Xtra Vision...

TerrorFirmer

Just a quick question after I noticed another thread about poor practices in Xtra vision. At christmas time, my girlfriend gave me a Philips mp3 player that had been on sale in Xtra Vision. It worked for 2 hours, and then died permenantly. I brought it back the next day, Stephens day, at most a week after it had been bought. I liked the player, but it was 30gb, and I don't need that much space, so we were just going to go for a refund and get something smaller in town.

However the guy in Xtra vision said they could not offer a refund, as they had to contact head office, let them make a decision, etc and that it could take a week or longer. Surely this is totally illegal given I was well within my legal term for a refund, replacement or repair at my discretion?

Just curious...I ended up having to accept an exhange due to their policy, as I could not afford to wait and they were adament that they could not under any circumstances offer a refund unless 'Head Office' (in dublin :rolleyes: ) had 'evaluated' the case and so on... this obviously greatly annoyed me as the choice wasn't great and I ended up picking something I wasn't overly keen on.

thefinalstage

You were fully entitled to a refund as it was broken and well with there 28 days return policy. You've been had boy :P

miju

you are entitled to a repair , replacement or refund. the fact that they offered you a no quibble replacement for the same player would significantly weaken your claim on a full refund even if you went the small claims route

jimmycrackcorm

If I didn't see this with my own eyes I wouldn't believe it, but visiting a shop that sells MP3 players, there was an incredible number of people coming back with new mp3 players claiming that they were faulty. If there was a qualified staff member there then he could examine and more than often it was a flat battery or incorrect drivers etc. Very few were actually faulty. some people had for example managed to wipe out their music collection on the player and claimed it was faulty only for a staff memeber to download a couple of tracks and play them ok. If there was no qualified staff then people were told to come back when such a person was available.

You are only entitled to a refund / exchange if the goods are actually faulty so that has to be determined first.

Actually out of interest, the shop in question gets a lot of people sent over from the local Xtravision and Argos shops to find out what is wrong.

jimmy2shoes

get the same where i work. i reckon we 'fix' around 60% of ipods in store. mainly by logging onto the apple website and following the instructions on there, or even googling the problem. however if someone came in within 30 days of purchase and it was faulty and they asked for a refund then we would refund them without question and for xtravsion not to do this is scandalous.

Nightwish

Where I worked I had the same with regards to ipods/mp3 players. Curiously many ipods seemed to "break down" right around the release dates of newer models.

To the OP, you are entitled to a refund within 28 days of purchase as long as you have proof of purchase and the store have had time to examine the product to verify that the product in question is in fact faulty. Xtravision did not handle the situation well by asking you to wait a week to see if the item is faulty but they did offer you a straight replacement. Why did you want a refund anyway? What is wrong with getting a replacement?

TerrorFirmer

As I already said the player was 30gb, far bigger capacity then what I need and also did not have video playback, so I thought I'd get one that supported video playback but the only one they had in-store wasn't great (small capacity, small screen) - hence I wanted a refund rather then get something I didn't really want!

Yet I ended up having to take it anyway over their stupid policy of head office in Dublin having to authourize any refund....it's not like they said that they had to determine it was faulty - they just claimed that they couldn't give a refund without the overall head office in dublin checking out the claim and getting back to them in a week which sounds like total BS to me, given it was almost new, and obviously with receipt.

the guy could clearly see it was broken in store - wouldn't turn on, nor would it turn on when plugged in. It wouldn't take a very qualified worker to come to the conclusion it was faulty. Obviously it'd be different if I was claiming something was wrong with the players software but it was a clear hardware fault.

Sam Vimes

HavoK wrote:

Surely this is totally illegal given I was well within my legal term for a refund, replacement or repair at my discretion?

fraid not mate. you're entitled to a refund, replacement or repair at their discretion. they have to give you one of the above but which they give you is their choice. if it had been in working order you'd probably have been able to get a refund but since it was broken, an exchange was more than generous. they could have sent it off for repair

and although most shops will exchange things if you decide you don't want them, they have no legal obligation to do so

TerrorFirmer

I thought it was acceptable to ask for a refund as long as it was within x amount of days after the sale? Especially given it was faulty, not that I had used 'I don't like it' as the reason for return.

tvnutz

I'm not seeing the problem...you were entitled to a refund and you were offered one. Forget about what they said about head office evaluating it. HO don't test the players,if you had waited you would have gotten a full refund by cheque in the post. Stores cannot give refunds over 80 quid from the till,mainly because there is not that much money in the till. a 30 gig costs a few hundred euro which cannot be given from the till. Obviously someone in store would have to check if it was faulty,do you expect them just to give out new ones without checking? Had you waited the week you would have gotten the full refund. And the law says you are entitled to the refund,it doesn't say it has to be on the spot,things dont work that easily.

