Some advice please !

Hi all

Recently our Beko fridge freezer which we paid £300+ for recently broke down due to the compressor stopping after only 18 months, I contacted the retailer under the Sale Of Goods Act and he basically wasn't interested and said that there wasn't anything he could do due to it being out of warranty which I knew wasn't the case as it was still covered under the Sale Of Goods Act.

And so the story continues in the same light ...

To cut an extremely long story short as the retailer is finding every opportunity to drag this whole saga out I am now in the position of the retailer ignoring my recorded delivery letter and him telling me that if we want to pursue it any further then it has to be through a solicitor. I am now at the stage of Consumer Direct (as I reported this to them very early on) contacting my Local Trading Standards which will take up to a week for me to hear back from then.

The fridge freezer stopped working over 2 weeks ago and with these summer temperatures my family (which includes a 2 year old son) and I are finding it extremely difficult to cope in these conditions without any form of refrigeration. By the time we hear back from my local trading standards it will be over three weeks and there is nothing to say that anything will be resolved then. I think in reality we are looking at least another month before anything will actually be resolved.

I have also recently contacted the credit card company under Section 75 of the Sale Of Goods Act and again they want written details of the problem etc which again is going to be just as long in response.

I explained in the letter to the retailer (a local company by the name of Appliance Direct) that it was difficult living in these temperatures with a 2 year old son without a fridge freezer but they obviously don't appear to care.

We are now thinking of going out purchasing a new fridge freezer but have been told by consumer direct that we will more than likely end up with two fridge freezers as the original faulty one will just get repaired but we obviously don't want to end up with two fridge freezers. I have looked into renting a fridge freezer but the nearest company I can find is over 200 miles away.

Any advice will be much appreciated on what we could do next in regards to having some form of refrigeration as I cannot see my family going for another month without any !

PS : I long for the day when I can wake up in a morning and have a brew with actual real milk instead of some of my sons baby milk and I may just spoil myself and have a bowl of cereal also

Eric Randle said:

On what grounds are you citing the sale of goods act? On the basis that it should last longer than 18 months?

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Yes I am, is that wrong or something ?

Yes I can see your point and how the retailer/manufacturer may view it but lets face it nobody in their right mind would expect a fridge freezer only to last 18 months right ? I mean landfills would be over run with them and the gases/toxins they contain would be a nightmare for any local tip to handle on an increased basis. Not adding to the fact that it would probably work out cheaper to rent one than it would be to buy one in the long run if they were only expected to last 18 months !

However none of this helps my cause and my family and I are still without any form of refirdgeration after almost a months now.

OK I am now at the point where i am disputing the case with my Local Trading Standards !

Where Consumer Direct have been ever so helpful I feel as though Trading Standards are doing everything in their power to put me off taking this any further and to the Small Claims Court, it took me 40 minutes today just to get them to agree that I could get a second engineers report as the original one doesn’t specify that he thought the fault may be inherent and even then she kept trying to put me off by telling me continually that it will cost me. I was also told by Trading Standards that even though the retailer must either repair or replace the goods within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience that I did not have a case in regards to inconvenience as we would be expected to go out and purchase dairy products etc on a daily basis and throw away each time what we did not use ! My son also loves fish fingers but as many will know only come in multiples which would mean that he would only have two for his tea and then we’d have to through away the remaining six. I feel like this cannot be correct and that the Trading Standards woman was giving me dis-information.

Trading Standards have now confused me as to whether I have a case or not and I have been left feeling very unsure about the whole thing !?!

What I would like to know is :

If we go and get the repairs carried out by an engineer ourselves can we just claim the money back for the repairs or do we have to actually wait to get the retailers say so through the small claims ?

Do we actually have a case here ?

Are Trading Standards right to tell me that I should have to go out each and everyday to purchase refrigerated/frozen items and throw what we don’t use away ? Surely this is false economy !?!

Thankyou so much for your time in trying to help, it really is very much appreciated !