Faulty 360, afetr advice please regarding sale of goods act

Samba

Samba

Samba

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Joined
16 Jul 2006
Posts
114
Hi,

I bought my 360 Premium from Blockbusters in February, it has started developing problems reading discs so today I decided I would return it and exchange it at the store I bought it from.

When I rang to explain this I was told by the store manager that I wasn't entitled to an exchange because there policy that after 30 days this is not possible and that I should ring Microsoft direct to resolve this.

Obviously I wasn't best pleased and informed her this was not acceptable, I found something on the internet reference the sale of goods act which says that if something becomes defective within 6 months of purchase you are entitled to exchange the goods.

I am currently waiting for her to phone me back as I asked her to ring her head office about this. Just wondering whether people think I am entitled to an exchange or if Blockbusters are right, I bought the 360 on the 2nd Feb this year.
 
Their policy could be to cover themselves in icecream and to crawl round the floor making pig noises - infact I am fairly certain it is. However...... you have something called STATUTORY RIGHTS.
Every receipt that you have ever had has some small print on it, as do Mars Bar wrappers etc that says.......... "your statutory rights are not affected".

Your statutory rights are the only thing that matter, their company policy is utterly irrelevent.

Your statutory rights are covered in the sale of goods act. There are many, many, many threads on it here.

Try this one:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8687010&postcount=5
 
Good luck. A certain pc retailer (purple shirts) tried pulling this stunt, the guy kept saying to me "our company policy states that you are not entitled to refund only an exchange." When I starting quoting the Sale of Goods Act they soon changed their mind.
 
Well after after speaking to them again, they backed down and I have just returned from Blocbuster with a new 360 :)

I think it was because I started quoting the sales of good act to them, anyway score one for the good guys, thanks for the replies :)
 
Companies generally back down when you quote The Sales of Goods Act. It shows you know your rights and your not a "typical" customer who will accept all the B******* that they tell you. For future reference writing letters to the company via recorded delivery is the best way to complain as you have proof the letter was receieved and they can't fob you off. I've also found going in and talking to them face to face works well :)
 
Yeah face to face works best for me, I'm a 34 year old Yorkshireman and I've been around the block a bit if you know what I mean, I find they usually back down after a little while ;)
 
Samba said:
Yeah face to face works best for me, I'm a 34 year old Yorkshireman and I've been around the block a bit if you know what I mean, I find they usually back down after a little while ;)
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Gimme a new flat cap or I'll set meh whippet on ye grrrrrrrr !
 
I fully agree with all this sales of goods act stuff, but I used to work for a small retailer, so I know why a lot of companies try to put you off swapping in store.
Say you have a failed unit which you take back and swap for a brand new unit. The shop then has a faulty unit and lost a new unit. They send the faulty unit back to the manufacturer and receive back a refurbished unit. So in escence they have swapped a new unit which they can sell full price against a refurb which they CAN'T legally sell at full price. I.E. they lose money on something which they had no control over.
To a big company this is not a major problem but can eat into some profits. On the other hand, to a small 1 store retailer, losing £50 or so each time a 360 fails (and quite a few have) will considerably ruin their viability to stay open.

I am not saying don't take it back to them, but keep in mind why they want to put you off. Do you really want to see all the small retailers die?
 
El_Watcher said:
I fully agree with all this sales of goods act stuff, but I used to work for a small retailer, so I know why a lot of companies try to put you off swapping in store.
Say you have a failed unit which you take back and swap for a brand new unit. The shop then has a faulty unit and lost a new unit. They send the faulty unit back to the manufacturer and receive back a refurbished unit. So in escence they have swapped a new unit which they can sell full price against a refurb which they CAN'T legally sell at full price. I.E. they lose money on something which they had no control over.
To a big company this is not a major problem but can eat into some profits. On the other hand, to a small 1 store retailer, losing £50 or so each time a 360 fails (and quite a few have) will considerably ruin their viability to stay open.

I am not saying don't take it back to them, but keep in mind why they want to put you off. Do you really want to see all the small retailers die?
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Why would a small retailer accept a refurb back? I see no reason why they would do that at all. I'd send the duff unit back and expect a credit note for it, not a duff or refurb unit.
 
