Curry's dispute and miselling of 'insurance'. Hive mind needed

[Ashmonster]

I'm hoping that the magic that is the mumsnet hive mind can help me, please. Even though it's long (sorry), I've tried to keep it as brief as possible. No deliberate drip feeding, but apologies if that happens.

My dd (19) wanted a new singing all dancing laptop/tablet. Although she's at Uni, she has additional needs and this was bought to help her take notes easier during lectures. My dh and I were with her when she bought it. Her needs mean that she needs support when doing things, especially something like this. She'd saved all summer from her first ever job to buy this.

When she decided she was going to buy it, the salesman asked 'Do you want insurance?'. I said no, but she said 'yes and explained that as she's at uni it might get stolen or broken'. The salesman said 'If it breaks, we will fix it'. He quite clearly knew what she wanted and why she wanted it.

Unfortunately, the tablet got dropped, accidentally. She took it to Currys to be fixed only to find what she'd been sold as 'insurance' was actually a 3 year extended warranty and accidental damage isn't covered. They want £550 to repair the tablet. We can't get it fixed elsewhere as the tech is so new, no one else has the parts.

Currys have admitted to the misselling of insurance, but are refusing the repair the laptop. If you admit to the misselling and are going to make a refund of the fee, then logic says you should repair the laptop right?

Anyway, I have been given the run around by Currys complaints, which has been awful. I've basically been called a liar, told their notes don't reflect what i'm saying. I now am in the position where I want to take it further.

I'm dealing with it, as one of my dd's problems is that she can't talk on the phone.

Does anyone have the email of the CEO, Alex Baldock? I want this to go as high as possible as the way we've been treated is disgusting.
Any other ideas of what I can do?
Thanks for reading this diatribe. If this is the shortened version, you can imagine how hard this has been.

I want to be on your side but sadly I think there's a distinction between if it breaks and if you break it.

JL used to sell a warranty that included accidental damage which proved very handy when I inadvertently set my camera on fire. The reason I mention this is that some store warranties do include accidental damage so it's not unheard of either.

Op was misled.

There's no point in blaming the person buying the policy if the person selling it is blatantly lying.

There is lots of vulnerable people about that are easily taken advantage of. And it's not as easy as just telling the vulnerable person,well why did you believe this salesperson? Don't you understand what a warranty is? Of course it doesnt cover accidental damage. Everyone knows warranties are not equivalent to insurance.
You should have read the 10 page terms and conditions.
And if you can't read and understand the 10 page terms and conditions then you have no right to buy this service.

There's no point in arguing about the semantics of warranty vs insurance and what each covers.

The Salesperson blatantly lied to their faces.

And yes I read any policy I buy in detail after. But the blame shouldn't automatically go on the person buying the policy if they have been lied to their faces and told it covers something it doesn't.

That's the one I had. But they wouldn't cover it. Because apparently rain through a roof isn't accidental damage.

The other thing I'd add is that I don't suppose you paid on an Amex? My son dropped his new tablet and they paid for a new one as it was within three months of purchase and it's one of the perks with my card.

Currys have admitted to the misselling of insurance, but are refusing the repair the laptop. If you admit to the misselling and are going to make a refund of the fee, then logic says you should repair the laptop right?

No. It really doesn't. The opposite in fact. They've said sorry this isn't what we do, here's your money back. Why would they then repair it? They probably can't. There's a world of difference between the repair work needed on a faulty component and that caused by dropping something.

That's the one I had. But they wouldn't cover it. Because apparently rain through a roof isn't accidental damage.

That's outrageous because surely accidental damage is anything that isn't deliberate damage. Those policies used to be really good, I guess they've gone the way of everything else at JL.

You can buy screen parts on eBay and Amazon and try to fit a replacement. I know that's probably not the point.

This is what I thought too. If IT breaks ie something goes wrong with it then they will fix it - that's what happens under a warranty so seems to be true. If YOU break it though, then they won't fix it.

What is the laptop model? Most can be fixed so there's always the option of getting it fixed at an independent shop.

Please don't get hung up on it being a warranty. You're all right in that warranties generally don't cover accidental damage. We know that and would never have bought one.
The issue here is that we were not knowingly sold a warranty. To us it was an insurance. We were told it was an insurance that covered 'if it breaks we will fix it'. Not 'if it breaks we will fix it...as long as you haven't damaged it yourself'. The salesman called it an insurance, he heard that we wanted and needed an insurance and never told us it was a warranty. If he had, we would have refused it, especially as we all know that Curry's insurances are not worth the paper they are written on.

I haven't accepted anything from Curry's, despite them trying to refund me as a missold insurance once, and today as a goodwill gesture. It was agreed on the phone by the tech department that my dd had been missold insurance (when we asked why it wasn't repaired), by the manager of the shop, and by the first person I spoke to at Care Plan (she's the one who was trying to get me a refund, which I refused as I knew it would prejudice me against getting the laptop fixed).

I will be going to the Financial Ombudsman. Especially as I can see that Currys have been hauled over the coal about similar things before. If I can stop this happening again, then I will.
I really want to contact the CEO though because the treatment I've been through by Curry's the last 2 weeks has been awful. As an example, when i first called the call centre they had a record of the tech person agreeing we had been missold insurance. Today, not only is that record not there, but there is no record of the first person I spoke to offering me a refund because of missold insurance. Therefore, I have no 'evidence' of this ever happening and they were going to offer me a refund as a goodwill gesture, which I refused again for the same reasons as before.

