Faulty white appliance / consumer rights?

This seems to be one of the best places to get a response on this sort of thing:

Bought a new tumbledrier 1st April / delivered 4th April.

Worked well for 2-3 weeks, then stopped extracting water. All the filters are clear / there’s nothing else for us to check. It’s a heat pump tumble drier.

My wife reported it to Hotpoint from the support number on the drier – I think on the 24th April. They came out this week and tested it and couldn’t work out what was wrong. The guy said maybe it’ll just start working as it’s been unplugged / plugged back in – it doesn’t 🤬

He was meant to be coming back this coming week with a new circuit board and something else – but Hotpoint have just text to bump it out another week before they came back.

Given this is a less than 6 week old appliance this isn’t great.

Just rang the retailer I bought it from (Appliances Direct) who weren’t wildly helpful. Sadly it’s 31 days since delivery so we’re outside the 30 days where I think we can insist on a refund or replacement. All they’ll do is email hotpoint to get them to get in touch. Which seems pointless.

It shouldn’t be relevant but we extended the 1 year manufacturers warranty to 5 years at a cost. But we didn’t take out their subscription cover (which would cost a lot more very quickly) which they were pushing to sell.

They seem to be delegating any responsibility to hotpoint at this stage.

Does anyone know what our actual rights are here?

Others more knowledgable of the actual law will be along shortly but 30/31d is neither here not there, you can and should expect better than that as a lifespan. After 30d they have the option to try to repair first but it’s all still on them, your contract is with the retailer, not the manufacturer and don’t let then try to fob you off onto Hotpoint.

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/what-do-i-do-if-i-have-a-faulty-product-aTTEK2g0YuEy

Between 30 days and 6 months you have the right to repair, replacement, or refund under the Consumer Rights Act.

If the retailer chooses to attempt repair and they fail to repair it within a reasonable period then you have the right to refund.

The retailer will try and fob you off to the manufacturer/warranty. Don’t let them – your contract is with the retailer. If repair has been attempted then insist on a refund.

And be prepared to send a letter before action and then follow up with a small claims.

There’s no automatic way to enforce rights under the Consumer Rights Act, so you have to do it yourself.

There are other ways to seek redress like the VISA/MasterCard chargeback schemes. Contact your card provider for this.

Also, if you paid via credit card you can make a ‘section 75’ claim via the credit card company.

Check out moneysaving expert and the sadfart acronym.

I’d be on to the retailer and asking for a replacement or refund.

I’d recommend a refund. Then you can go to John Lewis and get one of their AEG knock offs with a heat pump. Or a Miele.

Here we go again.

Droplinked is correct.  Do not confuse a warranty with your legal rights, any “cover” you may or may not have is irrelevant.  These are two distinct things.

It is the retailer’s liability and between 30 days and six months you have to give them (the retailer) at least one shot to rectify the issue before demanding a refund.  You’ve muddied the water here – you could argue that a repair has been attempted and failed; they could argue that you didn’t give them opportunity to resolve the issue at all.

 All they’ll do is email hotpoint to get them to get in touch.

This is a “them” problem.  They are legally obliged to rectify the issue without unreasonable inconvenience to yourself.  They cannot palm you off to the manufacturer, they are responsible by law.  They can suggest it and it may be preferable to deal directly with Hotpoint, but that’s an option you have above and beyond your statutory rights rather than something they can insist on.

At this juncture I’d be strongly pushing for a swift replacement if I were you.  And I’d potentially be seeking a refund on that extended warranty depending on how much you paid for it.  But that’s a “me” problem😁 and you need to decide what you want; would you be happy with a repair, do you want it swapping out, do you want your money back?

I’ve just had a 7 month old TV refunded with AO/Hisense. AO have been very good to deal with, so I bought the replacement from them.

AO initially had me contact Hisense, they sent an engineer. A week later Hisense have me an uplift code and AO sorted out it from there.

It’s all been covered I think. Keep pursing it. I had a fridge freezer fail on me at 3 years and got a 50% refund based on expected lifespans.

I think even with the ‘repair visit’ delayed by a week, this still constitutes as the retailer making reasonable efforts to repair at this point.

If the engineer visit fails to resolve, then it’s reasonable on your part to not put up with any further delay on such a new appliance, and you should ask them to replace or refund under your Consumer Rights.

As above, don’t get shoved onto the warranty pathway – make it clear to them that you know this is an issue between you and the retailer. And if you paid via credit card, you can always resort to the protection that offers.

“Sadly it’s 31 days since delivery so we’re outside the 30 days where I think we can insist on a refund or replacement.”

But you reported it as faulty within the 30 days? Just directly to Hotpoint and not to the retailer? Would be sensible to see that as proof that the appliance failed within the first month and thus refund firmly on the table. Take advantage of them being **** and trying to offload all their responsibilities to the manufacturer by pointing this out.