Shop won't refund or exchange faulty toaster!

Hahahah get over yourself.

OK, then, if you want to analyse the minutiae of every analogy... how about if a local restaurant offered a free three-course meal for two as a prize in a local raffle - also of course courting the good PR; not annuncommon prize.

Somebody wins it, goes for the meal, and then they and their companion go down with food poisoning immediately after. All well and good, and just something to laugh about and put down to experience because they hadn't paid the restaurant directly?

I love crazy Viz tips and letters as much as anybody, but I don't see how it remotely applies to somebody making a clear promise and then deciding that they just couldn't be bothered to keep it.

I presume you're aware that local organisations do frequently sell advertising space in event programmes and local newspapers in order to make it viable?

No, but if it hadn't been extremely old stock, they could have returned it to their supplier and got the winner a replacement.

Indeed. I haven't seen them for a few years, but some local fetes used to have stalls whereby you could win a car - an actual brand new car - if you threw 6 sixes in one throw.

Obviously it drew an enormous amount of interest and huge publicity for the local dealership that supplied the car. In reality, the odds of winning were infinitesimally tiny - and the garage would usually buy insurance against somebody winning it - but if you did beat the odds, you would indeed become the owner of that brand new car.

As you say, if luck was on your side - and they then brought out a beaten up ancient jalopy as your 'prize' instead of the shiny new car they had displayed and offered - I can't see many of the people on this thread just accepting it nonchalantly.

But what's the point in holding a raffle at all, then? Why not just ask for donations? Yes, nobody is banking on a school fete raffle ticket bringing them a life-changing prize, but the chance of a serendipitous decent thing to win always increases interest and participation.

It should be a win-win, as the school/charity/good cause don't have to provide the prize themselves, but instead they 'buy' it from the donor with publicity for them. The business got the publicity and the goodwill, but reneged on their side of the deal after the event.

There's a world of difference between winning a perfectly good bottle of wine that you pass on to somebody else because you personally don't drink alcohol, and a faulty - and quite possibly dangerous - electrical appliance.

It was clearly defective, then.

A toaster is meant to last far longer than that as a basic minimum standard. If you'd bought it from them directly, instead of them supplying it via the raffle, would you shrug and just ignore it if it only lasted six weeks?

They would obviously not have to bear the loss themselves, as they'd return it to their supplier and get a credit/replacement for it... well, they would if they hadn't had it hanging around unsold for maybe a decade, or taken in an old broken one from a scene-making CF customer who bought it many years previously.

I reckon, by telling OP to go to the manufacturer herself, instead of taking charge of it themselves - a common sign of a shoddy, poorly-run business - they knew they were sending her on a wild goose chase that would achieve nothing.

Their happiness to waste her time like that is really not showing them in a positive light.

I’m quite jealous that you have the time and head space to dedicate to such a non issue.

I think the main point about this fiasco, which was made by another poster was that this toaster was faulty and could well have caught fire or given you an electric shock.

The bloke who runs the shop sounds like a real miser and a piss taking get . I bet someone returned that toaster years ago because it was faulty even then

I an also surprised that the school even include Electrical goods in their raffle prizes.

Many Charity Shops no longer accept Electrical goods Due to liability and insurance problems .

Contact Trading.Standards for advice

And have a quiet word again with the school.

I can't believe people are saying that it's a problem that the toaster was old. It's a toaster - they don't go off! It was working when it came out of the box so the shop didn't supply a faulty toaster. I doubt the shop owner gave the item to gets loads of great advertising (it really won't) - he probably just wanted to support a local school. It's a mistake he won't make a second time I suspect.

It's annoying, but it's a school raffle. Try and get it repaired.

Yabu. I'm shocked someone can act like you

It was an early version with limited function. That's what obsolete means. No one would have wanted it.

Put it in the bin and move on with your life.

You are OTT . You have no recourse because the toaster was a raffle prize . The retailer has absolutely no obligation to you. And neither does the school. The school sold raffle tickets and you bought the chance to win a prize. Simple .

I would be so embarrassed to act this way. You got a free toaster, it doesn't work so throw it in the bin. You're not owed anything.

Of course he gave away old stock. He could have given nothing but chose to donate an item he had spare. Clearly no good deed goes unpunished.

But strictly speaking the supplier of the prize, from the OPs perspective , was the school. So that’s who she should go back to, IMO.

Your contract is with the school not the hardware shop or the manufacturer, so if you want to make a complaint you need to make it with the school and get back the price of the raffle ticket because that is all you paid for. How many tickets were in your book? Let’s say 5, so you lost a quid? Same as the other four tickets that won nothing, but you contributed to the school funds.

You being completely unreasonable taking it out on the hardware shop, and you have pretty much ensured they will never donate to the school again.

Maybe he is inundated with requests to donate something to lots of local charities and that is what he does he donates. Charities clubs groups looking something for free regularly. Bearing in mind costs for small businesses are choking them. Ask someone to fix it and if it works you still got a bargain. But having lots of time to hunt down the shopkeeper looks appalling whilst you supported a school event for the huge value of one pound or 5 pounds. I have had worse happen with a £50 ticket raffle for a family holiday accommodation where it was legally allowed for the donater to win the prize through family syndicate!! ( tax purposes issue). If the toaster had been donated from a non business person would you hunt them too. Just drop the hunger to win on this occasion as there are bigger issues to put time into.

Unfortunately Neveranynamesleft,
I think that your post calling the OP 'Karen', is just as bad as the OP's OP. Please only ever call someone Karen if that is their actual name. I think it is awful to use someones perfectly normal name as an insult, and no, my name isn't Karen, and I don't personally know anyone with that name.

Embarrassed for you, OP. It was a free toaster!

There are no cake ingredients that when old would make anyone "violently ill" 🤣😂

This thread has really brought out the nutters.

@Politicians247UnderwearExtinguishingService this is seriously like something out of Viz Letterbox. Hilarious 🤣

If, instead of asking sponsors for raffle prizes in exchange for publicity, the school had sold/given out a programme of the event and charged local businesses a price for their advert in it - and the shop owner had paid them for his advert with what he knew to be counterfeit banknotes... I wonder if people would be saying "leave the poor guy alone" then?!

🤣😂😆😂🤣

You have not rights, you didn’t buy it from him. Can’t believe you didn’t realise that, you’ve shown yourself up here. Don’t repeat this story to anyone. You’ll look foolish!!

Did you miss the part where it worked perfectly well for six weeks? Did the retailer have a crystal ball and know that after six weeks it was going to develop a fault?