Hi All,
A fortnight ago last Friday we bought a new ride on mower from Mr Bricolage which we were going to use for work. Before taking to a client for the first time we thought we better test it quickly at home. It did 10 minutes then conked out. Wouldn’t restart. We took it back to shop and they couldn’t restart it either. They decided it was an electrical fault so would look at it the next day. By Monday they had found absolutely nothing wrong with the wiring so said they would send it to their repair shop to have it looked at as it would appear to be the motor. We decided this wasn’t good enough as it was obviously a faulty mower and we wanted our money back or a new mower. Neither was forthcoming in the typical French blocking excuse of, “well if it’s faulty you shouldn’t have bought it”. 
The above being the case it was sent to the repair shop. It will be two weeks on Tuesday since they sent it and we have heard nothing. On Monday I will be going in to read the riot act as they have both our 1100€ and our mower.
In order to get our money back what is the legal reason I use or with whom do I threaten them. If it doesn’t go after three weeks it sure as heck isn’t of merchantable quality which I would use in the UK under the Sale of Goods Act.
All assistance greatly received.
Résultat Web avec des liens annexes
UFC-Que Choisir
If you join these people they have advisers and legal people that can sort most things out. Its the union federale des consommateurs.
I bought a car from a mercedes garage which broke down 3 times in 3 months. Que choisir wrote to the MD of mercedrs the car was picked up the next day and i havnt had a problem since (9 years) Its all on line and they have offices in major cities. Good luck.
Thanks for that. Very useful. I know a few people who will be interested in them.
Hi there…
EU Sale of Goods is virtually the same as UK …
I have attached law in both French and English…
Go back and demand a NEW replacement mower!
There taking you for a monkey !!!
Sales of Goods directive French.pdf (120.7 KB)
Sales of goods directive English.doc (58.5 KB)
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Try to solve it with the general manager of the local shop. If it doesn’t work, a message to their Customer service or through their Facebook page will rapidly solve the problem.
And if it doesn’t work, threaten them to file a report to local gendarmerie for escroquerie, they don’t like that kind of buzz. Their behavior is illegal. I had the same exact type of situation 4 years ago, with the same shop. They refused to refund me or replace the mower. I didn’t loose my time and contacted the national Customer service. Two days later, I received a phone call from the shop manager apologising and a deal for replacing the mower by an equivalent model.
Case closed.
This is how it works in France and I am sorry for this.
Conflict.
Work out your conflict skills.
Good luck. Vous avez toute ma compassion Buddy.
Thanks. This situation is now resolved but I will store the info, cos as sure as hell, it won’t be the last time we have a conflict.
I was always quite litigious in the UK because it always got a positive response so glad to find a French equivalent.
Dave - glad it is resolved.
Please, do tell us what happened… 
did you simply quote the “letter of the Law” and they rolled-over ?? 
Hi Stella.
It fizzled out in a sense. I spent a broken night’s sleep practicing all the stuff I wanted to say and psyched myself up. Went in to our Mr Bric and went to see our contact. He was out. So having gone off to work with a plan to return later that day I got a phone call before I could get back to say it was ready. And as of now it all seems to be working fine. However, should it go wrong again, I’ll know exactly what to do!