Ask Which? – Help, my treadmill’s run out of steam!

Hi Alick
No the silence from both Amazon and Kodak was deafening! Threw away the Kodak and will never, ever buy another Kodak product again. Wrote to MD of Amazon who ignored the letter. Wrote to Norman Lamb who was the then trade secretary – he had no idea of the EU situation and passed it to his underlings – again no feedback. The trouble is our MPs cannot be bothered to read the provisions of the SOGA and understand that it does NOT give more protection than the EU directive because the provisions of SOGA are too loose and manufacturers/retailers can slip under the radar by saying that after six months the consumer has to prove that the goods were inherently faulty. Given that most engineers take the view: a) that home printers are so cheap that they are not worth repairing and b) engineers that will touch a Kodak printer are rarer than hens’ teeth, the consumer is completely lost. I do not understand why WHICH are not campaigning to get this two year guarantee incorporated into SOGA – I see no reason why it would dilute the ‘up to six years’ protection. All in all and as in so many other cases, all concerned with consumer rights have let us down badly.

I stocked up on electronic gizmos for my next years presents as the Administrator disposed of Phones4U stock in the early part of the year. I’d been very satisfied with purchases in early batches as all the boxed stock was new and in perfect condition. After buying over 20 smaller items I bought, in March, three Hannspree tablet computers sealed in manufacturers boxes to be birthday presents for my children.

As is usually the case with complex electronics I expected the support to be from the manufacturer and it was later found that, indeed, each box had a printed warranty card giving the details.

The children discovered my hiding place and were given their presents early and opened them carefully unsealing the boxes and unwrapping the tablets, chargers, instructions etc. inside.

And then the problems started. One unit was dead on ‘opening’ and the second charged but then would not turn on and boot. Two disappointed twins and one upset dad. An email to Hannspree in Germany and I was pointed at the UK service centre – in reality a contracted out function carried out by Repairtech a specialist outfit in Southam. I obtained special numbers from them and drove the tablets to their workshop.

First I was told that Hanspree Head Office had decided that the units had been manufactured too long ago to receive warranty service. I asked for the location and name of the person to refer to at Head Office but received no answer (the emails do not have the information on them as required by law . . . but, hey, it’s a German company far, far away.

I then contacted Which who told me that if date of manufacture and delay before sale were not mentioned in the warranty then it was not a term of warranty. In fact I found a last example of this model for sale by Amazon in early April and further research showed that the model was considered such a ‘dog’ that it literally took years for stocks to move. These units were probably part of the ‘difficult to sell’ stock hence their being available to be sold off by the Administrator.

Armed with the Which response I wrote back asking again for the company itself and its proper contact details. Again, no answer to my question and then, after a further delay Repairtech wrote to tell me that the items were ‘second hand’ and therefore could not be covered by the warranty! I asked them on what basis they had made this claim and was told that it had been passed to them, Repairtech, by Hannspree Head Office. I asked again for the location and contact details of this Head Office, again no answer except a short email asking me to either pay or to take my tablets back.

Well, these tablets are not a treadmill although the process of getting any response seems to be one. The next step was that Which found the necessary ‘statutory information’ and I wrote a letter to their ‘address for service’ a week ago asking for the breach of contract explicit in the warranty to be rectified and that if nothing was done telling them that I would arrange for the repairs to be done before taking action to recover the cost. I’m not holding my breath.

Of course I was aware that the retailer was in administration and so there is no recourse there as they are wound up. However, I would have expected a rather better response from the manufacturer – and their agents who have been their mouthpiece. No doubt the manufacturer had been paid long ago for these items and part of that wholesale price should have covered the cost of warranty.

For comparison, I also bought an Asus tablet in the same sale. It had a ‘proper’ warranty system. A card plus a logging system online. Having registered my warranty there were no accusations concerning age of the item or ‘second handness’ . . . a return email told me how to find and download updates and when I had a software glitch service under warranty was rapid and smooth.

It will be interesting to see how this develops. My 8yo twins are just as disappointed as I am and almost three months is a long time for them to be without their birthday presents. We shall see.