Friday 2 May 2008

The Voice - Dear Consumer's Voice

I recently bought a cellphone from Davkom computers.  When I got it home I followed the instructions and plugged it in to charge it for 4 hours.  However when the time was up it wouldn’t switch on.  I took it back to the store the next day but they told me that there was a problem with the charger but that this wasn’t covered by the warranty and I would have to pay for it to be repaired.

 

What can I do?

 

This isn’t acceptable.  The Consumer Protection Regulations state that a store can’t just say that something isn’t covered by the warranty unless they made that perfectly clear to you BEFORE you bought it and that they made perfectly sure you understood it.

 

We checked your receipt and it does say, in very small letters “No warranty on power supply”.  However we don’t think this is reasonable because you don’t get the receipt until after you’ve paid and it’s hardly clear if it’s written in tiny letters nobody can read.  Also this wasn’t actually explained to you in detail before you parted with your money so it just doesn’t count.

 

Nowhere on the receipt or anywhere else did you confirm that you were waiving your rights so your rights are still protected.

 

The receipt also says that there is a 20% “handling charge” on all returned goods and that also is completely unacceptable.  You can’t be charged for returning goods that aren’t of merchantable quality, that’s just silly.

 

You should take the goods back to the store, explain your objections and demand either a refund or a replacement.  Remember you have rights and you should stick up for them!

 

An update.  We contacted Davkom and explained our understanding of their obligations and the good news is that after listening to what we said they have agreed to offer the customer a replacement for the faulty goods without any fuss.

 

Good for Davkom for seeing sense and good for the customer for sticking up for himself!

No comments: