FACTS ABOUT SOGA and RETAIL CHAINS

[blitz]

I actually had to take a copy of the SOGA into work, as they didn't have a copy, just so I can pull it out when needed. But Mr. Brown get your amazing new BERR department to make consumer rights more clear.

[mortis]

I have had in the past Argos refusing to refund one of their faulty items, still with box, still with their own 123/4567 code on it stuck solid on it, because I couldn't find the receipt and insisting I had to accept a voucher.

 

just out of interest in this instance would argos not be in their rights to do this as with out proof of purchase surely you have no proof that the contract was made with yourself? as the item could have just as easily come of the back of a lorry as from there store?

 

I have had a luggage shop refusing to give me my money back on a travel bag I had used once and which had ripped open at the seams, instead saying that they would take the bag, send it to manufacturers for analysis, and if found to be faulty (well, durrr!), then they would send me a cheque, 2 weeks after I had bought it.

 

again surely under Soga they are allowed to do this, as it could be a case of the fact that it split was due to it not being used for its intended purpose ie more than the allocated weight being placed in the bag or it being damaged ie, ripped on a nail or what ever?

 

Most worryingly, over 40% of people believed that they had no legal right to insist on a refund on a faulty product,

 

does that not depend on how long you have had the product? if its after a certian amount of time they are only entitled to a repair or replacement?

 

just checking up, to help educate myself further on these matters, much as ofc it is usefull to know these things for a consumer i have personally found much of the infomation on this site to be usefull for the retailer as well.

[gyzmo]

Sorry - my quoted post above should have read "newly purchased" (i.e, a couple of hours afterwards).

[mortis]

ahha fair enuf

[WOW Geek]

what about the rest of it .....

Seems you picked the best bits!!!!

Please inform fully if your gonna post something like this not half the information so people go in with half an argument.. lol nice try though

[gyzmo]

We're trying to put this and other threads like it to sleep - don't resurrect it!

[goon_bde]

so after reading 5 pages of infighting and bitching, did we decide who the contract is with.....my local pc world store or their head office???

 

i just wrote to the manager of the local store as i like to give ownership to an individual...head offices, at the end of a phone (invariably 0870) have a habit of passing the buck and never getting back to you...

 

that said, does anybody know who the head of customer services is at PCW?

 

(when i hand delivered the letter to my local PCW the manager refused to sign to say he'd received it)

[gyzmo]

It's with the company "PC World" or whatever their registered trade name is. For the purposes of legal action the papers are usually served to the registred office. for every day stuff, (the inital course of action) you should ideally deal with the same branch from where the goods were bought from, but there shoul be no reason, everything being proper, why another branch cannot be used.

 

As for the "bitching" it is not infighting but merely an attempt to clarify the situation which is made all the more difficult by certain individual(s )persisting in posting utter nonsense to the detriment of those who do not know better.

 

As for your own problem with PC World, the best way is to post the letter to head office (or the branch if not already done so) by recorded delivery. That way, if it is ignored and legal action is taken, they do not have an excuse as to why they did not respond. Using the phone lacks concrete evidence (unless you record it and a judge allows the recording) and hand delivering, as you have seen, requires the person to choose accept it - something which would not happen if posted. In my last job in insurance I refused such personally delivered letters for the benefit of the customer. I told them to post it because I knew damned well that somewhere down the line some idiot would balls things up. By posting, it is made more official.

 

Hope that clarifies things.

[goon_bde]

many thanks....

 

... i think the thing that has really irked me in this instance has been the store managers attitude....

 

 

i don't know whether its PCW policy to fob people off in the hope that they will go away, or just that particular individual?

[gyzmo]

Probably both. the problem is poorly trained and unmotivated staff, a lax attitude to complying with imbalanced law and insufficient enforcement (thanks to local councils stipping trading standards budgets and the government sticking its nose in an putting targets on trading standards to focus on).

 

His attitude is terrible, that much is certain. Put everything in writing and send by recorded delivery.