Dick Smiths Electronics> wont replace or refund

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#117901 21-Mar-2008 13:42

I was on the DSE end a couple of years back, I had repaired the PC in a timely manner, the small claims court determined that there was no lost in the consumer's part, so the case got thrown out. The retailer has the right to remedy the issue first by attempting to fix it in a timely manner, and they also have the right to do so more than once ...

Fraktul

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#117907 21-Mar-2008 14:18

Wouldnt this get reffered to small claims instead of the disuptes tribunal?

Anyhow, like everyone else here I am of the opinion that your interpretation of the CGA is off mark and this will come out in whatever legal recourse you have decided to take.

axcillznanny

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#117908 21-Mar-2008 14:22

rsole

Oh no I wasn,t flustered more cannot believe such nonsense being assumed that's all.

I understand if your a retailer owner/manager and how you would or could be defensive in this type of situation but no need to be unhelpful.

Some of the posts and information you supply seems terribly one sided.

I accept that I need to wait for the outcome of a court decision, but as you seem to keep missing I don't want to know your thoughts on whose right or wrong or what I can or can't do, I wanted to know of someone who had a similar experience. OMG

It appears your posts are of a more "personal" nature.

If you meant well, thanks anyway

rscole86

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#117910 21-Mar-2008 14:32

axcillznanny: rsole

Oh no I wasn,t flustered more cannot believe such nonsense being assumed that's all.

I understand if your a retailer owner/manager and how you would or could be defensive in this type of situation but no need to be unhelpful.

If you feel I am unhelpful, I am sorry. But as I have been on both ends of a CGA dispute several times I do feel I know what I am talking about. I guess if you are hearing what you do not want to hear it would be called unhelpful.

Some of the posts and information you supply seems terribly one sided.

You are right it is one sided, but that is because I do not think you have a case against DSE.

I accept that I need to wait for the outcome of a court decision, but as you seem to keep missing I don't want to know your thoughts on whose right or wrong or what I can or can't do, I wanted to know of someone who had a similar experience. OMG

I hope you realise that this will go before small claims, as Fraktul pointed out, and you would have to represent yourself. You would have to make a very compelling case though as I beleive it would either a) get thrown out or b) you would be told to mediate with DSE.

My only similar experiences are from the retailers point of view, in the cases I know of the consumer lost. I have never taken a retailer to court myself as you can normally reason with the store manager without getting to this point.

It appears your posts are of a more "personal" nature.

This is not personal at all, it is how I have seen the CGA enaced several times. I am not saying that you have to follow what I say, but based on what a large number of people have said here I do hope that you think again about what you are trying to achieve.

If you meant well, thanks anyway

Ofcourse I mean well

if I didn't I would start abusing you, and trolling this thread.

axcillznanny

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#117943 21-Mar-2008 20:54

rsole

Thanks glad to hear you meant well

rscole86

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#117973 21-Mar-2008 22:51

I hope this is just a typo?

my name is rscole86 or rscole for lazy people.... but what you have written jst does not sound right.

axcillznanny

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#117993 22-Mar-2008 08:04

Yes just a typo

webwat

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#119075 27-Mar-2008 15:52

marmel: I am afraid that you are incorrect. I have worked at two large retail chains and do know what the CGA requirements are.

Unfortunately faults with products do occur from time to time and retailers have a right to either repair, replace or refund. The only time you could try and decline a repair is if the product failed in the first week or so or if the time to repair was going to be unreasonably long. In these circumstances the retailer could replace the item or refund your purchase price.

Even if an item fails the next day it can still be repaired, but a failure that occurs repeatedly would then give the consumer the right to refuse a repair/replacement that has already been tried more than once.

People dont need heaps of experience to know basic consumer law (unlike taxation law), although experience helps to judge what a reasonable warrantee period might be because that depends on the type of product. The law is available for anybody to look at, even if they demand something unreasonable. However if somebody wants more than the Consumer Guarantees Act gives them, there is always the Sale Of Goods Act, which gives even less but does apply to business trades, uses most of the same terminology, and has heaps of case history. If you do not actually read a particular law or take advice on how to interpret it, you might find out that something you were completely sure of is completely wrong. Sorry to pop the bubble, the phone is obviously fit for purpose (the main test for refunds) so no chance to demand any refund even if you had paid full price.

EDIT: I should have mentioned that I did have a very similar mobile problem once, although not covered by warrantee because purchased overseas. It was intermittent, and after the overseas repair shop said it was not faulty (they did monitor it for a week, worked perfectly) I found that removing the battery would temporarily solve the problem. The phone would then start freezing at random a few weeks later, and started happening more frequently too until became unusable. If I had opted to pay for repair, the repair shop said they would have replaced the phone's motherboard, essentially giving me a new phone in the old case. They dont do onboard component repairs in NZ at all, just replace the board.

Time to find a new industry!

freitasm

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#120031 31-Mar-2008 20:16

axcillznanny: I have filed in court but please let me know if anyone has had a problem similar. thankyou.

Any update on this?

These links are referral codes

3nvy

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#120728 3-Apr-2008 14:48

Just a quick note on DSE policies and practices. I was middle management at DSE for around 18 months and I had to deal with this sort of thing on almost a weekly basis.

