Argos/ Candy/ Hoover no joy getting a faulty Tumble Dryer repair fixed. Who is responsible? ***Resolved***

[Candycrash]

Hi, I hope someone can point me in the direction I need.

 

My daughter bought a Tumble dryer new from argos on 14/1/2020 and it was ok until just before Christmas when it stopped working.

She eventually called Candy on the 13/1/2021 this year having suddenly realised the 12 month warranty was ending.

They passed her on to Hoover (having tried to sell her an extended warranty first) who agreed to do the warranty repair.

 

The repairman came and replaced the faulty heater element but since he left it now trips out the electric RCD socket it's plugged into every time she tries to use it.

Argos, Candy and Hoover are all refusing any responsibility for the repair and she was left no paperwork or any id for the repairman.

 

Who is responsible and how can we get them to come and fix their dodgy repair?

Now the item is unusable surely she has some rights?

TIA

 

[dx100uk]

argos are responsible as the retailer under comsumer rights act.

 

were they consulted before the repair via candy?

 

for point of ref, warranties, guarantees or extended warranties are not worth the paper they are written upon and do not remove nor replace your rights under the consumer rights act.

 

 

[Candycrash]

Hi, I shall double check with her but IIRC they kicked the initial claim to Candy because it was more than 6 months after the sale.

 

[dx100uk]

that sounds about right for them

thats not they way they should have handled it. they are responsible under CRA as the retailer.

its them that should arrange everything not refer you to run around. other than p'haps asking you to get a traders report upon the fault.

 

as they knew about the fault, it is now them you go after.

 

IMHO i wouldn't faff around here ... i'd send argos a letter of claim giving them 14 days to replace or refund the machine . as they've had their one chance at repair under the CRA so now must replace the appliance or give you the money back  with suffiaent recompense with regard to 1yrs usage.

 

see what others say.

 

dx

 

[Candycrash]

Thanks, I will double check that she spoke to them first and have a look at what you suggest. Will come back when I've spoken to her...

 

[Candycrash]

 Hi again,

 

I have spoken to her to clarify exactly what she did:

Initially she called Candy because there is a sticker on the machine telling her that's what to do.

They said they could give her cover for £5/month that would mean she definitely wouldn't get charged for the fix if it turned out to be her fault, which she rejected. They then gave her Hoover's details for her to arrange the repair callout under the 1 year guarantee that came with the machine.

 

She then hesitated, not sure what to do and looked at the Argos site in the meantime and found this:  https://www.argos.co.uk/help/faq/256 which suggested to her that she had done the right thing calling Candy.

 

It was a few days later that she actually called Hoover, who tried the insurance trick but for £15/m this time.

Having rejected that again they then arranged with her for the engineer to come.

 

The engineer came 10 days later and he replaced the heater element, ran the machine for 5 mins and left...

She put washing in and 15 mins later the trip on her extension tripped.

After repeatedly tripping out the cord she plugged it directly into the wall socket, it kept going but she discovered the plug was getting very hot so she stopped using it and called Hoover that very same day.

 

They now proclaimed it is out of warranty and say that the repair is not warranted after the guarantee period either. They want her to pay to have it fixed or pay £15/m for a year to have them fix it free.

Can't imagine how this is legal but that's what they told her.

 

She has not received one shred of paperwork from any of the parties, not Candy, Hoover nor the engineer.

Do we still go back to Argos?

 

TIA

[BankFodder]

Argos is absolutely the responsible party.

You shouldn't be fobbed off to anybody else.

You should write a letter immediately to Argos telling them that the tumble dryer which you bought from them on XXX date has developed a fault and despite two attempts to repair it, it is still demonstrating the same fault.

You now require them to take responsibility for it and warn them that if they do not that you will be prepared to issue a letter of claim and then issue legal proceedings.

Do this in writing straight away

[Candycrash]

Thanks Bankfodder, I will get on it and draft the letter for her to sign and send. I shall let you know what happens...

[BankFodder]

One thing that occurs to me, is if this RCD protection is being checked all the time, they may suggest that in fact it is a fault in your wiring system.

Be ready for this – and I'm afraid it's not an unreasonable comment for them to make.

Are you in a home where the wiring is very old?

[Candycrash]

No, the home is reasonably modern and up to date. Built 2004 IIRC.

 

When plugged in to the wall socket directly, the plug overheats and that along with the switch tripping behaviour suggests it is unsafe to use, especially considering the frequency with which tumble dryers cause house fires!

 

Other things, including a powerful electric heater, are fine when plugged in that same socket and/or the extension lead too, so it's definitely not the fault of the house wiring nor the extension lead.

 

In addition to that, the Dryer was fine operating on that exact same socket and rcd extension for 11 months before it broke down.

 

I am a little confused about the letter of claim link bit though, it appears aimed at debtors?? or am I missing something?

 

Ah, one other thing, your form letter above wouldn't be quite right as the single engineer visit fixed the original fault code that stopped it working at all but it has left it in an apparently unsafe condition... would that affect anything?

 

I wonder if she hadn't spotted the hot plug and the house had gone up in flames who would the insurance company chase for liability? Candy, Hoover or the mystery engineer?

[BankFodder]

Well it's up to you to modify the suggested letter in the way that suits your circumstances – which is correct and you are happy to sign it.

Okay if you want, you could suggest that in fact the work that had been carried out was probably defective work and contributed to making the situation even more unsafe than it already was.

