faulty goods- bloody fed up!

[shelsco]

AIBU to expect things that I buy to last more than a year? I'm fed up of spending a small fortune on things that need replacing after little more than a year. In november i had a bath fitted which has a faulty surface and marks cannot be cleaned off it. Because i paid the plumber for it and he supplied and fitted it, by law he is responsbile for repairing or replacing. However, he refuses to take responsibility and has referred me back to the retailer who in turn referred me to the manufacturer. I'm still waiting.... Meanwhile, the paint has started to flake off my Ds's bed which we bought 13 months ago. the retailer again has contacted the manufacturer but says the onus is on us to prove that we haven't stored it inappropriately! Again we are waiting to hear from the manufactuer.
On top of all that, the fridge (which, you guessed it, we got 13 months ago) door handle has snapped off. It happened when fridge was six months old and was replaced under warranty but has happened again and now we have to pay, even though it eveidently is not fit for purpose! Sorry to rant but absolutely sick of paying for products that are CRAP!!!!

Nope I feel the same. Nothing is made properly any more. I've come to the conclusion I'm bette to either buy really expensive stuff and get the insurance or really cheap crap so it breaks before the warranty is up.

I never chuck out receipts! You just can't tell whats going to break next!

i feel the same. i have a silvercross pop pushchair and the metal bar supporting the seat part snapped in half yesterday. it seared through my ds trousers but luckily he was unhurt i am so angry over it. the part were it had snapped was all jaggered if he had shorts on it might have been a different story

WOW! Thats crap ATL! I was looking at a vintage silvercross yesterday, isn't it amazing how it was made in about 1950 and still going strong? Nothing is made properly any more. Take pics and send them to silvercross! Glad your ds is ok!

ive taken pictures and emailed them with a stiff message. still waiting for a response though, i get the feeling they will just ignore and hope the problem goes away.

Regardless of what the retailer says, your contract is with them, not the manufacturer.

Have a read of the sale of goods act

kitkatqueen, get the vintage silver cross- trust me, you won't regret it

I thought everything had to have a 2 year guarantee under some European law now??

Your contract is with the retailer, however they will usually have to go back to the supplier/manufacturer to see what they are willing to do.
They should offer to inspect and repair if a manufacturing fault & not customer misuse. For example if you regularly hang heavy bags off your pushchair handles or use a buggy board, both of these can cause undue wear & tear to the chassis.
Unfortunately these things can sometimes take a while as there is usually some to-ing & fro-ing from retailer to manufacturer.
However do agree that quality isn't what it used to be in general.

Sale of goods act states that goods should be of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose and can be expected to last up to 6 years (depending on what it is) and the fact that the year's warranty is up should make no difference to your rights. However, retailers don't seem to abide by this without a fight. within a year, there seems to be no questions asked but even a month over that and they seem to make it as difficult as possible.

BTW bath manufacturer has got back to me and suggested that I clean bath with T-cut, the stuff you polish cars with! They also say that i must have original receipt or the 'lifetime guarantee' that the bath comes with is invalid! Given that plumber supplied it and i didn't get the receipt, there goes my lifetime guarantee. These guarantees are just a sales ploy. I'm going to make sure i keep every receipt from now on, and insist i get one for everything!

No,no, no... you just need to provide 'evidence of purchase'. This can be a bank or credit card statement, or even the testimony of someone who was with you when you bought it (the plumber would be ideal).

They are fobbing you off with their erroneous 'lifetime guarantees'. Keep pushing, you are in the right and they have sold you faulty goods.

Don't touch the T-cut either.

oops too late,been really busy at work and haven't had time to get back on to check replies til now. have just used the t cut which incidently didn't work and has given me one hell of a headache.
Problem i have is that officially, according to trading standards, i didn't buy the bath from them, the plumber did (because i paid the plumber then he paid them)so my contract is with him and he has to sort everything out with the manufacturer. because he doesn't think that's fair (and i can see his point)he is not prepared to chase it up for me. am completely fed up cos t cut hasn't worked and even if they offer me an new bath (which i'm not sure they will), the whole bathroom is tiled and i'm doubtful they can get bath replaced without damaging tiles. patching in will be a nightmare as tiles all need to be same batch number! AArgh!!

