Comet repairs - only three months guarantee

Tis better to have sued and lost than never to have sued at all....

Yes, it's the freezer problem. I know I can get *some* damages (for loss of spoiled food) and the issue really is whether I can recover all or part of the purchase price.

Its a Samsung DCSV side-by-side american style fridge freezer.

Yes. The fridge compartment stopped working. The fan makes a noise and its just not cooling.

Exactly the same as last time when they just replaced the back plate that had frozen up (and jammed the fan). Looks like its happened exactly the same.

Just to clarify for everyone, it was a Samsung fridge freezer.

Came with two year warranty initially. First packed up one month outside this. Comet came to repair and I ended up paying about 50% of the repair cost.

Almost three months now and the same fault has reappeared.

It's quite reasonable. At the time of the repair the set was serviceable, an age related degradation elsewhere causes the repaired part to fail prematurely producing exactly the same fault as was repaired.

So it packed up when it was 2 years and 1 month old.

You can't reject the goods, but I think you can demand that Comet pay for the cost of rectifying the fault or, if it can't be rectified, for the cost of a replacement fridge making allowance for the use you have had from it (ie something less than the full cost of a new one).

I thought so, its a design fault. Several modifications need to be made (not just the back plate) to the defrost heater, sensors and rear cover, it is a fault known to Samsung have you tried contacting them ?

Surely if its a design fault I shouldnt have to pay anything for the repairs ???

BTW. How do you know its a design fault? Is this documented somewhere?

If you contact the manufacturer as suggested you might not have to, they may have their own rectification scheme.

Samsung have issued instructions and the modified parts needed to do the repair.

I believe the typical lifespan of a fridge freezer is something in the region of 10 years.

I have now settled my dispute with Comet.

Brief description: I bought an appliance from them which developed a malfunction within a few weeks - they came and repaired it. Six weeks later, it developed a further major malfunction and they booked a call to come and repair the appliance. I wrote to say I was rejecting the goods. They phoned to say they were not willing to let me reject the goods. They duly came and repaired the appliance.

I sued for a refund plus the value of spoiled goods. They filed a defence denying liability. There would have been an interesting legal argument about whether I was entitled to reject the goods and whether the passage of time plus the fact that they had carried out a repair, prevented me from rejecting the goods.

Prior to the trial they agreed to a full refund plus a payment towards the cost of spoiled food. I have decided to accept the offer. I daresay their decision was a pragmatic one based on the economics.

It seems to me that *your* decision was a pragmatic one based on the economics.

:-)

That's a great result, but it would have been nice to find out how your rejection was viewed. I have always been told you only have a few days to reject.

What does the title of the thread mean (three months gaurantee)?

Did you have to go as far as paying your first installment for the small claims court fee for laying down (I think that's what you call it) i.e. the £35? I suppose you didn't recover the £35 because you had accepted less than you wanted anyway IUSWIM

I would think so yes - an excellent result though! I do think you were fortunate not to have your Claim tested in Court,( based on my understanding of how SoGA applied).

I don't advocate suing solely in the hope that the firm will choose not to defend purely on economic grounds. I much prefer to have the best legal hand as well in the event they choose to take it all the way.

This is from experience when I assisted someone to sue a multi-national Co. a few years back. Although the amount claimed was only a little over 200, they defended it right up & including the hearing. As a conservative estimate I would say their costs were in excess of 2,000.

Not only did they lose in Court but were roundly criticised by the Judge for having allowed it to get that far :)

Regards.

I agree I might have lost, but it would have been an interesting point to argue and I'm no Heather Mills McCartney when it comes to being a litigant in person.

I think before you sue a company you need to be sure that your case is at least arguable, and not frivolous.

Incidentally, the phrase in the subject line about "only three months guarantee" was unconnected with my own claim. My claim was that a freezer which fails twice can be rejected even after about six months - but I also had the argument that Comet were refusing to pay *anything* towards the spoiled food, for no reason that I could see.

I would avoid buying from Comet whenever possible. When I visited Comet on Saturday I saw a very elderly couple buying a washing machine. The salesman took the opportunity to sell them an extended guarantee for another 162 pounds. I felt like speaking up and saying "don't do it!" but I didn't want to seem rude.

You are quite right, of course - extended warranties are never worth it; but what the elderly couple were buying was peace of mind.

John

"John E" wrote

Well, you are right that store-bought ones very rarely are!

"John E" wrote

But they could get that with the manufacturer's own (much cheaper) extended warranty, or even from (similarly cheaper than store) third-party extended warranty providers.

The sales-pitch for extended warranties does seem to centre on 'peace of mind' (certainly not value for money!) - but that's not what the customer actually gets*.

• Alright, they do if they never have to claim on the warranty.