Is 18 months well out of warranty?

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alisam

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#59867 13-Apr-2010 21:51

My Draco 6300 Freeview box has died after 18 months in that I cannot get any infomation to display in the window. The aerial light does show.
The NZ on-line store where I bought it from says it is well out of warranty and refer me to the distributor.
The distributer of the Freeview box says it is well out of warranty, inspite of asking it to be repaired under the Consumer Guarantees Act. They say contact the company that sold it to me.

What do you think?
Is 18 months too much to expect a Freeview box to last.

Unfortunately, I bought two in the same month. The other was repaired under warranty as the power supply had died. I understand that this was an issue with the first batch of Draco 6300 boxes.

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#318104 13-Apr-2010 22:00

I don't think 18 months of life is good enough. Under the CGA the retailer is obliged to deal with any issues you have such as this. They can NOT tell you to go to the supplier/manufacturer.

You can however chose to go directly to the supplier if you wish - if the retailer is not helping.

SepticSceptic

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#318120 13-Apr-2010 22:29

I wonder what the expected life would be ?
Is it classed as a computing device, with HDD etc ? ( yes, I know that model hasn't a HDD.. but ..)
Classed like an xbox or PS/3 ?
Classed as a TV Device ( with tuner ) ?
Classed like a VCR ( but with less parts) ?

Each classification would have quite different end-of-life times. but each class I would expect a minimum of 4 years. Dunno about the consoles though - some have had magnificently short expected life spans :-(

robbyp

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#318146 14-Apr-2010 00:25

Whos the retailer? Name and shame for poor service. It is definitely covered under the CGA, if it was purchased for personal use.

grolschie

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#318203 14-Apr-2010 09:21

Some links for you:
http://www.consumer.org.nz/reports/appliance-life-expectancy/your-rights
http://www.consumer.org.nz/reports/consumer-guarantees-act
http://www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz/consumerinfo/cga/faultygoods.html

The retailer has obligations under the CGA. A STB should last more than 18 months. You might like to see the comment about the plasma TV in the first link. Just my $0.02.

Nety

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#318266 14-Apr-2010 11:09

Just make sure you do not back down. The expected life of a STB would be I would suggest more the 10 year range so 18 months is not even close.

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alisam

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#318478 14-Apr-2010 18:30

robbyp: Whos the retailer? Name and shame for poor service. It is definitely covered under the CGA, if it was purchased for personal use.

I am not going to do that.
I am going to try again and give (in the first instance) the on-line retailer another chance. This time I will write a stronger e-mail and then see what happens.

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old3eyes

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#318488 14-Apr-2010 19:03

alisam: My Draco 6300 Freeview box has died after 18 months in that I cannot get any infomation to display in the window. The aerial light does show.
The NZ on-line store where I bought it from says it is well out of warranty and refer me to the distributor.
The distributer of the Freeview box says it is well out of warranty, inspite of asking it to be repaired under the Consumer Guarantees Act. They say contact the company that sold it to me.

What do you think?
Is 18 months too much to expect a Freeview box to last.

Unfortunately, I bought two in the same month. The other was repaired under warranty as the power supply had died. I understand that this was an issue with the first batch of Draco 6300 boxes.

Toss it in the bin. Mine went thru 3 power supplies. The last one died about a month ago at about the same age as yours. Bought a HD801S from the Freeview shop. Better and runs way cooler that the Draco and does HD over component like the Draco did..

Regards,

Old3eyes

butlerboy

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#319444 16-Apr-2010 16:26

18mths seems to be about the Draco' s limit. Mine is 18mths old and the picture has recently started breaking up and pixelating and is totaly unwatchable. Thought it might be the aerial/cables in the bedroom that were at fault so tried it in the lounge where I have a JC Matthews DVR-320T which has no picture problems and the Draco still didn't work.
As a side note my first Draco died after about 4 mths due to a faulty power supply.

alisam

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#319512 16-Apr-2010 20:42

Sent a strong e-mail to the on-line retailer.
Absolute zip of a reply. Not even an acknowledgement of my e-mail.
I know for a fact that they give good pre-sales service when you e-mail them with a query.
I will give them a bit longer.

butlerboy

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#321327 21-Apr-2010 14:19

The company I brought mine off has gone under so I emailed the distributor and got this reply:
Sorry to inform you that DBNZ is not our agent and goods purchased by DBNZ have not been paid for.
We have informed DBNZ at that time that we will not support unpaid goods as part of our terms and conditions.
Technically, unpaid goods still belong to us. However, we understand that you could not have known that.
However, we are holding spare parts for this product but repair fees would apply.

So, all in all I'm not too happy. Will have to check the CGA to see where I stand in this. I won't, however, be recommending the Draco to anybody.

savag3

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#321329 21-Apr-2010 14:33

butlerboy: The company I brought mine off has gone under so I emailed the distributor and got this reply:
Sorry to inform you that DBNZ is not our agent and goods purchased by DBNZ have not been paid for.
We have informed DBNZ at that time that we will not support unpaid goods as part of our terms and conditions.
Technically, unpaid goods still belong to us. However, we understand that you could not have known that.
However, we are holding spare parts for this product but repair fees would apply.

So, all in all I'm not too happy. Will have to check the CGA to see where I stand in this. I won't, however, be recommending the Draco to anybody.

They admit they sold them so they are liable. Whether or not they were paid is irrelevant.

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grolschie

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#321333 21-Apr-2010 14:57

This is very interesting. If retailer X has being selling a certain product for a reasonable amount of time and then goes into receivership (I have no idea about this particular retailer, so let's say, in the general sense), one would expect that they have been paying most of their bills to the distributor Y up to a certain point in time. Otherwise distributor Y would stop supplying goods to retailer X.

In this scenario, when the consumer approaches distributor Y for remedy of a faulty product, how do they know that the unit they have in their possession was not paid for previously by retailer X when finances were better? Or that it is part of the current outstanding debt? And how is the consumer to know if distributor Y is telling them the truth?

Interesting...

butlerboy

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#321337 21-Apr-2010 15:06

yeah, you wouldn't know.
i've emailed the citizens advice bureau to see what they say, will be interested to see what they make of it.

butlerboy

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#321338 21-Apr-2010 15:08

alisam - have you had any luck?

ilovemusic

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#321710 22-Apr-2010 15:17

How do can I tell if my Draco 6300 is an early one or not ?

So far it's been working fine with superb picture and sound (better than the Zinwell 620 and the hyped MagicTV).

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