Regarding reading the small print and T&C's. My dd wasn't given the option to do this before paying. This was the biggest purchase she has ever made and she was literally shaking as she went up to pay.
I'm not sure, because I haven't checked, but I would think that PPI has set a precedence for reading of the t&c's, they certainly have for the areas of misselling, of which this clearly falls into.

Sorry this is so long. There's just so much that's happened.

Unfortunately, the tech is so new that parts aren't available yet. We have been advised to buy a new one and either use this one as spare parts, or wait until parts become available, repair it and then sell.

With the 'if it breaks we will fix it' statement. I think that it's ambiguous. If you're are thinking of it from Currys pov then it appears clear, likewise if you're thinking as a customer.
I think if I did a straw poll and said what do you think 'if it breaks, we will fix it' means then most people will think like we did, especially in the circumstances we were in. (buying what we thought was insurance, which we fully expected to cover accidental damage).
I also think about how many thousands of these policies that they have missold over the years. Let's face it, most people are lucky and never need to claim so would never realise what they'd bought.

My laptop developed a fault, turned out we had gadget cover through our bank. Might be worth checking. My laptop was 4 years old and had to pay £50 excess and as the company they use couldn’t fix it I got the cost of a new one. Really sorry this has happened to your daughter.

They can fix it, but want £550.

That's not how misselling works legally. If they've admitted that they've missold insurance, which they have, then they are liable. Think of the PPI issue. This led to very strict guidelines regarding misselling of insurance, which they fall right into one category: you were sold insurance that didn't give you the cover you were promised.

Thank you for this. I've just checked and her bank does cover gadget insurance but has a £600 when new limit. This one was more than that. Good idea though. I would never have thought to check.

Regarding the small print and T & Cs, are you saying that she was never given this (either online or in paper form) in between taking out the policy and the accidental damage having occurred? Because you do realise that it is her responsibility to read the T & C (and she almost certainly checked a box to confirm she had done so).

The appropriate recompense for the misselling of an extended warranty is a full refund of the warranty amount, especially when the customer has been provided with full details of the T & C which they were negligent in not reading and ensuring they understood.

TBH "if it breaks, we will fix it" to me implies if it goes wrong, not if someone breaks it, for which, as you have now found out, you need accidental damage cover. There's a subtle, but real difference between "it breaking" and "someone breaking it". It didn't break itself - it was broken by someone, who is therefore responsible for the costs of fixing it. I wouldn't personally assume that "if it breaks, we will fix it" would mean accidental damage was included, but maybe that's because I'm old and wise enough to know that it wouldn't be (and because I DO read the T & C of anything I'm signing up for).

We assumed it because we believed we were buying an insurance, not a warranty.
Lesson learnt about reading the t&c's. I will always check now but I think it's easily done and we won't be the first, or unfortunately the last, this has happened to. When you know you made it clear what you need, and you believe you've been sold a product that covers that, then you trust you've got the right thing.

It's a laptop, not bleeding edge technology so it can be fixed.

Honestly I'm not sure you'll have much luck with curries. My brother bought a tv from them a few years ago. The delivery drivers dropped it on its end after taking it out the package and broke it. This is on ring doorbell footage.

My brothers been called a liar and threatened to be sued for harassment because he continued - legally and politely - to pursue a refund. He's in the army and they got involved with legal advice and even they got nowhere.

Basically we don't touch curry's with a barge pole!

Eventually yes, but right now the parts aren't available. At least that's we've been told.

Honestly it's an absolute disgrace. I've worked in insurance for over 30 years we are so regulated in.what we can and cannot say and any Tom Dick or Mary can sell or say what they like and get away with it. I have never bought any insurance anywhere other than an actual insurance company or broker because you rarely ever get the cover you are thinking you are buying. Total rip off. No help in your case op sorry.

I wouldn’t trust them in the slightest and I wish you well OP.

Last year DH was looking to buy a laptop and it was in stock in our local Curry’s as we were browsing. It was the identical laptop to one in John Lewis, but JL were £100 cheaper and further away so I’d have to order online. Asked Currys to price match and discovered that they wouldn’t because the model numbers were not the same. That was the day I discovered Curry’s will change the last digit or add letters to the end of a model number to make it exclusive to them and not liable to be price matched.

I ordered it from John Lewis.

This is wrong.
Extended warranties are a type of insurance, they are considered so by the FOS.
Make sure you have exhausted the complaints procedure (made a formal complaint) with Currys in the first instance as the FOS is only interested once that first step of the process is completed. Currys Group Limited is on the FCA register so is regulated.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/insurance/extended-warranties
https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=001b000000m6ovZAAQ

Of course that's not accidental damage.
It's escape of water (or storm damage if the leak was caused by terrible storm weather).
Would need to claim on contents home insurance

Agreed with the previous poster, it's definitely not either deliberate or accidental damage. For an accidental damage claim you need to have done something to mistakenly damage your insured item- dropped the camera, split your drink, etc.

This is such an odd thread. It was nice of them to take you at your word on the mis-sell at the cashier and refund the insurance. Really you should have read before you signed

They don't owe you a new laptop.
Obviously.
I mean, the audacity.