Warranty Return - Who Pays?

[enjay]

One of our Smart boards has failed, and our supplier are saying that Steljes have changed their practice, and no longer collect the boards. Instead, they say I am responsible for getting the board back to them, yet they are stipulating it must go by overnight courier. Is this right? Can they make me pay for the return on a warranty repair? Moreover, can they tell me how I do must this?

[ICT_GUY]

There was something in the news about this recently. I would phone up consumer direct for advice. Consumer Direct

[powdarrmonkey]

It is written into the terms of the warranty as stated at the time you took it out (i.e. bought the item). Your original paperwork will tell you this.

[Spitfire]

If you have a Smartboard go faulty under warranty and contact Steljes they send out a local sub contractor to repair it in-situ,

this is how ours are repaired and we have about 100 and they tend to get broken with regular monotony.

[elsiegee40]

Usually, the customer pays and then is refunded if the repair/replacement is found to be covered under warranty

[enjay]

It is written into the terms of the warranty as stated at the time you took it out (i.e. bought the item). Your original paperwork will tell you this.

 

Can't immediately put my hands on the original paperwork, but we've had boards collected in the past - Steljes are saying they don't do that any more.

[enjay]

If you have a Smartboard go faulty under warranty and contact Steljes they send out a local sub contractor to repair it in-situ,

this is how ours are repaired and we have about 100 and they tend to get broken with regular monotony.

 

Odd. They told me our options were to return it to them or pay £150 to have an on-site swap-out.

[TechSupp]

Just had one board go faulty and they shipped the part to me to replace, was a simple enough job though. Not had a complete board go yet though.

[alan-d]

I'm pretty sure that the responsibility lies with the supplier, even for warranty work. I've recently been following a similar story on another forum in which the original supplier was fobbing warranty work off to the manufacturers. The answer from the consumer and trade advice boards was that the contract of sale which included the warranty was with the seller and it was up to the seller to deal with his supplier\manufacturer.

 

BTW the item above was for a Caravan but the principle is the same.

[SteveBentley]

If the terms of the warranty are "Return to Base" then it's generally at your expense AFAIK.

 

Remember that consumer law differs to that covering business to business transactions/contracts.

[enjay]

If the terms of the warranty are "Return to Base" then it's generally at your expense AFAIK.

 

That's my understanding, generally speaking, however what confuses me here is that a) they've collected them before under warranty but say they don't do that any more, and b) they're telling me how to return it, surely that's up to me.

[enjay]

@alan-d - I'm not fussed whether reseller or manufacturer repairs it. What is getting me is that they appear to have shifted the goal posts on me mid-contract, meaning it is now at my expense (and effort) when previously it was theirs. Don't see how that works!

[mpe]

That's my understanding, generally speaking, however what confuses me here is that a) they've collected them before under warranty but say they don't do that any more,

If "them" includes either the same item or items bought with with said item then they might be argued to have created a binding contract with you.

[enjay]

I've looked into this further, and found that they have indeed changed the terms of the warranty (my bad for not knowing that) and this board was sold under the new terms, whereas the previous faulty one was under the old terms, so they're entirely correct. Now I just need to work out a way of getting the thing packed for transport!

[SimpleSi]

and our supplier are saying that Steljes have changed their practice, and no longer collect the boards.

 

I've never had any offer for Steljes to collect a board.

 

AFAIC their/SMART customer service is the absolute worst in the world.

 

I am unable to articulate futher on my thoughts on the lack of public information on root cause of 500 series boards alignment issues as it makes my blood boil

Edited April 29, 2010 by SimpleSi

[enjay]

I've never had any offer for Steljes to collect a board.

 

They removed this from the returns policy in October 2005.