Aussie consumer laws on products outside manufacturer warranty?

[goughy]

Just wondering if anyone's had to get something fixed outside of manufacturer warranty, and successfully used the Aussie consumer law as an argument to get it repaired.

Got a TV here which belongs to my bil. It's 2 months out of warranty and malfunctioning. He purchased the extended warranty for it but the warranty company is claiming the seller never made the payment to them, hence the extended warranty doesn't exist.

So while it wasn't an expensive TV ($1000 46" lcd) I may have to go the 'it should still have lasted longer than this' route.

Any advice on the argument I should put forward?

[yoyo]

You would deff have protection under the consumer laws for this - the issue is two fold - the seller of the insurance has committed a fraudulent act by (allegedly) taking the extended warranty $$ and not actually paying the underwriter with that $$ for the warranty, and the failure to notify the purchaser if such is also a seperate infringement.
The purchaser should binpossession of documentation and / or receipts to substantiate that the extended warranty was undertak and paid for, to the retailer in good faith, who is/was acting as an agent of the underwriter of the extended insurance.
The manufacturers standard insurance and extended wRranty may actually be provided by different entities.

[goughy]

Retailer no longer exists!

[markTHEblake]

Stuffed then. The Australian consumer law based on the precept that the seller is responsible for the goods being fit for the purpose is total responsibility of the seller.

Lesson learned, don't buy extended warranties, and always purchase with platinum credit cards so you got 1 year extended warranty

[AndyP]

Retailer no longer exists!WoW?

[goughy]

Wow.

That's how we buy thing mtb. Bil fire the extend warranties.
I was sending if it was the retailer or manufacturer is go after? I know of two up here who have cited consumer laws and got stuff out of warranty fixed, but both times I know they went to the retailer who paid for repairs.
If the extended does turn out no good, I'll try the manufacturer anyway. It's only just put off warranty, and I know of someone who got a Garmin device fixed out of warranty through Garmin, rather than the retailer.
Won't hold my breath, but you never know unless you try.

[meh]

Is it a Samsung?

[Shreko]

As en ex industry person, you should be able to go to manufacturer (most have H/O in Aus) and discuss with their respective customer service departments regarding your issues. Most of the contact I still have in the industry (manufacturers) would get it repaired even though it is technically out of their statutory warranty. Make sure BIL has receipt for both unit and extended warranty

[goughy]

Yeah, that was my next point of call Shreko. We have the receipts here, and I've emailed them to the extended warranty company as they wanted to see what they could do regardless. Not that I'm holding my breath.

In all honesty, it's a 1k TV by tcl, but it's good enough for the kids. We got it cheap off Rob's brother and really don't want to be buying something else. 1k is still 1k.

[Shreko]

Yeah, that was my next point of call Shreko. We have the receipts here, and I've emailed them to the extended warranty company as they wanted to see what they could do regardless. Not that I'm holding my breath.

In all honesty, it's a 1k TV by tcl, but it's good enough for the kids. We got it cheap off Rob's brother and really don't want to be buying something else. 1k is still 1k.

it's certainly not $20!!!!!! Hope it ends well Goughy!!!

[goughy]

Had a few nice phone calls today. The extended warranty company have 'confirmed' there is no policy so nothing they will do and I'm welcome to take whatever action but it will amount to nothing as a far as they're concerned there is no policy.
Had a chat to the lovely Gracey from TCL, who said it's out of warranty, too bad so sad. And that I am wrong; that by purchasing their product I am agreeing to their terms and conditions which includes their warranty, which overrides the Australian consumer laws, not the other way around as I was explaining to her.
Spoke to the ACCC afterwards who were very helpful. Firstly confirmed that dear Gracey was wrong, and that the Aussie consumer laws override the manufacturer's warranty. That typically is have to deal with the retailer, but since they are now defunct I'll have to contact the manufacturer. 2 ways to go. Firstly a four stage process where I've already done stage 1 by contacting them. Stage 2 is get the sample letter of complaint from their website, full it out and forward it the company, giving them a reasonable amount of time to reply. If unhappy with their response (or if they don't) then stage 3 is contact the office of fair trading. She said the office in Queensland is particularly good at dealing with these situations. Stage 4 is legal action.
The other option does away with the letter. I can go and pay for it to be repaired, then go to the office of fair trading and put in a claim for consequential losses.

I like being a bit of a pita so we'll see how this goes. We persisted for 3.5 years with Rob's claim, so I can give this a few weeks to see where it goes. The girl at the ACCC certainly felt that issues 2 months outside a 3 year warranty on a TV was the situation these laws were there for.

Let the fun begin.

[3Puttpete]

Interesting that they seem to think the law doesn't recognise an end date of a warranty.

[AndyP]

Can you claim against the warranty if you are not the original purchaser anyway?

[goughy]

Adrian is in fact the person making the claim. When it comes to the nitty gritty.

Here's a little bit from Choice about it.
https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/consumer-rights-and-advice/your-rights/articles/consumer-law-and-extended-warranties
Where I may have a little issue is fact the retailer no longer exists, and typically you take it up with them. The girl at the accc said in our case we have to go to the manufacturer.

[PeteyD]

The lovely Gracey is very funny. Manufacturers terms and conditions overruling legislation. What a turkey!

[Pencil]

The lovely Gracey is very funny. Manufacturers terms and conditions overruling legislation. What a turkey!

It would be interesting to know how many people believe her and just give up.

[goughy]

Probably not many would even ask her.

[Xray]

I think they try and make it as difficult as possible so people then place it in the to hard basket and give up.

A very interesting read from Choice.

Hope it all goes well Goughy.

[goughy]

Thanks, but I actually don't expect it to go well. But like I said, I'm a persistent bastard.
Have downloaded their sample letter of complaint, and also will include links to the accc pages for warranties, and more importantly to the page regarding consumer guarantees.

[Daves]

From memory, the courts have ruled in the past that a retailer was in fact a defacto agent of an insurer in these type of situations. Which meant the insurer couldn't deny liability. Would require you to go to court though, which probably wouldn't be economically viable in this case,unless it was done via a class action or similar.

[BenM]

My understanding is that statutory warranties expect products to last a 'reasonable' amount of time for what they cost. If it was a 1 year warranty originally I'd say you're a shoo in but being a 3 year warranty originally then it's a bit more grey for how long a low-end el cheapo brand TV should last (as opposed to a Pana or Bravia or similar). Having said that, your BIL did try to do the right thing and purchase an extended warranty for it so that has to count for something. I personally don't think I'd ever buy a TCL/Teac etc these days, I bought a cheap Teac a couple of years ago for the office and it's rubbish.

Anyway I do hope they fold like a cheap suit for you - they'd be mad not to. Some companies are stupidly penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to this sort of thing, for a start it will cost them more time and effort to fight it than just to repair it, for another the goodwill they earn for looking after their customers is unquantifiable.

[goughy]

With ya there Ben. The bro actually won it as a promo thing for the staff at the store. He used it for a while then replaced it anyway, so has let us use it for the kids, which gets me and Rob away from abc3. While a cheap TV, I do think they should last more than 3 years. That's still a pretty short life for a 1k product. But I think that's where I may end up short.

[Daves]

I was actually told by a electronics store owner that the reason that TV warranties are only 1 year, is because the retailers complained that 3 year warranties, like Samsung used to have, made it too hard for them to sell extended warranties!

[goughy]

That doesn't surprise me. My bro used to say they made a packet of of the extended warranties, and we're a good add on to close a sale, buy offering a deal on them.