Also, there have been a spate of tumble dryer fires recently – or at least over the last year or so and I think it is well worth including you and your letter some information about the overheating, about the electrical fault and the fact that you consider is heating so much that it presents a risk of fire.

You might do well to look at the Internet and see whether this may or this model of tumble dryer is one of the ones which have been involved in fires. If you find that then I think that your position is extremely comfortable.

Maybe you could do this Internet research and then let us know what you find.

Do the research before you send any letters

[Candycrash]

Thanks, Just asking in case that changed that changed anything...

I will do a bit of searching when she tells me the model number.

My own tumble dryer was one of the candy ones going up in flames sometime back but they came and applied a fix for it... a rivet on the back of the drum sticking out to knock the fluff off where it had been accumulating next to the heater element as the drum went round!

So far so good...

[Candycrash]

Have the model no. now, a GVS C9DG80, but there are no safety concerns about this particular model that I can see so I'll do the letter as you suggest.

 

Thanks again and I'll let u know what comes of it.

[slick132]

According to my search on Which? Magazine, this dryer model is not a recognised fire risk.

 

This is not directly relevant to YD's tumble dryer case but I think it's important to always avoid plugging a High Energy appliance (kettle, washing machine, tumble dryer) into an extension lead. Always use a wall socket ! This is just good practice to avoid overloading an extension socket which may not be top quality from the start.

[dx100uk]

but doing that can't make a machine go wrong...

if the plug gets hot.....something smells (sic)

it should not get hot.

 

7 hours ago, Candycrash said:

In addition to that, the Dryer was fine operating on that exact same socket and rcd extension for 11 months before it broke down.

 

the only real reason for a 13amp moulded (pre fitted) plug to get hot is by too much current being drawn.

now i don't suspect, nor can i ever envisage, the wrong element being fitted , as there are no +3kw dryer elements that will fit in a domestic tumble dryer, there are for industrial ones, but they are not the same design.

 

it puzzles me why its plug is getting hot, but no it doesn't...the earth leakage trip is going , so thers is the answer, its been fitted poorly probably without one or two of the insulators or even the connectors on the element reversed.

 

On 03/02/2021 at 19:40, Candycrash said:

The repairman came and replaced the faulty heater element

 

ultimately this is not your problem.

but if it twas me i'd be getting an independent electrician to come look at it, i will suspect it is fatally dangerous.

this might cost you BUT you can claim that back and they must refund you when argos settle.

 

it will add one hell of a lot of credence to your claim and poss get argos to stop fobbing off customers.

 

[BankFodder]

Okay I see that you don't find any references to this particular model having caused problems.

However, there is clearly something wrong and I think that in your letter to them you should emphasise the fact that there is clearly an electrical problem which is causing a great deal of heat and that there is a risk of fire.

I think that you should play this up because they will be especially sensitive about this possibility. I think you should make it clear in your letter that if they refuse to deal with this and if there is eventually a fire that you will make sure that the exchange with them, the manufacturer and the repairer are all made public.

I would expect that if somebody responsible reads your letter, they will want to take some action. It is such a cheap matter to address to avoid a risk of fire or at the very least a reputational risk

[Candycrash]

Hi Slick,

I appreciate what you're saying about the extension but she added it originally because of the safety cutout and most of the time the only other thing that gets plugged into it is her phone charger (the heater I mentioned was used as a test for the lead after the fact).

If she hadn't been using the protected extension lead she might still be using the dryer ignorant of the danger she was in.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice, next thing is to do the letter for Argos...

 

I'll be back...

 

 

[slick132]

22 hours ago, dx100uk said:

but doing that can't make a machine go wrong...

if the plug gets hot.....something smells (sic)

it should not get hot.

 

 

Of course DX, my comments were made as general safety advice, no more.

 

If the original moulded plug is getting hot, there are just 2 possibilities - faulty wall socket or faulty appliance. In my opinion, the latter is the most likely but an Independant Inspection should confirm this.

[Candycrash]

Thanks again everyone for your advice, a letter arrived today offering her a full refund and collection of the faulty machine

 

Wonderful result, thank you all.

[AndyOrch]

Well done Candy and thanks for coming back to conclude your topic. Topic title updated.

 

 

Andy

[BankFodder]

Good news. Well done – but did they give you a timescale for collection? And the refund?

This has been resolved fairly quickly. I hope the lesson which is taken from here is that you need to act quickly, be assertive, don't give ground – no prisoners and be prepared to threaten legal action – and to bring the legal action if necessary.

There's really no reason why any of these kinds of problems shouldn't be solved within about 10 days – and if not then legal action and papers issued within an another 14.

If consumers all adopted this very unforgiving approach, then retailers would look much more lively about recognising the rights of their customers.

[Candycrash]

I don't know about timescales, my daughter only sent me a small snapshot of the first paragraphs of the reply letter but they caved straight away as a result of the letter written following your advice.

 

Keep up the good work... donation made... thank you.

 

 

[slick132]

Hi CC,

 

Great to hear they should refund and collect but please keep us updated so we know they follow up properly.

 

And thanks for the Site Donation which helps us to be here for others.

[Candycrash]

Hi again, just a quick update.

 

The collection has been arranged for tomorrow, 6th March, the refund will apparently be processed after collection is done and should be completed within 5 working days.

 

Will let you know when it's completed...

 

 

[BankFodder]

Great news. Thanks for letting us know.

However, keep a close eye and don't tolerate any delays.

Keep us updated