Hi chaps,

I bought a Garmin smart watch from Millets in July, it broke about a week later, I sent it back for repair. I heard nothing.

Eventually I broke, I and asked for an update at the end of August (almost 3 weeks after sending it back), they told me to wait for Garmin to fix it.

It’s now 2 months, and still nothing.

If the watch breaks again, that means waiting forever for them to sort it. If it was Amazon, I’d have a new watch, not waiting for them to fanny around trying to fix it.

Am I within my rights to demand a refund? I’ve been asking for it, but they’re not entertaining me.

It’s £150, and I’ve used it for about a week.

They’re communication is incredibly poor, and the response from their ‘custmer service’ was awful. Only their social media contact has been mildly helpful, if dismissive.

I’ve raised a PayPal dispute, but it was closed.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Ricks

get yourself a refund, these companies that send stuff for repair rather than offering a refund are taking the piss

Why was the case closed, did you let it expire? If they didn’t respond you would have been successful by default…

Millets are now claiming I have to wait til the 31st of October, as that’s 6 weeks! It’s not, it’s already 8 weeks.

Into the store today and ask the manager for a refund as they are not making a timely repair. Take a copy of the original receipt with you.

Get onto their twitter and copy in all the parent companies blacks etc. Saying that they’re out of order for stalling and you’ll be going small claims. You’ll get action.

Under CRA, you’re entitled to a refund if a repair would take “an unreasonably long amount of time.” I’d argue that eight weeks and counting is unreasonable.

You could’ve rejected it outright and demanded a refund within 30 days of purchase, but you’ve left it too long for that unfortunately.

Your contract was with Millets, not Garmin.
The obligation to resolve this is with the retailer; they sort with you and then they, in turn, sort with manufacturer.
Escalate to chief exec of JD Sports who own Millets; you should be able to find his email in the googlesphere.
Write in clear, polite and forceful terms – don’t be aggressive or threatening; do refer to poor customer service, off-hand attitude, let him know that you would be unable to recommend anyone to shop with them, give dates (and staff names if you have them).
Then go to store and tell ‘manager’ you have escalated and this is their chance to replace from their stock – and regain your goodwill by doing something to acknowledge that you’ve been without the item for more than 8 weeks.
Keep us updated.

Legally the contract is with Millets but practically Garmin are v good as sorting this sort of stuff out direct via their HQ in Southampton. There’s a number you can call for warranty returns. You send them your watch and then they repair or replace it usually within a few days. No idea why Millets are faffing you around but unlikely to be a Garmin issue. Demand a refund.

TBH, I wouldn’t have accepted a repair on a week-old watch in the first place. You paid £150 for a new watch, not a refurbished one.

Escalate to chief exec of JD Sports who own Millets

I see this sort of advice a lot. If the CEO of any company spent his day looking after minor customer service issues (no offence here, but you’re one person who’s bought a watch), he’d do nothing else. It’s like emailing Bill Gates* because your copy of Windows has crashed.

It may well still be good advice of course, in so far as the “CEO” contact information is probably a dedicated customer services escalations team, but if you think for a moment that the CEO of the parent company is going to be personally dealing with your issue, well, I’d be surprised.

(* – Satya Nadella these days)

Cougar, some do and some don’t. On the few occasions when I’ve had a need to do this, it has always produced a positive result; it doesn’t matter whether it’s delegated to a resolutions team – the only important consideration is getting a result.

I would be surprised if Rickon saw this as a ‘minor customer service issue’ and, for all any of us know, Millets may have a track record for this sort of behaviour

Corporate reputation is one of the most important considerations for any business so here’s the link for for Peter Cowgill, JD Sports CEO…..

http://www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=ceo-9063

And this

How to deal with JD Sports poor customer service

The letter is poorly written but…..you get the point.

Sorted it now. Was willing to go down small claims, told Millets this and they’ve issued a full refund.

Thank to everyone for the advice, really helped.

Wow, that was quick!

I think that’s my win isn’t it?