You could sue the plumber. Then he'd be a bit more interested. He took the job and the money, he needs to sort.

Also, does your fridge have a 5 year parts guarantee? Most white goods do. You just have to pay for the labour. The place where I buy most of my white goods charge £65 for callout and a couple of hours' work.

Ooh YANBU!
My fridge door fell on me today.(Just over a year old.) I was shouting for help, which worried DS who tried to get help but ended up dangling from his booster chair throwing up!

And my dishwasher button fell off after 4 months. It's a Smeg FFS! If I had wanted it to break after 4months, I would have got a Beko!

Mmmm - i did get a beko, obviously why i'm having problems now!! don't know bout the parts guarantee actually, will have to check. Bit scary suing the plumber. wouldn't it cost loads? Or does it go through the small claims court and not cost so much? Am soo ignorant of these things

Sorry, didn't mean to cause white-good related offence! It doesn't seem to matter what make it is though!

I think it costs about £45 to make a small claim.

Have a look at
www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/claims/index.htm

bought a kingsdown bed which cost a bloody fortune and within 2 weeks the mattress had sagged. Took ages to get through to the manufacturer and a few photos later. The company's manager came to my house and replaced the mattress within 3 days. Guess what ,the company was American and they have said they will replace it for up to 10 years if i have the problem again. Hopefully i wont have to.
Thankfully this one is now 2 years old and absolutely wonderful. Its like sleeping on a cloud.Night night

I have never had trouble beko & other cheap onesjust the expensive stuff!

Best furniture I saw was in the Tutankhamun exhibition. So always buy ancient Egyptian !

no offence taken cranky! you're right, doesn't matter what it is or what it costs. fridge was relatively cheap and bath cost a small fortune but in same position with both!!
Small claim actually is much cheaper than i thought, might be worth thinking about.thanks for link, going to have a good look at that later.
DH thinks I should just let it go, cos it won't be worth the stress and time it costs but new bath actually looks worse than the one i took out! Trading Standards have said i do have a case against plumber but i can pursue the manufacturer myself (although they have no legal obligation to me)and see what they suggest.
Moral of the story is always pay the retailer yourself and not the fitter! Would feel much better about taking a large company to court than a plumber who actuallly did a good job but just was unlucky with the product.

shelsco ,how come he fitted a defective bath. Did any of you see the fault before fitting. Had a similar problem with my bath. I didnt notice that there was a bubble in the moulding until about 10 days after fitting. The shop gave me a new one but the plumber charged for a refit as he said it wasnt his problem.

if an item is faulty before 6 months is up then the onus is on the retailer to prove it was not faulty on purchase. however, after 6 months the onus is on the purchaser to prove the fault was there on purchase. it's the 'reversed burden of proof.'

see here

letters for you here

alypaly- bath didn't look at all defective when it was fitted which is why i do feel sorry for plumber. it was only after we had bathed in it that we noticed a dark line forming around the waterline which just can't be removed no matter what we use. Each time we used it, it got a bit worse and at first I didn't worry as i just assumed that i hadn't really cleaned it well enough with the right stuff. It was only after i tried just about all the cleaning products i have and all the tips on the internet that i started to realise that actually there must be some sort of problem.
thanks for link BTW. i've found out though that bath is covered by supply of goods act rather than sale of goods act. I can't find much about it on the internet but it seems to be very similar.

aly -Had you already had tiling etc done when you had new bath fitted? I'm hoping that some sort of resurfacing can be done on mine because the whole bathroom is tiled and if the bath comes out some of the tiles are likely to be damaged and if we replace them we have to get the same batch number which will be a nightmare to get hold of. Plus would need tiler and although officially plumber should pay for that, I can't see it happening.