That piece of EU legislation you've all been asking for...
After 18 months, Peter Ward's TV broke down and Tesco refused to repair it. But Peter had read about a little known EU rule which says you can take goods back up to two years later and obtain a replacement, even if the guarantee has expired. In the end Tesco backed down.
Lots of you have been contacting us to ask for details of the legislation. It is EU Directive (1999/44/EC) and it states that "a two-year guarantee applies for the sale of all consumer goods everywhere in the EU. In some countries, this may be more, and some manufacturers also choose to offer a longer warranty period."
To read more click on this link here - open the word document and scroll down to page 7.
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You can get more info on all such EU matters, including the legislation, from the European Parliament and European Commission Offices in the UK:
www.europarl.org.uk
ec.europa.eu/uk
Maybe now people realise what MEPs are doing and what the SHOULD be voting for next week..?
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What ??? - something European appearing on the home of news 8 days before we vote in the european elections. How did that slip through, then ?
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ok, the last guest on the show confused me.
i have a dishwasher that is now more than 2 years old, but it developed a fault after around 14 months.
i have a receipt from an engineer who fixed it to prove the date of the fault.
the intermittent fault has since returned.
am i covered by the '6 year' timeframe that was mentioned in the show? or will the 2 year time frame suffice as the original fault did develop within the 2 years?
please help! many thanks..!
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It's about time the media let on about all of the good things that the EU does for us, instead of feeding all of the garbage that it usually does to the xenophobes.
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How does this relate to online purchases? I guess it probably depends on where the retailer is registered, and will try to find out! I bought a reasonably expensive (£170) MP3 player in October, 2006 from Amazon.co.uk. This has developed a fault in its logic (the on/off button seems to change tracks, adjust volume, generally mess things up) through completely normal usage, and I want to claim!! I will keep you advised...
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Whats the situation on the six years warranty? with electrical goods
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The coverage for this story was abysmal. Forget about the EU directive as it has resulted in an amendment to existing UK law.
Put simply you have SIX YEARS in which to bring a complaint but after SIX MONTHS, the burden of proof falls on the consumer to demonstrate that it is an inherent fault and is not a result of normal wear and tear, abuse etc.
http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/consumers/fact-sheets/page38311.html
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/
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thank you Reywal...
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I had a TV that broke down completely after 18 months. I felt that this was totally unacceptable for a £500 TV. I contacted Trading Standards who told me that a reasonable length of time for a TV to work is 6 years. It has to be fit for purpose. TS totally backed me with the company ( an internet company) and once we ended up threatening court action they backed down and offered us a reconditioned telly which we accepted.
I have to say though that Trading Standards did not inform me of this EU ruling, wish they had as I would have insisted on a new TV.
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Agree with rywal about the coverage. I do hope that shop staff are to be trained properly in this field and that the laws are clearly worded and understood by consumers other wise some poor shop staff are going to be harangued by rude, obnoxious members of the public screaming about their 'rights' when they don't actually have any.
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Rywal is correct in that regardless of whether your quoting the EU Directive or the UK Sale of Goods and Services act, it is only the first 6months that the burdon of proof lies with the seller, after that it 'could' be the buyers responsibility to prove the fault was there at the time of purchase, which could be very difficult and potentially expensive.
The 2 year EU warranty is something the DEALER (shop) must grant to the CONSUMER. To make use of this warranty you must contact your dealer and not the manufacturer, they are not involved at all in this EU warranty (unless they sell directly to customers). Covered are only (hidden) defects, that were already present, when you've purchased the item. The problem is, that during the first year, the dealer must prove that the defect wasn't already there at purchase time (which is hardly possible), during the second year it is vice versa, you must prove that the defect was already there at purchase time (which is nearly impossible as well).
Conclusion: If you have a problem during the first year after purchase, you can qualify for manufacturer's one year warranty or the dealer's two years EU warranty. But as the dealer usually is handing over the warranty to the manufacturer there is no real difference between the two.
If you have a problem during the second year, you rely on the goodwill of the dealer, whether he will repair it on warranty or not. As he usually can't repair it himself, it depends on the contracts and goodwill of the repair facilities he ships the camera to, what it will cost him. The higher these costs are and the less regular customer you are, the harder he will insists, that you have to proof, the defect was there at purchase date.
So in reality this EU warranty is a mixed bag.
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