Re: Extended warranties and 'wear and tear'

Ste wrote:

The item is sold with a 1 year *manufacturer's warranty*. The warranty
period offered by the manufacturer is not an indicated of how long the
goods ought to last, and nor does it negate any of your statutory
rights. Your statutory rights, which are enforcable against the
retailer, are that goods will be fit for purpose, satisfactory
quality, reasonable durable, etc. and I think it's reasonably clear
that the laptop fails one or more of those tests.

My problem would be Sony claim it could have been caused by damage by me. They don't say it was - simply that it could have been.



Of course you say you bought the laptop for business purposes. In some
cases your rights in respect of goods purchased in a business capacity
can be different from those rights that a consumer enjoys, but if you
bought the laptop retail, or if you bought it in a personal capacity
and then applied it to business use, then you probably have rights as
a consumer.

Although the laptop is a business laptop (Sold with Vista Business for a start) and it was pretty expensive (£1600), it was bought for personal use.

Is the original retailer the best place to sue? The only one?

The company from whom you purchased the laptop is contractually liable
to you, and is the one whom you must usually sue. In theory, that
process would continue up the supply chain, with each "link" in the
chain claiming against the supplier immediately above him in the
chain. Of course you can always sue Sony for failure to honour the
warranty, or for unreasonable terms within the warranty.

OK, thank you.

Somehow I would feel more comfortable suing Sony. Just a personal thing - if nothing else, I feel they are at fault.


I don't have any details about who actually took my money though.

The postal address looks like it's Belgium, which I assume makes the
problem even more complex.

At the end of the day, I think you can sue Sony UK. Even if you sue
the wrong "part" of the worldwide company, they're unlikely to raise
such procedural arguments in tuppeny-happeny litigation like this. In
fact they're unlikely to even go as far as court if your case clearly
warrants a "goodwill" repair or replacement, because it's bad for PR
and it's costly for them to instruct legal professionals to defend the
case.

OK

Before whacking any claim forms into the post, you'd do better to try
and get a response from Sony head office, appealing to their sense of
fairness and good faith and using all your powers of persuasion. The
managers know that professional engineers are not going to spend 6
months arguing about £200 and a laptop hinge unless they feel
genuinely wronged, and the inference is usually drawn that if a person
feels wronged they were probably not responsible for the damage in the
first place.

I did intend this. I have not got the laptop back yet, so don't even have any list of components replaced (except via telephone). I intend perusing the non-legal methods first.

It appears there were several parts replaced though. Some like the motherboard and hard disk I have some difficulty in understanding why. But at least they are not charging me for them.


So basically

1) Laptop purchased in London's Tottenham Court Road
2) Extended warranty *probably* paid to Sony in Belgium (not confirmed
this).
3) Repair cost paid to Sony in Scotland.

The repair cost was paid to Sony in Scotland via a credit card. Any
chance of me claiming from the credit card company?

Quite possibly, though I'm not sure how your claim would be comprised.
If they say the repairs are not covered under warranty, and you fail
to prove otherwise, then the charge is legitimate. So ultimately
claiming on the credit card does not circumvent the requirement to sue
somebody.


--
I respectfully request that this message is not archived by companies as
unscrupulous as 'Experts Exchange' . In case you are unaware,
'Experts Exchange' take questions posted on the web and try to find
idiots stupid enough to pay for the answers, which were posted freely
by others. They are leeches.
.

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