DSE's policies are; You have a right to a full cash refund within 2 weeks, pretty much no questions asked. Past that, we would stick directly to the CGA.

However, VodaFone's policies are that they will only issue an OBF (Out of Box Failure) to us if the phone became faulty within 2 weeks. Past that, VodaFone told us that we had to send it to a repair agent, they would not cover the cost of a replacement as it was not faulty at the time of purchase.

DSE sticks to these practices and policies pretty stictly at a store level, however, DSE head office is a bit of a pushover. If you scream and yell at the head office enough, they'll do anything for you.

If you had come into my store, within the 6 weeks and asked for a refund I would have offered you a repair. If you refused, you'd be on your own. And I'd be well within my rights to offer a repair only.

Aside from that, I can understand your frustration (My first 'big ticket' item had impact damage out of the box and I was ALMOST denied by the retailer. Thankfully a decent hearted salesman came to my aid and got me a replacement the next day) and I feel for the annoyance you've had to put up with.

Best of luck with your case!

billgates

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#121515 6-Apr-2008 13:47

I work for DSE and in defence I would like to say something. Our hands are tied by Vodafone NZ firstly. Outside the 14 days Vodafone NZ will not credit DSE for a faulty phone if we decide to replace it for the customer outside the 14days. The MAIN reason why we have to send mobile phone's to service at Mobilefone repair is due to the fact ~ 10% - 15% are liquid damaged. People will dry/clear the liquid from outside so we at DSE cannot notice this but soon as Mobilefone Repair opens it they find it on the PCB/mainboard. They even take a picture of it so we can pass it onto the customer as a proof. This is why we cannot just refund a phone outside the 14 days. Saying that if you did bring it in within 14 days obviously there will be few cases where we will not be able to see liquid damage and exchange the phone becuase this is our policy and we obviously will have to pay up to Vodafone NZ for that. To minimize loss which occurs mostly outside 14days we have to get it checked and if its not damaged (liquid or impact), they repair it and send it back. Repair proccess normally takes 14 days so its not ages and if we have loan phones available we do give them out.

Impact damage is another factor which might look like a minor dent outside but from inside it does wonders to the phone. No retailer wants to loose business but their hands are MOSTLY tied by manufaturers.

Do whatever you want to do man.

s.joseph

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#121520 6-Apr-2008 14:27

yeap, im agreeing with bill here, vodafone are pretty hard on doa periods. I've retailed for Harvey Norman and Smiths City and the gist of it is if its broken it gets repaired first. If it happens again then a refund or replacement is issued. From what i remember Telecom handsets doas were issued from the handsets make but they were usually up till abt 7 days. The retailer in the end will loose money if you dont take the repair so you can see why DSE is being deffensive.

axcillznanny from reading many of your contradicting posts i think ur heading for a long shot but best of luck.

heretohelp

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#121533 6-Apr-2008 15:48

under the consumer guarenttes act they have the right to repair but if you say its essentail for your day to day living etc they are obligated to give you a loner while your one is being repaired, i use to work in retail for example sombody bought back a lawn mower an acceptable time to get it fixed would be one week because thats generally how often sombody would mow their lawns in the case of a cell phone i would ague the fact athat is an esentail day to day item for you and they should loan you one until it is replaced/fixed

Hu? did i do that?
16Mb (EDO RAM), K6-II processor, 2Mb of onboard graphics. 32k dial up modem. 12 speed CD ROM. 5¼-inch floppy drive. 500Mb HDD.

heretohelp

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#121534 6-Apr-2008 15:50

oh yea your first mistake was going to dicksmiths lol, well thats from my experence i liv ein New plymouth and when i go and buy somthing from them i end up givng the a half an hour product knowlege lesson on the stuff they are selling thats if they can locate it on the shelf to start with i avoid them at all costs

Hu? did i do that?
16Mb (EDO RAM), K6-II processor, 2Mb of onboard graphics. 32k dial up modem. 12 speed CD ROM. 5¼-inch floppy drive. 500Mb HDD.

rscole86

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#121535 6-Apr-2008 15:57

BrendonGyde: under the consumer guarenttes act they have the right to repair but if you say its essentail for your day to day living etc they are obligated to give you a loner while your one is being repaired, i use to work in retail for example sombody bought back a lawn mower an acceptable time to get it fixed would be one week because thats generally how often sombody would mow their lawns in the case of a cell phone i would ague the fact athat is an esentail day to day item for you and they should loan you one until it is replaced/fixed

Why is the retailer obligated to give a loan phone? NOWHERE in the CGA does it state retailers must give out loan stock, they can if they want to, but do not have to. That is why the CGA has a clause about a reasonable amount of time.

In the case of it being essential? Well I have to disagree with you there. I would not die without my cellphone, infact it would be a good thing if I did not have it sometimes. The only people I can see as needing their phone everyday would be business people, in that case no CGA for them. Yes there may be a few other people, but if they rely on it that much then I am sure they would have a back up plan.

oh yea your first mistake was going to dicksmiths lol, well thats from my experence i liv ein New plymouth and when i go and buy somthing from them i end up givng the a half an hour product knowlege lesson on the stuff they are selling thats if they can locate it on the shelf to start with i avoid them at all costs

How is this helpful at all? We all have opinions about retailers. This person already has a mobile so your advice is hardly going to hel pthem get their phone repaired/exchanged.

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