Warranty issue or not??

So to be brief - here is the problem. Purchased a Sum Vision 3.5 multi media centre and put my own 80gb hard drive inside. I used it properly for the first time 3 days after receiving it. Whilst watching a downloaded video the player stopped and I immediately noticed a small plume of smoke coming from the rear, where the external pwer supply plugs in. Inspection revealed the circuit board burnt and my hard drive now dead. I sent the item back as faulty under warranty under the above RMA. Scan wouldnt entertain replacing the hard drive and after testing rejected the RMA as they couldnt test it as it was burnt...doh...that was why I returned it. So they say they will return it to the supplier on my behalf. Hang on a minute under sale of goods act my contract is with scan. I had to sign a disclaimer allowing scan to send the item back to the UK supplier, to see if they will refund/replace. This scan will do as an act of good faith - what tosh..this is a warranty issue.
I was dissatisfied so wrote to them on 9th March. To date I have had no reply. I have emailed since and still no reply.
So - please tell me scan why this is not a warranty issue. If I brought a kettle from Comet and the thing stopped working i can guarantee they would replace it under warranty and then take the issue up with the supplier/manfacturer. Its called the sale of goods act and is also good customer service.
Any response would be nice. Its now 40 days since the thing went wrong and still nothing from scan.
Hmmm - To say I am upset is an understatement
Rich

The Sales of Goods Act does not cover Physical Damage, what we need to ascertain is exactly what caused the item to spark and smoke and this is why we need to return the item to the manufacturers as only they are authorised to open the unit and report on exactly what caused this damage and whether or not it is covered by warranty.

I have spoken to the manufacturers and they have confirmed they will work on the item and we hope to have a decision for you by Monday of next week at the latest.

Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay and any inconvenience caused, i understand the frustrations and I would like to assure you we will get this sorted for you as quickly as we possibly can.

The use of the words Physical Damage above makes it sounds like the buyer wilfully damaged the item, whereas what the buyer is saying is that the item blew up so surely this would be covered, it just so happens that as it's an electrical item it went up in smoke as it's finale.

We cannot just take an end users word, it needs to be checked out by the manufacturer and to confirm what went wrong and why it went wrong.

Once the manufacturers confirm to us that it is covered under warranty we will issue a replacement.

As an example which is not related to this case say an item exploded and we replaced it, returned it to our manufacturers whom then say yes it did explode, but this was becuase an incorrect power supply was inserted with wrong voltages causing the unit to explode, this would be physical damage due to negligence.

We just have to find out why it happened, obviously it should'nt and i know in this case the value of the item is low, but company policy cannot differentiate it could quite easilly have been a £500 item we are dealing with.

Thank you Wesley for replying so soon. Perhaps in order to get things done at Scan one needs to post to a forum rather than a letter to the company themselves. By your argument anything that goes wrong could ultimately be as a result of physical damage. The heel that comes off a pair of shoes, the kettle element that burns out. The trim that falls off from the interior of a new car. These are all physically damaged yet i dont suspect the supplier will quibble over words, and in many cases will accept that to have an item for 3 days which then malfunctions causing it to catch fire, is justly a warranty fault. What are you suggesting I have done. Do I have stronger electricity where I live, which is too much for the unit? If so why does everything else work fine? Yes the item is physically damaged, but damage caused by the faulty item itself.
We could go on for weeks debating the finer points of the english language and consumer law etc. But one thing always used to be true and that was that the customer was always right. In this instance it should be clear that for an item to fail after only 3 days would suggest there is something wrong with that item.

Whilst maybe the customer was always right - reason retailers could have such a policy was massive trading margins - at least for pc parts retailers thats not the case !

Don't misunderstand that as taking sides here - I try to see both sides of this particular equation. I'd say await manufacturers test - and go from there - if they say user error and you disagree fight them (manufacturer). Due to our weird consumer trading laws it may need to be the middle man at war - trading standards can be helpful here (or as useful as a chocolate fireguard)

It's a fair request to ask for something to get physically inspected by the manufacturer if they're unable to do it themselves.

Just sucks when you know you didn't do anything wrong :(

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Originally Posted by Lucio

It's a fair request to ask for something to get physically inspected by the manufacturer if they're unable to do it themselves.

Just sucks when you know you didn't do anything wrong :(

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Wise words indeed and have to agree. :)

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Originally Posted by wesleyaldred

I have spoken to the manufacturers and they have confirmed they will work on the item and we hope to have a decision for you by Monday of next week at the latest.

