Faulty baby travel system - shop admits fault

Hi all,

I like to consider myself well versed up on the Sales of Goods Act due to working with it before, but my current situation is unique to me and I keep reading conflicting information on various advice sites!

We purchased a travel system from Toys R Us in July in anticipation for the birth of our baby. We started using it in mid-September but unfortunately a week ago it broke.

We promptly took it back to the store who said that they wanted to send it to their 'quality assurance' centre to test it and ensure it was a manufacturing fault. I was happy for them to do this as I was aware they were allowed to do this by law. In the meantime they loaned us a replacement.

I called them today and they confirmed that it was a manufacturing fault so I would have to take the whole lot back.

So far so good, but this is where the problems start.

When we purchased it it was on offer at £299.99 - cheap for the money and with a car seat thrown in for free (which has now become part of the package). It was presumably priced to clear as it is no longer on sale (and was only available from Toys R Us in the first place).

We also bought it as it has adjustable handles (my wife is over six foot, I'm about three inches shorter), because we can put the car seat straight onto it (great if he's asleep so we don't disturb him), the stroller faces towards or away from you (my wife likes him facing us) and because it even came with raincovers. We liked how sturdy it was for the price and was good to push. In short, it was everything we wanted.

I understand that they can offer a replacement but do they only have to offer one of a similar cost (looking at the online store nothing for around £299.99 comes ANYWHERE near our current one in terms of accessories and suitability for our wishes) or can we demand a similar specification even if it costs more? It seems unfair that we would in effect be 'punished' and have to take something that doesn't meet our personal specifications or pay extra because the original purchase failed.

I also know that we can demand a refund but my understanding of the sales of goods act is that they can deduct an amount as we have received a benefit from the product. However, my wife has a friend who is a 'consumer rights expert' who stated that as the goods were faulty at time of purchase (i.e. bought less than six months ago) we are entitled to the full purchase price - I have never met this person though which is why I am loathe to take their advice without verifying it (having dealt with people that "know the law" when they don't I know how frustrating they are! I don't want to be that person). Does anyone know which is correct?

Finally, if they do deduct an appropriate amount for the benefit received how would it be crudely calculated? My opinion is that the system was meant to take a child up to three years of age, so if my son is 16 weeks old and it should last 156 weeks, I work out that (£299.99/156)*16=£30.77

Or could they argue that it should be worked out from the date of purchase (though it would be a bit silly to use it before your child is born!)

Sorry for that being so lengthy, but I just want to go in tomorrow knowing my rights fully! Many thanks in advance for any advice.

OK, so as it's six months from the actual purchase date I could argue that a full refund of the whole £299.99 is in order as it is less than six months since the date of purchase?

It looks like we'll just be asking for a refund and maybe spending an extra amount of money to get another travel system that meets my wife's extremely strict criteria as I doubt the shop will be overeager to recommend a replacement that is more expensive.

Anyway Tony, thanks for that, it really is helpful. I always like to go into these situations with various scenarios mapped out so that I can always respond to the situation calmly and with 'rational' head on as opposed to 'emotional' - I always get a better outcome when I already have several in my head that I know I would be happy with.

Here's the update:

We got the refund, but did have a fair bit of hassle. We took absolutely everything back as asked and even they commented on how much stuff we bought in! (Pram body, pushchair body, two hoods, foot muff, raincover, car seat, wind protector as well as the Graco pushchair they lent us).

However, it stalled slightly when they asked if I had bought the card that was used to make the purchase. I said no as we'd closed that account and I was told that we could only receive store credit.

I explained that this was completely unacceptable, but they claimed it was "the only way" as they can only put it back on the card that was used to make the purchase.

They tried to sell the store credit idea, but I still firmly explained that I wasn't accepting that - we needed to purchase a replacement (they asked if we'd looked at their stock, I said they didn't have anything that was suitable for our needs, then they asked if we'd looked in a larger store yet. I said that we'd looked on the internet, which was the truth, and they stopped arguing that point).

Once again it was reiterated that we needed the original card, I asked why that mattered, I can't remember the excuse given but I then stated my rights to a refund under the sales of goods act - I explained that it was a manufacturing fault that was out of our control so I would not be penalised by being forced to take store credit.

(Besides being a crass infringements of my rights under the act, it's also stupid - if we'd paid by cash they would have just given us cash back).

I explained that I didn't want them to hand me £300 in cash, but just to put it on any card would do. In the end they made a phone call to someone who authorised it - I was told that they would 'bend the rules' given the circumstances.

If I felt pedantic I would have continued arguing that it was nothing to do with 'bending the rules' but by this point I was getting the outcome I wanted so didn't bother.

So it took a bit of effort but we got there! It's a shame they didn't still stock it as we would have been happy with just a replacement. We've now ordered another one for the same price but without a car seat, which we're using my sister's kids old one. Every cloud has a silver lining - it looks like our son is actually more comfortable in it.

Well, having been a manager in a customer-facing role I appreciate that sometimes they misunderstand things and can't believe they're arguing with a customer about such a thing - but we were dealing with a 'supervisor' who also asked a colleague whether it was possible to do this before she made the call to someone, presumably the store manager.

The half of the call I remember, from memory, was explaining the situation and then it sounded like the lady was being queried about why we didn't have the card - we'd closed the account, no it wasn't because the card had expired, no the cards didn't follow on etc.

It took about three minutes, whereas if it was me taking the phone call I would have said instantly that of course we could refund it to any card. The time taken makes me think that they really did think they were having to 'bend the rules'.

On the other hand both times we were in the store at the returns desk - last week and today - there were people being downright rude to the staff so I do feel for them (and it is unfair to have people shouting and screaming at them due to an inflexible company policy or even in our case poor training on the law). I even commented to them at the end of this how rude some people seemed to be towards them and wished them a better afternoon!

Oh, and in a similar rant, I've been reading online the instructions for the new system we bought. This is advertised as suitable from birth to age 4 in the instructions, but under warranty they make the interesting observation:

Warranty period
The warranty on the plastic parts and metal parts is valid for a
period of 24 consecutive months. For other parts that are
subject to wear and tear, the warranty period is valid for 12
consecutive months. The warranty only applies to the first
owner and is not transferable.

Click to expand...

Trust me, if this one goes wrong due to an inherent fault after 25 months I will still be asking for a repair as it is 'meant' to last a child up to the age of four!