Thanks for your reply, which is just as I expected really. The charger only cost £10.90 to replace, and we didn't really expect a refund. It was mainly Littlewood's attitude in the e-mail that that we thought was wrong, although they did say that bit was the charger, not the laptop itself, was classed as a consumable part, and only carried a six month guarantee.

In August last year, my wife purchased an Asus netbook as a Christmas present for our Granddaughter. In August this year the charger would no longer work. We purchased a new charger, and contacted Littlewoods, explaining that although it was purchased in August, it was not used before Christmas day. My wife has since received an E-mail stating that a laptop charger is classed as a consumable part and therefore only has a six month warranty, and as this item was 12 months old when reported faulty we would not be able to reimburse you any costs. We did not really expect them to offer any reimbursement, but I was under the impression that a standard warranty guaranteed an item for a minimum of 12 months. Could you please help?