Just wanted to give some details of my success with/against a French company.
About 18 months ago I bought a new TV from an online company (not sure if I can name them).
At the beginning of this year I noticed that dark marks appeared on the screen. Initially I cleaned the screen but the marks were inside the screen. I spoke direct to the manufacturer of the TV (Philips) who told me that this was an irrepairable fault and to contact the seller of the TV to ask for a replacement.
This I did, and referenced the comment from Philips. I got a normal response that they would look into my complaint and get back to me. I never received any further response from them. I contacted them again a month later, again the same bland response. I did this for a few months and then I decided to take things further. I found some âthreating lettersâ online in French, which I sent to them. Again no response.
So in August this year I decided that they were not interested in my request, so I contacted UFC Que Choisir. They agreed to take up my case against a one off annual subscription of 30âŹ. This I did. They also had a similar lack of response, and so in October decided to threaten court action. Well gues what, I was contacted 10 days ago by the company telling me to choose another TV (my TV was by now out of production) around the same price and they would deliver to me and take back my defective TV. Well the 30th November I received a brand new TV from them.
Now the but. They have refused to give me a âfactureâ for the new TV, only a âbon de livraisonâ on which it states that the guarantee for the ânewâ TV expires the original expiry date of my defective TV, that is 6 months away now. My question is, is this correct, or should I be given a ânewâ 2 year guarantee?
as you now have a subscription to Que Choisir, wouldnât it be best to address that question to them since they were successful in getting the TV replaced. Iâm sure they would know.
But anyway, come back to this topic with the response you get for completeness.
Just for reference, we bought a fridge/freezer from a local electrical goods store which broke down in the guarantee period. They attempted to repair it but it failed again so they decided to replace it with a similar model as, like your TV, the model was discontinued.
IIRC, the replacement carried the same guarantee period as the original.
Happily, the replacement has performed exceedingly well and is now outside the guarantee period.
Well done for persevering. Iâm all for writing to the CEO. We got over 100⏠back from Orange by doing that when Iâd been given the brush off by their âcustomer helplineâ
I agree entirely, I have myself had similar success in the past, though not in France, As to your comment re buying online I would agree to a point. I buy a lot from Amazon.fr because I am not in the mood anymore these days to consume miles in a possibly fruitless search.
I have had a few duds and have met with success, partularly a recent smart tv wich was refunded promptly and I bought another, but not as an exchange, then, not happy with that, decided to keep the first one. Full refund again.
I would point out though, I only buy from Amazon, not their marketplace sellers, after a bad experience with a computer from Spain.
It seems to be the norm that the guarantee period for the replacement item is identical to that of the original item. This was certainly the case when we took a defective electrical appliance back to our local Super U supermarket.
Although I didnât realise it, it makes my decision to return for refund one telly and immediately buy another from the same source even more sensible. New telly, new guarantee. Plus there was no tellyless break. I simply did not send the old one back till the new had arrived.
My âthreateningâ letters had a warning to that effect. However I did not feel able to do it myself, although my French is OK I feel that perfect and fluent French would be necessary.
It was UFC who used that âthreatâ which brought the hoped for response.
