trust the Pandora jewellery reapir guys to be suitably independant when I received a call from the Manager of the Sheffield store. She explained that she had spoken to Head Office and as a "gesture of goodwill with no admission of liability) would send the bracelet away for any necessary repairs free of charge for me and I would not be charged for any repairs which needed carrying out in order to get my bracelet and the issue with the faulty charm rectified. I have taken them up on this offer and my bracelet will be returned to me within two weeks. Moral of the sotry - DON'T GIVE UP!

[raydetinu]

absolutely never give up; unless the hassle is not worth it!