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We’ve heard this one today and, if true, it could hold some serious implications. It has yet to be confirmed but, the source of the info seems good.
The basic crux is, if a product is retailed at under £250 then there is NO legal responsibility to have spare parts available, at all. None. Nadda.
What that means is that a load of cheap washing machines, cookers and all the rest can be obsolete from the day they leave the factory, much like small appliances.
Obviously we’re going to query this with government and find out what the script is but, it is a concern if this is the true position.
K.
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
Is this one oem your talking about or across the board??
Can’t seem true can it!
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
So all those that go wrong under warranty then replacement product for the customer as no spares made? that would be nice for the consumer1
Most crap under £250 well….customer always decides on a new machine if the costs are £70 or above mostly around here so its of no loss to me.Good for sales on decent products then if the consumer is WARNED of this on purchase or such rubbish? But i highly doubt that pamflet will be in with the guarantee sheet!
And if theres no spares available after 12 months of manufacturer guarantee does that not laugh at the sales of goods act which states something should last a minimum of five yrs? or have I been misled?
Good for ISE sales too maybe?
The world went mad years ago but they go one further on a daily basis.
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
Does this mean that if a manufacturer will not have a legal responisbility for spares even under guarantee they wont have an obligation to exchange the product either if it becomes faulty? Again manufactures putting all the responsibility back on the retailer to look after the crapp they build. ❓
As there is no retail price as such and we can sell products for what we want; what if you put the price up to £259 will they then supply parts. 😳
Many indies dont sell major appliances under this price so should not really affect us (with the exception to some refrigeration).
More of a problem for muliples who pile em high sell em cheap.
So far more write offs how can this be good for the environment.Oh well I suppose this will push the selling price up which wont be a bad thing; the cost of repair will then be worth doing (if you can of course get the parts) :rolls:
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
It is across the board.
You guys really need to study consumer law a little. 😉
There is no obligation to offer a 12 month warranty. There is nothing to say that any product has to last any set period whatsoever, only that the product is “fit for purpose” and that it is as durable as the pricing dictates, which comes under that old chestnut of what is deemed to be “reasonable”. Usually reasonable is defined by a judge on the day.
So, what is a “reasonable” lifespan for a product under £250?
Three years?
Two years?
Six months?
Six months from a kettle costing £15 used five times a day is only a few pence a day, that seems reasonable to me as a Klix machine is 30p a cup. Or is it reasonable?
A good kettle is say a Dualit or a Siemens, they cost £100 or thereabouts. So, in context, the cheap kettle costs 15{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the industry benchmark for a quality product, you therefore cannot expect the cheap one to last as long as the benchmark. That’s reasonable. But, defining the time is nigh on impossible.
Buy a cheap vac from Tesco and it’s all too possible that, 18 months later, you won’t even be able to buy bags for it and, that’s obviously legal.
Food for thought isn’t it and there’s loads more to come out on this one I’m sure.
K.
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
Could be something in this, wev’e come accross two microwaves recently under guarantee for which no spares were available, other than the turntable and roller. And not a tesco or asda special, both were premium manufacturers .
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
It won`t cause too much of an issue.
Why.
The pattern parts market will take the slack.
Geniune parts are not manufactured by the manufacturers, many pattern parts are genuine, the only difference is the box and price.
Many companies are buying mass produced appliances in China.
The Chinese purchase components to assemble, the manufaturers are no longer making most of the products.
Which is why they no longer want to stock components, the Chinese don`t.
So there will still be a market place to have an appliance repaired out of any warranty.
The repair industry is still viable.
I`m no legal expert, but a client i came across was a Barrister and expalined the 6 yr rule the courts are using for break down of a large domestic appliance.
It comes from the Sales Of Goods Act six yr rule, read it below,
http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/consume … 38311.html
Anything found to fail within 6 yrs can and has been challenged in court and has resulted in the product being repaired under those guidlines for free by the manufacturer.