BobBrainy said:
i hate companies that do this, its really annoying and they soon change their mind like we have seen when someone has more brains than them.
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In a recent poll conducted by myself 99.74% of shopstaff do NOT know what your statutory rights are and have no idea about the sales of goods act and respond only to the training they have been given about "company policy".

"I'm sorry sir but it is company policy to wear this plastic jumper and clip on tie with tacky namebadge, would you like fries with your copy of Gears of War ..... doh sorry, was thinking of my Saturday job".

At least when I was a teenager working in a shop I got sell stinkbombs and "marital aids". Not often to the same person though.
 
El Watcher, I take your point but in my case I was dealing with Blockbuster who are hardly a small company, very suprised by their attitude and stance.
 
Samba said:
El Watcher, I take your point but in my case I was dealing with a video rental company who are hardly a small company, very suprised by their attitude and stance.
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To be fair a video rental company is fairly unlikely to be used to having goods returned for being faulty as they don't usually retail games consoles and their staff are not likely to be clued up on the legalities of statutory rights.
 
VIRII said:
In a recent poll conducted by myself 99.74% of shopstaff do NOT know what your statutory rights are and have no idea about the sales of goods act and respond only to the training they have been given about "company policy".

"I'm sorry sir but it is company policy to wear this plastic jumper and clip on tie with tacky namebadge, would you like fries with your copy of Gears of War ..... doh sorry, was thinking of my Saturday job".

At least when I was a teenager working in a shop I got sell stinkbombs and "marital aids". Not often to the same person though.
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That's appalling. We got our TV repaired recently under The Sales of Goods Act, writing a letter and regular, kind but firm phone calls really does work :). It's a Shame the TVs developed another fault since return :mad:. Back to ***** it goes.
 
Meatball said:
That's appalling. We got our TV repaired recently under The Sales of Goods Act, writing a letter and regular, kind but firm phone calls really does work :). It's a Shame the TVs developed another fault since return :mad:. Back to ***** it goes.
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The figure was made up, but stems from my experiences from working in retail many, many years ago and from buying things.
Also from the numbers of people here who were very unaware of their statutory rights.
I don't think that I have met a single sales assistant who is really clued up on SOGA ever. Usually when they try and flog me an extended warranty I ask them what it covers that the SOGA doesn't. They never seem to know. AFAIK they are supposed to tell you about your statutory rights when they try to flog you a BS warranty as well - I seem to recall it being a requirement under law.
Don't you want our warranty Sir? It is only about 75% of the cost of the item in the first place and gives you an extra week ontop of our 12 months store warranty.......
No thanks, I'll just take you to court if it goes belly up :)
 
The sale of goods act also says the retailer is responsible for faulty goods for a full 6 years after purchase. If people knew this, sales of extended warranties would drop pretty sharply.

Might be worth thinking about for anyone who's had a 360 die out of warranty.
 
Go back mate, I work at Blockbusters. i had a bloke in yesterday with a 3 month old 360 and was perfectly happy to exchange it for him, but my assisstant manager took the attitude of 'its outsde its 28 day period, youll have to go through microsoft' to which he responded with OFCOM action, after which my assisstant manager backed off owing little abotu the act and leftem to carry on with he exchange.

What store is it?
 
fish99 said:
The sale of goods act also says the retailer is responsible for faulty goods for a full 6 years after purchase. If people knew this, sales of extended warranties would drop pretty sharply.
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I thought this was the case only if the product had an inherent fault? For example the 360?

VIRII have you ever taken any company to court with regards to this act?
 
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VIRII said:
Why would a small retailer accept a refurb back? I see no reason why they would do that at all. I'd send the duff unit back and expect a credit note for it, not a duff or refurb unit.
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The problem is in a lot of cases the shop buys their stock from a distributor, not the manufacturer. The manufacturer will not give credit notes/refunds because they did not sell it in the first place. This is where shops differ from consumers, they basicaly have very little rights when it comes to faulty goods. They could try to get it swapped by the distributor, but more than likely they would just swap it for a refurb and wouldn't offer credit either.
Usually there are only a few distributors for certain products so if a shop doesn't like the way they are treated by the distibutor, they can choose "live with it" or "don't stock that product line".

It is even worse with stuff like cheap DVD players, because the failure rate is usually much higher and they are already rediculously cheap, any money you take off for it being refurb, you end up making a loss, not just a smaller profit.
 
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