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So - Monday at the latest...well its Monday now and not a dickie bird from Scan

I guess I'll be ringing them again tomorrow

Do you ever consider SCAN have more than one customer?

Give them a chance

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Originally Posted by Disturbedguy

Do you ever consider SCAN have more than one customer?

Give them a chance

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I understand that I am not the only customer, but if given the timescale of Monday at the latest I would expect to have heard something by monday - either a result from the Suppliers or a courtesy call/email from Scan to say - sorry no news yet. In my line of work if I say I will call someone or if I arange to do something by a certain date and i fail and someone makes a complaint against me - then believe you me I am in for a roasting by my Superiors to the extent I wont make the same mistake again.
Its called being courteous and I dont think I am being unrealstic to expect some sort of reply given the timescale.

But the post says they hope to not they will have, therefore they may have not recieved a reply or maybe due to the work load they simply forgot.

PM someone from SCAN to help ypu.

I believe Wesley was off ill today - but I'm sure he'll update you tomorrow if he's recovered.

(BTW - if you can PM me your invoice or RMA number - I'll forward the information to one of the Returns team - in case they have information in the meanwhile)

Good luck getting it sorted groomoid :)

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Originally Posted by groomoid

I understand that I am not the only customer, but if given the timescale of Monday at the latest I would expect to have heard something by monday - either a result from the Suppliers or a courtesy call/email from Scan to say - sorry no news yet. In my line of work if I say I will call someone or if I arange to do something by a certain date and i fail and someone makes a complaint against me - then believe you me I am in for a roasting by my Superiors to the extent I wont make the same mistake again.
Its called being courteous and I dont think I am being unrealstic to expect some sort of reply given the timescale.

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:) You obviously don't work in any form of retail then! Simply put, customers expect quicker answers than are sometimes realistic, so you are often forced to be psychic and guess when something will happen. Not to mention the person you're talking to on the phone often has little or nothing to do with whatever you're asking them, so in their day to day job it's impossible for them to know what's happening.

Think about it, if they speak to 100 customers a day (5 minutes per customer), 5% of them have a problem that needs follow ups, each followup takes between 10 and 30 minutes, then you can rapidly see why there isn't enough time to call people back. Simply put, calling people back wastes time that can be spent speaking to *new* customers with *new* problems and leaves the ones with exsisting problems to follow due process.

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Originally Posted by DavidM

Wesley off ill - have forwarded query to a member of the returns team for you.

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The above was a PM from Scan. Now I know this was only yesterday, but can people not see why this is annoying me. I have still had no contact from the people who were forwarded the query. Bearing in mind its now wednesday and it will be thursday at the earliest if I get a response from Scan - and I was told Monday at the latest. How long do i wait...How long is a piece of string i hear you say. I accept wesley is off sick, and agree as stated before that i am not the only customer, BUT I paid to use the item I brought and had to return, not wait around for Scan to get back to me when they can find the time. I would like to know about the progress of my RMA. Is that really too much to ask. If it is then i must be in a minority who thinks that this isnt great customer service.

So the bank holiday came and went and i rang Scan to be told there was no update and there was nothing in my notes. No mention of the two letters i sent and so they will contact the warranty dept to advise me of whats going on and will email me once they have an update. So much for Wesley and David's help, which was no help at all. I am still none the wiser and still waiting for a resolution. The item has been away for testing now for over a month. I am starting to look at the possibility of my credit card refunding me the portion of the bill relating to the media centre, but I dont know if they will do that. I still believe under the sale of goods act that this may be an avenue for me.
As far as Scan go - i am less than happy. I await your cries of "you are not their only customer" and "give them a chance - its only been two months".
Well 2 months is too long for me
Rich

I would agree wholeheartedly that 2 months ( 1 month would be bad enough ) is an insane amount of time to have to wait, no matter how many customers they have.

I don't see how anybody can find otherwise; I think you are showing remarkable composure under the circumstances :)

Groomoid,

Please accept my apologies for the delay, firstly i was not off ill, i took some time off on Paternity leave and then extended this with some annual leave, however, I am back now and apologise for the fact noone else has looked after this in my absence.

I have today spoken to the manufacturers and they confirm they have replaced the circuit board for you and all is now well. They are returning the unit to us today and this should be with us tomorrow. I will keep track of this for you and will arrange for the item to be processed immediately as we receive it.

Wesley

Wesley - I have sent you a PM ref the above. Thank you for your help
Rich