Friday, Mar 17, 2006 at 19:37
Hi Michael & Happy Camper,
Yes - the Trade Practices Act and related consumer protection legislation is pretty uniform across Australia - some states provide more or less government agency assistance and proactive support.
But elapsed time can be an issue, as can proving something is not fit for purpose.
In the original post's issue, it comes down to what their 5 year warranty included (assuming you were shown some details). If you were and it had no exclusions on zips, the 5 year warranty is not doing what a reasonable person would have interpreted that it should do and so you have a reasonable product fault case. If you were provided with the details, and it had an exclusion on the zips you're hozed.
In the case of the Flouro, if it was wear related and you had purchased it some time ago you are probably at the mercy of the manufacturer.
Sometimes the effort in proving fit for purpose is difficult and you're better off just getting it fixed.
A new zip should be a $30 or $40 zip if you know where to go so I wouldn't be too fussed, and the material for the mozzie cover should be pretty easy to source too if need be.
The advice I got on a recent problem I had: "Heavy Duty xxx psi compressor" (made in China and rebadged by a local 4WD store chain) where the rubber feet that it sits on and which connect it to it's base just vibrated to bits in the back of my 4WD - ie. nothing heavy duty about it, was that as they were unwilling to replace it (it was 4 mo old) I could try taking them to court, but they might be asked to stump up $20 to fix it maybe, and I might still have the cost of serving a summons et al. In the end I spent $7 on some nuts and bolts and $5 on a piece of 5mm rubber, and now it is the best engineered Chinese compressor in Australia ;-)
That said, Coleman (through Snowy's) replaced a whole 2-man tent I had after it was blown inside out (and the fittings torn off). This was 2 years old and I didn't have the receipt. Of course they mumbled a lot about the winds that it was designed - or not designed - to handle - hey! how was I to know?
Ciao for now.
Andrew.
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