Less of a rant, more of a story, but it may yet develop.

my 8 month old satnav, from dixons, died.
so i ring dixons, and they helpful lady (no really, she was very helpful) said, i will contact navman, they will send you a freepost box, and then you can return it for repairs.
Woo!
a month later, and a handful of chase up phonecalls later, i, slightly frustratedly (having spent a fair while on the phone to “john” in indialand) the box EVENTUALLY turns up.
off it goes, at long last.
a further month on, i decide to chase it up, they said they would email me to arrange returns, and they havent,
apparently they have emailed me, but it never got through, i check the email address they have for me, yep its fine, so they can resend an email i guess.
another 2 weeks, another phone call, no email yet guys, could you have a look for me.
“ah, we have a quote for a repair here, ill forward it on to you”

ANOTHER 2 weeks later, the email replies. praps the hamster powering thier server was on holiday.

now, its under warrenty still, just, it runs out next month, navman have the satnav, and the quote i have recieved, 3 months later states

“switch damaged by excessive force”

correct me if im wrong, its a switch, you press it until it turns off, if it doesnt turn off, you press a bit harder (within reason), like brakes, you brake until you stop
in 8 months of occasional use, i reckon ive pressed this switch less than a hundred times.

WELL
the satnav is worth £108 to me, i could probably get it for 80 quid now.

to repair it….. £76
BUT it gets better
to send it BACK, UNREPAIRED, BROKEN, STILL NOT ALIVE AND WELL…. £35!!!!
henny hoo, ive phoned Dixons
the next call will comprise “look you fuckmooks, im not paying to get it back, either get it sent back, repaired, or send me a replacement, as stated in your returns policy.
preferably a bloody tom tom.”
grrr

in all honesty, i havent missed it at all, so if they tell me to rod off
ill get an up to date map and chalk it down to experience/navmanbeingtwunts

that is all, if youve made it this far, well done and thanks for listening.
X

A very British rant – controlled anger, resigned to your fate, and with a polite thankyou at the end.

Much better in my opinion than some of the euro rants with lots of obviously deliberate spelling mistakes and carefully thought about capitalisation.

[slightly pompous]That’s why I always buy Garmin.[/slightly pompous].
Garmin’s customer service is fan twatting tastic.

One tends not to press the off switch hard UNLESS it develops a fault. So I’m with you on this one. Who goes around gleefully hammering the off buttons for the hell of it?

Contact trading standards.

Should have got a Tomtom

I don’t think that pressing a button harder makes it work any better.

Who buys anything from Dixons anyway?
Haven’t you lot heard that going to places with customer service saves time and money in the long run?

[defensive]

when a feather touch on a button wont work druidh, i would suspect upgrading to a force of a little finger may?
then no?
step up to index finger pokery.
ahhhh
yes
thats go it.

dixons have been ok, its navman i have the problem with.

[/defensive]

Olly – you need one of these

Olly, you sound like James May.

I thought your contract was with Dixons as the retailer? If its within 12 months surely they deal with Navman and replace said item immediately?

I thought your contract was with Dixons as the retailer? If its within 12 months surely they deal with Navman and replace said item immediately?

You’re only entitiled to your money back / replacement within a month of purchase, otherwise (rightly or wrongly) they’re entitled to send it off for repair within the guarantee period.

If it develops a fault within the 12 months then its “not fit for purpose” I understood the one month thing was just if you changed your mind?

Probably needs clarifying by someone who actually knows for sure (not me then) but I thought if you changed your mind, they weren’t obliged to do anything. I think there is a cooling off period for online sales though, but not a month.

Returning something that is faulty

When you buy goods you enter into a contract with the seller of those goods. Under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 goods must be:

* as described
* of satisfactory quality, and
* fit for purpose – this means both their everyday purpose, and also any specific purpose that you agreed with the seller (for example, if you specifically asked for a printer that would be compatible with your computer).

If you buy a product that has a problem because of one of these reasons, you can choose to ‘reject’ it: return it and get your money back.
Act quickly

The law gives you only a ‘reasonable’ time to do this – what is reasonable depends on the product and how obvious the fault it.

However, even with something like a car, you usually no more than three to four weeks from when you receive it to reject it.

If it’s too late to reject you can ask the retailer to either repair or replace the goods, but it can normally choose whichever is cheapest.[/QUOTE]

from http://www.which.co.uk/advice/returning-goods-your-legal-rights/your-rights/index.jsp

Surfer – there is no time limit on when something is not fit for purpose and can be returned for a refund under the sale of goods act. Note your rights under the sale of goods act are different from your warranty rights.

Normally something is assumed to have a manufacturing fault if it fails within six months and it could be as long as six years ( but above six months burden of proof is on the purchaser)

However this is qualified by a reasonableness test. So a banana would not be considered to be at fault if it didn’t last six months but a curling stone would be.

So at eight months old an electrical gadget it is up to the purchaser to show it was a manufacturing fault to have a right to refund.

(all very oversimplified)

i used to look like james may hairy chested, or at least had his lucious locks and penchant for bitter.
had a hair cut since then though 🙁
but still, thanks!!
im gonna hastle dixons again…..