Out of warranty? You may still be covered

Yo Cackles,

I was the same - have a look below and you should be able to see what to do...

This is an example of the format:

Here is the link

This is where you want us to look at - www.accc.gov.au

so insert the link into the above to get this below.... does that make sense?

Here is the link

Fair enough re being better informed - the only snag is there seems to be no mention of a TIME-SPAN for these statutory warranties - its all very well for the Gov to be gung-ho on our stat rights but what about a $2000 fridge with 12 months warranty that stuffs up in 18 months - that wouldn't be fair - damned if I know why we put up with 12 months on just about every appliance sold. When the Gov passes Leg that puts minimum timeframes on goods by type, I'll be all ears (well, I am now anyway).

Is my CDMA covered ? It should be , I kept it really clean .

There's a thing called implied warranty.

It's to do with a reasonable expectation of the serviceable life of goods dependant on cost, and it is the responsibility of the retailer rather than the manufacturer to deal with you to resolve any issues. They then may elect to take it up with their supplier but that is between them and the supplier.

I had a win on implied warranty on a Nokia mobile phone that continually turned itself off even after a couple of trips to the repair shop in a 14 month period.

The Office of Fair Trading took the view that the phone was worth about $800 at the time of purchase even though it was paid for over the life of the contract. The contract period was 2 years and the express warranty was 12 months.

They deemed that it was reasonable that I expect the phone to last at least the life of the contract, given it's price, intended purpose and use without abuse.

As a result of going back to the business as an informed consumer the retailer replaced the phone with a factory refurbished unit. (That is their entitlement - they have to make good on the product so that it is capable of functioning as intended, not necessarily a new replacement.)

You may not get the same result on a $200 68cm TV but on a $4000 plasma you would almost certainly get implied warranty for several years.

From that point of view I think retailers selling extended warranties on big ticket items is a HUGE con. They are basically indemnifying themselves against a legal requirement under the trade practices act, by selling the consumer a warranty they would be reasonably be expected to honour at no cost.

It is dealt with in the Trade Practices act and a google search for "implied warranty trade practices act" on Google AU will reveal a wealth of info such as this below from Yahoo's small business site.

Go forth and defend your rights as a consumer...

Dave

Generally speaking, there are four types of warranties businesses usually provide. These are:

* Voluntary warranties: These are given by businesses that choose to stand behind the quality of their goods and services. If a business chooses to give a voluntary warranty (guarantee) then it is required by law to honour it.

* Extended warranties: This is a warranty which is given over a longer period of time. It is important to clearly state the time frame for which the warranty can be acted on.

* Specified warranties: Warranties imposed by State or Territory law regarding particular products, for instance, used cars.

* Implied warranties: These are imposed by the Trade Practices Act and generally speaking, they cannot be excluded or modified by businesses. They are usually in addition to any voluntary warranties or extended warranties. However, implied warranties don’t necessarily expire at the same time as these two warranties.

According to the ACCC, an implied warranty gives customers the following basic rights:

* The customer will have clear title to the goods
* The goods must correspond with any description given to the purchaser or any sample shown to the purchaser
* The goods must be of "merchantable quality" – meeting the basic level of quality and performance that would be expected, bearing in mind price and description.
* The goods must be fit for the purpose intended
* Services must be carried out with due care and skill.

If an implied warranty is not met, you may be required to compensate, repair or replace the particular product or service, depending on the circumstances.

It is of course true you can legally ask for a replacement but imagine if everyone did this,we would be paying reccommened retail price on everthing.I'm sure we all expect a discount on most things there has to be a bit of give and take.
Regards Charlie

Well...talk about good timing guys,
Ill give u a true story that i finalised only last wednesday after 8 months of waiting.

2 years back (17-7-2004) I purchased 2 new BFG all terrains with 2 new rims froim my local supplier. Then in May 2005 heading down to Victoria I noticed a huge vibration between 90 - 110kms. Got the local tyre shop down there to check it out, found that 1 tyre was egg shaped. Made note of it and arriving back home i took it back to my local supplier.

He checked it out and admitted the tyre was stuffed. Had to call a rep out to see what they would do for me..so i waited.

Last wed 25-1-2006, The rep finally showed up ( this was after i notified tyre shop that legal action was pending) Amazingly the rep arrived. All snug in his tie and suit.

Checked tyre and found that it was stuffed. So he starts measuring the depth wear from new so he could work out his pro rata exchange, fair enough i said....he finally tells me i will need to pay 25% of the price of a new tyre to have it changed.

I asked him if he calculated that on todays measurement or did he take it back to when it was first reported and noted on 30-5-05. He said caluclated from today.

So i stopped him there and told the tyre manager to put the tyres back on my car so i could get back home to organise a legal challenge for damage to my front end.

They asked if i would excuse them for a few minutes and then came back with another deal. This time he was willing to change BOTH fronts for new tyres and i only pay 10% of the tyre shops cost price.

I took the deal :-)

NEVER GIVE UP !!!

Yep - all of the above may be true BUT the implied warranty is actually NO warranty in my view - much like hanging on to a hand full of smoke - its all about talking to people and asking them nicely to give you a fair shake - its not specified - you have to engage in correspondence in a lot of cases - you have to wait - you have to remind - you have to get stressed (as some poeple have I'm sure) - is that a warranty ? Take the above case of someone who got satisfaction because their product was expensive - why does that make the "implied warranty period" longer ? Some manufactureres will claim that their product has enhanced performance (not necessarily a longer service life) and that is why you paid more. This aspect (an opportunity at best) of consumer "rights" should be given another name.