Product failure - out of guarantee

[DG_123]

Hi All.

 

I bought some teak garden furniture two years ago from an online store (with a physical presence).

From fairly early on (a few months) we started having problems with metal fixings breaking.

These are like nuts and bolts but made of brass and recessed into the wood.

They seem to just shear off.

 

We sent a few chairs back and they were fixed but the problems recurred.

The customer service people were very responsive and claimed that no-one else was having this problem.

 

They provided us with a pack of spares so I was able to repair them (fairly easily) myself.

I should probably have rejected them formally at that stage but apart from these problems the chairs looked good and were the style we wanted and the people were so helpful.

 

The failures have continued but now there's a new person in customer service who has a different attitude and I suspect we will no longer get free replacement fixings.

I realise that we are beyond the 12-month guarantee period but with a fault that seems to be so systemic is there any other consumer protection I can look to.

 

Any assistance much appreciated.

[BankFodder]

I'm afraid that it is very difficult to read a solid block of text in the way you have posted it.

Please would you mind reposting a story but properly spaced and also punctuated and it will make it easier for people to read and to give you the help that you need.

Very quickly though, the guarantee is irrelevant. Guarantees are often sold or given away to distract people from their real statutory rights under the consumer rights act

[dx100uk]

post spaced

[BankFodder]

As I have already pointed out, the guarantee is irrelevant. What counts is your consumer rights and they will endure as long as the product you buy is in a satisfactory condition and remains that way for a reasonable period of time.

Of course if you had acted sooner and rejected the chairs then you would have been within your rights under the consumer rights act and the problem would have been solved. I'm afraid that by hanging onto the chairs and also accepting several replacements and also free packets of fittings, the situation has become more complicated – but mainly because of the passage of time.
You have had two years used in the chairs – and I don't know how long a set of teak garden chairs reasonably be expected to last without any problems.
We don't know how they have been used or stored – or the weather has been like if they have been kept outside over long periods of time – so it all gets very difficult. Even the question of how much weight have they had to carry is going to be important. Good anyone who has used them be described as – overweight?

Of course the fact that you have had several sets of these fittings shear off seems to indicate a structural problem. They say that they haven't had any other complaints – but of course they would say that stop this is the normal response from any company with these kinds of problems. You probably should research the Internet and see if this is true or whether people are reporting similar problems. You could try Google, trust pilot, gardening furniture forums or websites – if they exist – Facebook – you have to use your imagination.

How much were the chairs?
If you had reacted immediately you could have rejected the case. However, you have now had two years use problem even though it has not been untroubled. If you have to buy these fittings, how much are they?

Have you investigated some alternative made of a material other than brass? I have a sense that brass is especially brittle and may not be suitable.

You may be hard pressed insisting free replacement parts. You haven't said how many chairs there are and how many have been affected? Is always the same one or two which are affected? If so maybe it's because the fitting is a little loose and the movement of the chair as people sit on it puts additional strain which the fittings weren't designed to take.

 

[DG_123]

Hi BankFodder & dx100UK,

 

Thanks for your replies.

 

Sorry about the spacing/format.

 

Is this better?

 

It's reasonable to expect teak garden furniture to last for many years - certainly upwards of 10.

 

I have a bench that's over 20 years old and going fine.

 

It's normal to leave them out all summer and then cover or put indoors over winter, which is what we did.

 

I did initially google the supplier but couldn't find any online complaints. That gave me confidence that these were isolated problems.

 

Googling now shows a mixed bag. Half a dozen or so strong complaints about quality on trust pilot with a number of very positive comments (some a bit suspicious looking).

 

The chairs were about £90 each - so at the high quality end of the market.

 

We bought 7 initially and then a further 8.

 

It would be a big job to replace all the fixings with a stronger material - say steel - as they need to be a specific size to fit the chairs. Also brass looks good and is fairly standard.

 

We initially thought the problem may be a dud batch of fixings for the first lot of chairs, but had problems with the second lot also.

 

Thanks