A company engineer I know has also had to repair a product out of guarantee as the client`s solicitor challenged the comapny with court action if not repaired free, it was then repaired.
Above examples are slightly written differently as I`m not available to quote exactly, but there more or less what happened.
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
kwatt wrote:
A good kettle is say a Dualit or a Siemens, they cost £100 or thereabouts. .
K.
A top end client had a faulty German appliance (Won`t named 😉 ) large fridge in a 100,000 kitchen.
The large 7ft model was faulty from 1st day, so a replacement was sent, it was faulty too.
The third one arrived along with a Porsche designed kettle.
The kettle blew up on 1st use 😆
Too which the MD called in person full off apologise, they sent the top of range coffee m/c.
It broke after 6 weeks.
😆
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
lee8 wrote:
kwatt wrote:
A good kettle is say a Dualit or a Siemens, they cost £100 or thereabouts. K.A top end client had a faulty German appliance (Won`t name 😉 ) . The third one arrived along with a Porsche designed kettle.
That’ll be BSH then.
The kettle analogy vs large appliances is somewhat false. virtually all the brands are now built in the far east. the price you pay on these rarely affects the quality. look at it logically – a kettle is an element, a switch, a carcass, base, and lead.
there really shouldnt be a reason why they go wrong so often, or be so expensive but they do, and are. Essentially they are all the same inside, what you pay for is the name, and the style. obviously the more powerful elements are in the posher kettles, but you can get them in a cheaper plastic one too.
To be fair, ive found krups, bosch, and dualits all as likely to go wrong as a morphy richards, russell hobbs, or breville. you cant get spares for dualits or bosch, so why pay an extra £15-50? in fact, the most reliable kettle ive found so far are the philips and kenwoods. our best seller is the s/s philips jug for £35.
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
lee8 wrote:
Anything found to fail within 6 yrs can and has been challenged in court and has resulted in the product being repaired under those guidlines for free by the manufacturer.
As you freely admit, you are no legal expert, me neither but the devil is in the detail.
From the link you posted.
Q3. Are all goods supposed to last six (or five) years?
No, that is the limit for bringing a court case in England and Wales (five years from the time of discovery in Scotland’s case). An item only needs to last as long as it is reasonable to expect it to, taking into account all the factorsJim.
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
iadom wrote:Q3. Are all goods supposed to last six (or five) years?
No, that is the limit for bringing a court case in England and Wales (five years from the time of discovery in Scotland’s case). An item only needs to last as long as it is reasonable to expect it to, taking into account all the factorsKinda, as I understand it. Certainly the limits are totally correct Jim.
The law provides no guarantee or timescale of durability only what it is “reasonable” to expect given the various factors, price being the main yardstick from what I can see.
But, (there’s always one ;)), the big misunderstanding in all that is that in order to have a retailer make remedy on a product greater than six months of old the burden is on the consumer to prove that the fault existed since the product was new or that there is a design flaw causing the failure.
This is, of course, almost impossible to prove without a ton of evidence and a paper trail.
The problem with this is that, so far as I know, there’s no cases that have actually proved how this will all work out or at least none I know of in either major domestics or consumer electronics. Jackal may know differently on that front though.
K.
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
Just a point on kettles.
I do a lot of sub work for a water heater company and no responsibility is accepted for limescale damage which I guess is the most likely cause for kettle death!
The stock answer given is “we don’t supply your water and have no control over it’s quality”
In other words PAY UP. 😛
Steve
Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
iadom wrote:
As you freely admit, you are no legal expert, me neither but the devil is in the detail..
All i go on is the amount of FOC invoices coming into the office via legal threats from clients and company policy.Re: No Parts Available If Retail Price Below £250?
yeh but thats down to “customer service”
at the end of the day theres no legality, but its how much you value your customers.
generally the higher the cost of service the more likely you will get a free call out. people offering very low priced labour/service will obviously be unable to offer such freebies otherwise they will go bust. simple economics really
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