Who should pay for costs incurred as a result of a faulty product?

As above really. I’m thinking of where an item needs to be installed by a third party e.g. a part for a boiler. As a customer, if you pay a plumber to install it and it turns out the product is faulty, requiring the plumber to come back to reinstall a replacement, should the manufacturer of the product foot the bill for the fitting work?
What is the legal standing? More importantly is this something anyone has managed to successfully do? For a homeowner I suspect it would be a massive pain in the backside: “Please replace this faulty part under warranty and by the way here is the plumbers bill” Good luck with that!
I guess other examples would be parts for a car engine that require a mechanic to install them or perhaps faulty solar panels. I’m thinking of situations where it is clearly the product is at fault rather than the grey area where the installer might have incorrectly installed it etc.

If a customer supplied me some hardware that I fitted as part of some installation and that part failed, I’d leave it with them.
If I supplied the hardware I’d consider myself responsible for helping to rectify it.

Should the manufacturer pay for that? Maybe.
Would they? Maybe not.

Yep, if the plumber supplied it it’s their problem to sort with the mfr. If you supplied it is yours.

If you bought it the mfr has zero responsibility for the install and they have no responsibility for the remedial work either.

If the plumber supplied it it’s unlikely they will get anywhere with the return visit costs from the manufacturer either but thats what margin is for, some of it is there to offset the risk of supply and associated liability.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/notes/division/3

Anecdotally we paid silly money for wallpaper (£120 a roll) and paid our decorator to hang it. The paper was faulty (pattern was inconsistent) so the supplier sent us new rolls and also paid for our decorator to rehang it.

The product supplier would be liable for what is known legally as “consequential losses”.

IANAL but used to be ops director for an online bathrooms retailer and this came up quite a lot with customers.

I got a reconditined alternator, (was normal 25 odd years ago, not sure alternators fail now!) for a car that failed first journey 150 miles from home. Had to pay a second garage to fit a brand new one so I could get a refund on the recon one, so 2 replacement charges and a really expensive part. That stung. 😭

consequential loses are very hard to claim for. Possible in some circumstances but difficult

We had a fridge freezer replaced under warranty recently. It was a massive American style thing that was put in as part of a house rebuild. It was installed before the front door was put on. Long story but the thing is so big it took half a day to replace it. Smeg paid for installers who took doors off, stripped the fridge right down and plumbed it in. A proper job, at their expense.

I’ve written about seven replies to this now and you know, I just don’t understand the question.

“Item / Part / Product” what are you on about, what do these words mean? Have you had an engineer out to fit a part and it didn’t work, did you source a part and ask someone to install it, what?

Anyway, the short answer is “no,” the manufacturer of a component is not remotely liable to you directly for whatever merry dance you’ve gone through or created, you have no relationship with them.

If you want a more robust answer then you’ll have to form a more robust question. What’s your situation?

Who should pay for costs incurred as a result of a faulty product?

Under the law it’s not the customer.

Deleted. North American law is very different to Eu/UK law

Stop!

You’ve all missed something

£120 a **** roll?

Lol yeah I need pictures of this wallpaper

It also depends on when the item was bought Vs how quickly it broke…..
Plumber is ultimately responsible as your contract of sale is with them.
Plumber will then have to retrieve costs from the manufacturer or his supplier – and it goes up the chain.
Anything older than 6months or within reasonable use – forget it.
If it’s failed immediately or withing 6weeks then go back to the plumber.

Drac
Full Member
Stop!

You’ve all missed something

£120 a **** roll?

& the pattern was inconsistent!

I assume you got a nice discount on Nick Cave’s erotic wallpaper after he revealed he hadn’t sold any then Johndoh?

https://cavethings.com/products/hyatt-girls-wallpaper

Not sure you’d get the same treatment if it was a few rolls of Kingfisher from B&Q.

I’ve written about seven replies to this now and you know, I just don’t understand the question.

It’s a pretty simple question!

In my experience – it depends. Some manufacturers can be pretty good at covering costs of reinstalling something, some aren’t. I used to work in the building/Diy trade and the first step in ensuring you get a good result is FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. We used to get all sorts of claims for labour for refitting stuff and a lot of the time they were rejected as people didn’t do that or didn’t do the “normal” things you are supposed to do when installing stuff. These “normal” things might not be in the instructions but would be the sort of actions which a professional would normally do when working. As a lot of stuff was DIY fitted a lot of people were novices and did cut corners or just simply not do things properly.
So for example a lot of people didn’t know you were supposed to choose tiles with the same batch number but still, after that, mix up the boxes as you go. So many people use to buy 10 boxes and have 3 or 4 different batch numbers on them.
Most of the paint companies were ok with helping customers out but we had to send a sample off to them which they would check against their database, if it varied by more than a normal amount they would normally pay for a repaint – but if you painted it yourself DIY you wouldn’t be paid out for a pro to come and do the job 2nd time!
Triton showers were pretty good – if a unit was faulty they would come out and repair/replace for free during the guarantee period but they always warned that if it wasn’t the fault of the unit (ie something wrong with electrics or plumbing) they would charge quite a bit for attending to check so it was up to the customer to ensure it was the Triton unit at fault.
I would normally expect a manufacturer to help out if there is no way that a fault could be discovered or avoided before the item was fitted. As always, it really depends on the manufacturer as it’s easy to wriggle out of claims and make it really hard for a customer to get what they want even if you should legally do it.

IME consumer law is great, it really is, and it does protect you, but in these cases it really depends on how you or the pro you used acted before and during the fitment (and how much you can prove that) to what result you get in the end.

consequential loses are very hard to claim for.

Very rare to get compenstation. My company makes microwave radios, occassionally we get a batch of faulty parts which fail prematurely, the part probably costs a few $ each but it takes out a $1000 product, which cost $300 to install etc. The best we ever get a few free reels of new components.

Stop!

You’ve all missed something

£120 a **** roll?

I know! I know!. TBF, we only needed two rolls for a feature wall and it does look very nice.

Picture evidence required. We’ll be the judge of whether it was worth £240, thankyouverymuch.

😉

Here you go…

Well if it keeps the kids transfixed it was worth it.

I’m not convinced about this latest instalment in the Assassin’s Creed series.

LOLs 🙂

Ikea sold me kitchen worktops with an integrated sink. They were fitted (correctly) by our joiner (and plumber). After about 6 months water had penetrated round the sink causing blistering of the worktop. Ikea replaced the worktop as you would expect. They also paid for my joiner to remove the old one and install the replacement (I paid him, Ikea refunded my when provided the invoice/receipt). Not sure they technically had to do that – but it was good customer service.