Futureman

Commander Vimes wrote:

fraid not mate. you're entitled to a refund, replacement or repair at their discretion. they have to give you one of the above but which they give you is their choice. if it had been in working order you'd probably have been able to get a refund but since it was broken, an exchange was more than generous. they could have sent it off for repair

and although most shops will exchange things if you decide you don't want them, they have no legal obligation to do so

What are you talking about? You have it backwards! If it had been in perfect working order, he would be entitled to NOTHING. If it was broken, he is entitled to a REFUND (unless he accepts a repair or credit note voluntarily) - it's not at the store's descretion at all if it's faulty!

miju

if it's faulty it is at the stores discretion if you went to the small claims court about a refund that was refused to you but a replacement was offered you would lose

Futureman

No you wouldn't. They have to give you a refund if a product is faulty.

miju

no they dont have to give you anything , the way the small claims court will look at it will be "did the shop offer you a resolution to the problem and was that resolution an acceptable / reasonable offer?" i suggest you go read the the ODCA website

for example:

- if something is 6 months old they would see first repair as acceptable (as long as the repair is permanent) OR if repair takes a longer time than is reasonable (which they don't define) then customer can seek refund / replacement
- if something is brand new and faulty / damaged (and it wasn't customers fault) then only a refund OR a replacement would be acceptable

either way the store is entitled to get the goods examined by a suitably qaulified person (just as your repair should be by a suitably qaulified person ) before doing anything at all to redress your problem

Sam Vimes

Futureman wrote:

What are you talking about? You have it backwards! If it had been in perfect working order, he would be entitled to NOTHING. If it was broken, he is entitled to a REFUND (unless he accepts a repair or credit note voluntarily) - it's not at the store's descretion at all if it's faulty!

If you have a problem with an item that you have bought it is always the seller who should put things right. As a general rule, the seller can either repair or replace the item. Alternatively, they can refund the costs of the item or service to the consumer.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/consumer-affairs/consumer-protection/consumer-rights/consumers_and_the_law_in_ireland


and i know if it was in perfect working order he'd be entitled to nothing. if you read my post again, you'll notice that i said that most shops take back things that are in perfect working order even though they have no obligation to do so

samclaughlin

Under the sale of goods and supply of services act 1980 any consumer sold a faulty good is entitled to a full refund..No questions asked...

Sam Vimes

citizensinformation.ie disagrees with you. and the fact that a large number of shops send things off for repair also disagrees with you. i'll do a bit more digging

also, i think "is it really faulty" is a question they could ask

edit:and where does it say that? its a big act and i can find no mention of it

Sam Vimes

17.—(1) Where the seller of goods delivers a guarantee to the buyer, irrespective of when or how it is delivered, the seller shall be liable to the buyer for the observance of the terms of the guarantee as if he were the guarantor, unless he expressly indicates the contrary to the buyer at the time of delivery.

(2) Where, however, the seller, being a retailer, gives the buyer his own written undertaking that he will service, repair or otherwise deal with the goods following purchase, it shall be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, that he has not made himself liable to the buyer under the guarantee so delivered.


and now it seems that the act itself disagrees with you. why even mention the word repair if someone is entitled to an immediate refund for a faulty product?

miju

samclaughlin wrote:

Under the sale of goods and supply of services act 1980 any consumer sold a faulty good is entitled to a full refund..No questions asked...

wow , forgive me for saying so but that doesnt look like legislative speak to me

at the end of the day the retailer must rectify the problem by doing one of three things and most common way of rectifying the problem preferred by retailer replacement OR repair and by offering either of these they are complying with their obligations under the 1980 sale of goods act.

projectmayhem

i work for said company, and the issue isn't surprising at all. a lot of staff simply don't know about electronics, so don't really know what to do when faulty goods come back into a store, so they refer it to head office (which takes 30minutes to get word back, not a week at all!).

perfect example being one of those small zen v plus things coming back to my store recently, and the guy serving was confuzzled as to the problem (it froze & wouldn't do anything). if i wasn't there, the customer could have been waiting for a repair, when all that needed to be done is to poke the reset button with a pin.

Wicked01

Just been to Xtravision and was told again that money was owed on my account? WHAT! This is the second time this has happened.
Its all these stupit offers they have on and all the non English speaking employees they have. If you rent a two new releases, you can keep for two nights and you can also hold onto the two kids films for two nights!
Then you go back a couple of weeks later and they tell you that you owe money on your account as the two kids films were not left back in time. How do you argue that the stupid idiot behind the counter told you that you had all four films for two nights? Am the only one this is happening too? :mad:

dudara

Thread closed as over 2 years old.

dudara