Our range cooker failed on Christmas Day. Totally dead and going straight to earth even with all controls at zero.

We have an extended warranty with John Lewis for 5 years. The cooker is 2 years old.

After a bit of pushing, we got an engineer out on the 28th December. The fault was with the induction hob and the engineer isolated it so we could use the ovens. He told us at the time that there may be a delay as not all the parts were in stock.

We have been chasing them and we are now told it will be 31st January before the engineer will be coming out.

Is 5 weeks “reasonable” to be left using an Argos special single electric ring which we bought to keep us going?

Seems pretty shit to me. Do we have any comeback?

Is 5 weeks “reasonable” to be left using an Argos special single electric ring which we bought to keep us going?

Reasonable as in achievable due to ordering of parts, Christmas shutdowns availability of engineers etc or as in not a complete pita?

Yes/no in that order

You’re working under the terms of the extended warranty, rather than consumer legislation, so refer to those to see if there is anything about what defines ‘reasonable’ timeframe, and whether the ‘significant inconvenience’ argument can be applied.

If you were to revert to consumer legislation (on the basis that it shouldn’t have failed so quickly on such an expensive item), then you would probably have to prove, via an engineer’s report, that the fault was likely to have been present at manufacture. And the exact meaning of ‘significant inconvenience’ is still not defined.

They can’t really argue that living without most of your cooking facilities for a month is not significant, so my strategy would be to contact them pointing this out nicely, asking for goodwill refund/replacement.

If you’re claiming a repair under JL’s warranty then your comeback is whatever it says in the warranty, nothing more nothing less. They can put whatever timescales they like in there, but then they have to stick to them. Read the T&Cs to see whether they’re in breach of contract or not.

If you’re claiming a repair under the CRA then faults have to be sorted in a reasonable time and without unnecessary inconvenience to yourself.

I don’t think

significant inconvenience

Is true, I think Cougar has it

unnecessary inconvenience

and its not the same

I don’t think

significant inconvenience

I think you could argue that being without everyday household cooking equipment for weeks constitutes that. OP has been forced to go out and buy a short-term replacement.

There are items where a wait of more than a month would not cause significant inconvenience. It’s a long time to be without washers/fridges/cookers etc though.

Here’s the passage from the Consumer Rights Act.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/23/enacted

It’s a moot point because OP is not using consumer law, just the JL warranty, which is probably vague enough to be useless.

John Lewis used to be the byword for reliable aftersales service. Seems hard to distinguish them from any other retailer now.

Here’s the passage from the Consumer Rights Act.

Fair do, my “argument” wasn’t that its not insignificantly inconvenient but I thought the wording of the CRA was unreasonable – eg doesn’t matter how inconvenient it is but the time frame is important so say a paint scratch which should be fixable in a few hours is unreasonable if it takes months, replacement water supply on the other hand might reasonably take months but be a royal pita for the duration.

Seems I’m wrong any how mind so I’ll get back in my box.

Well it’s getting silly now.

I got a phone call this morning from Britannia, the manufacturer, the engineer went to pick the parts and they were not available.

So the repair is not possible today.

I am now going to look at a full refund from JL, the stove cost the best part of £3000 and is just under 2 years old.

The second issue, we had an exploding door glass a few weeks after we bought it.

More than 5 weeks is completely unreasonable.

Any replacement will not be a Britannia, Stoves or any of their other brands.

More than 5 weeks is completely unreasonable.

Definitely especially with still no idea of a resolve.

the engineer went to pick the parts and they were not available.

Although I bet they are available next day from eSpares (although, given it is a Britannia, they will be stupidly expensive – they wanted £30 for a plastic handle for a rotisserie spike for mine)!

I am now going to look at a full refund from JL, the stove cost the best part of £3000 and is just under 2 years old.

Good luck with that

At best, you’ll get a refund adjusted for the length of time you’ve had it. There’s no way you’ll get three grand back, not while I’ve got a hole in my arse. And as you’re pursuing under warranty rather than CRA your rights are whatever it says in the warranty T&Cs which could well be “none whatsoever.” Read the contract.

I found the JL warranty to be a bit rubbish myself recently – a failing screen on a Samsung TV took far more of my time than expected, engineers not turning up, turning up when not expected (ie, when no-one was at home etc). In all it took almost a month to sort out what was a very simple and common fault and I am sure the cost of the repair (in lost time, wasted journeys, repair cost etc) far outweighed the value of the set in the first place.

At best, you’ll get a refund adjusted for the length of time you’ve had it.

This will all come down to what a reasonable life span of the cooker is.

IMO 15 years is not unreasonable, for a “premium” cooker. So I would expect to get at least around £2500.

Try the JL twitter feed. Be reasonable rather than ranty. You might find a resolution happens faster.

Haha JL customer services is now as dire as anyone elses. I had them argue that a house evacuated because it filled with smoke from a 2 year old JL own brand washing machine didn’t constitute a fire under their warranty.

^^^ I had to resort to Twitter to get anything done – after that I got a ‘Case Manager’ who then didn’t contact me until I further reminded them on Twitter DM.

Then all he did was ring me up to tell me things I already knew because the engineers had already called me to plan things (then they called him to update him so he just relayed back to me the plans I had already made).

And he sounded 100% dis-interested throughout.

Amazon on the other hand – a 2 year old burr grinder was replaced immediately (ie, they just sent it out then asked me to return the faulty one within a month).

not while I’ve got a hole in my arse.

Thanks, that have me a LOL

At best, you’ll get a refund adjusted for the length of time you’ve had it. There’s no way you’ll get three grand back, not while I’ve got a hole in my arse. And as you’re pursuing under warranty rather than CRA your rights are whatever it says in the warranty T&Cs which could well be “none whatsoever.” Read the contract.

Well has your arse welded up then Cougar?

After speaking with Britannia this morning, when they told me that the repair wasn’t happening today, I told them I would be chasing for a full refund, they called me back this afternoon to confirm they have issued a refund code to JL.

So thanks to Britannia, I have got all my money back and the engineers will swop the cooker for a new one when they take away the other. The only problem is that I need to buy through JL again, at least it won’t be another Britannia.

JL have been pretty shit through all of this.

Bloody hell!

You know, I knew, just knew, that as soon as I typed that you were going to prove me wrong. So, er, you’re welcome. (-:

Excellent result, well done.

Excellent result.

works cooker been borked since before christmas had this as a temp measure

and this wiring

Looks reasonable to me Bruneep and not at all unsafe.

The best bit is that you can’t get to the fire blanket in the event of a fire 🙂

Well has your arse welded up then Cougar?

TBF you’ve not got your £3K back tho, if you had you could buy elsewhere.

So Cougar’s arse remains holed.