Hi all I just want to share with you part of a letter that helped win my case when DSGi / Whatever Happens refused to either repair, replace or refund my laptop. (Please edit for your own use). On recieving my laptop back unrepaired a note was enclosed with it to advise me the engineer had deemed the damage to be misuse and that this was not covered under the terms and conditions of my policy. This is where my questions and grounds for appeal start to arise. The policy I purchased from the store is called Whatever Happens. Now although I understand that this would have its exclusions, I would see it as appropriate for the engineer to have at least gathered some information from me about the circumstances and how the laptop had become damaged. This did not happen, so the engineer’s evaluation must be based not on what actually happened to cause the damage, but the amount of damage incurred, and therefore my policy cover is not based upon the circumstance or the whatever happened approach, but more the amount of damage that comes about from an accident. It appears that in the process of evaluating any claim if the engineer doubts the claim rather than investigating the circumstances for him/herself and possibly clear up that doubt, the engineer, as a matter of routine simply declines the claim. The next correspondence I received from DSGi was from the office of Mr Garry Parryment this was incredibly short and to the point further clarifying that under section 9 of the terms and conditions it states; The cost of repairing or replacing the product which fails because anyone neglects abuses or Misuse the product. I can only conclude your second decision has been based upon the damage assessed by your first engineer, without a further inspection from an independent third party as I had anticipated and which you indicated in your letter to me mentioned above. This would have given opportunity to gather further information and conclude the claim impartially. I have been very honest with my claim and give a true account of the accident. I have no doubt that your decision to decline my claim based on misuse would have little standing in any small claims court especially in that you have made very little effort to expand on such in your correspondence to myself. I see it as being very difficult to differentiate between misuse and mishap being accidental damage which in my opinion is why you have opted to pursue with this very unjustified approach of a declining my claim on a policy entitled whatever happens. I therefore require a full copy of the engineer's report in question, together with a full detailed explanation from yourselves as to why you have so far failed to repair/replace my laptop. I trust after reading my letter of complaint in appeal you will take this opportunity to amend your second decision please be advised this letter is being sent to Consumers Advice, Trading Standards and The Office Of Fair Trading. I feel it necessary to make you aware that if I do not hear from you in writing within a period of 14 days, that I will have no alternative but to seek redress through the Small Claims Court. I hope that this helps as it certainly helped me and I got a full refunded credit ! Could this possibly be made a sticky please ?

Hi stu0x, Please see my post as I am in a similar situation with a fridge freezer : http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-consumer-issues/266783-please-help-advice-needed.html You have to prove that the fault is inheraint and that it was there at time of purchase if that helps ?

Hi all Our Beko fridge freezer which we paid £300+ for broke down a month ago 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 give me the run around and 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 after contacting Consumer Direct (as I reported this to them very early on) of 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. I have a family which inclused my 2 year old son and with these summer we are finding it extremely difficult to cope in these conditions without any form of refrigeration, which was explained in the letter to the retailer. By the time anything will be resolved I think in reality that we are looking at least another month before anything will actually be resolved. 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 !?! Has anybody else had a similar problem with a Fridge/Freezer and what was the outcome ? 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 ! Thankyou so much for taking time out and reading my post (Im sorry its just so long) and hopefully replying with some sound advice

Hi I am having the same problem (sounds like your compressor went like mine) and Im now into the 3rd week of this saga without a fridge freezer ! Ive done all the right stuff, phone calls, letters, etc and contacted Consumer Rights at the very beginning but the retalier is not giving in. Consumer Rights passed the case onto Trading Standards who have basically told me that I have to prove that the fault was there at time of manufacture ! Is this correct ? As I was lead to believe that aspects of quality include fitness for purpose and durability ? Plus when I asked the retailer at an early stage how I could prove that the fault was there at time of manufacture he basically said 'I don't know', plus I was lead to believe by Consumer Rights that the onus was on the retailer to prove whether the fault was/was not there at time of manufacture and not the consumer. The make is a Beko fridge freezer which we paid £300 for and its lasted 18 months. We have had an independant engineers report but it does not state that the fault was there at time of manufacture which according to Trading Standards where the problem is in regards to taking it to Small Claims as he as said we do not have a case ! Any help extremely appreciated with thanks