play.com returns - digital camera?

[jamiebae]

I bought a digital camera 9 months ago from play.com and it has developed a fault so needs to go back but their website won't let you return items outside 28 days so I've no idea how to get it repaired/replaced.

I can't find any contact details on their site to email either.

Help!

[M3crab]

Contact the manufacturer, it'll still be under its guarantee.

[twister]

Have you tried calling them?

[jamiebae]

M3crab said:

Contact the manufacturer, it'll still be under its guarantee.

Indeed, but it's the retailer I bought it from who is responsible for sorting it out

[Fastra]

Surely Play would honour the 12 month thing for you!
Have they actually said they won't take any further interest???

[freecar]

jamiebae said:

M3crab said:

Contact the manufacturer, it'll still be under its guarantee.

Indeed, but it's the retailer I bought it from who is responsible for sorting it out

Indeed it is, however as it is up to the shop to return it for repair to the manufacturer then you'll be waiting for two lots of postage to happen when it could be one! I'd phone the manuacturer send it to them yourself, you'll have it back quicker!

[HOGEPH]

Delete the "sports" photographs of the wife!

[jamiebae]

Fastra said:

Surely Play would honour the 12 month thing for you!
Have they actually said they won't take any further interest???

I haven't worked out how to contact them yet! Looking in my order history it doesn't have a return button next to the item as it's outside the 28 day period so haven't been able to do anything with it so far.

[E-one]

Have you tried phoning them?

0845 800 1020

[Ace-T]

Have a read of this site:

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

and if it does not answer your questions pop them an e-mail.

This bit may be useful though

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/after_you_buy/kno...

That way you will know.

Trace

[Marian]

jamiebae said:

Fastra said:

Surely Play would honour the 12 month thing for you!
Have they actually said they won't take any further interest???

I haven't worked out how to contact them yet! Looking in my order history it doesn't have a return button next to the item as it's outside the 28 day period so haven't been able to do anything with it so far.

0845 800 1020

[jamiebae]

Thanks for the responses guys

I called the number but was told that as it's outside 28 days it's up to me to contact the manufacturer to get it sorted. I know that under consumer law it is the retailer who sold the item who has to deal with it but ho hum.

Luckily I've just picked the camera up and it seems to be working now, which is strange as it hasn't worked for ages and I haven't even changed the batteries but now I know not to buy anything electrical from Play in future. I want to be able to send it back to the retailer, not have to mess about trying to contact Panasonic direct so I'll take my future purchases elsewhere

[nonuts]

jamiebae said:

Luckily I've just picked the camera up and it seems to be working now, which is strange as it hasn't worked for ages and I haven't even changed the batteries but now I know not to buy anything electrical from Play in future. I want to be able to send it back to the retailer, not have to mess about trying to contact Panasonic direct so I'll take my future purchases elsewhere

Are you serious? Most warranties are direct with Manufacturers. Most manufacturers are also better at fixing their products than some idiots like DSG.

If you just want less hassle how is calling one person that can actually help worse than calling some idiot that's not interested in anything other than selling you a new one.

Confused, unless you like paying John Lewis or similar for 'hassle free' ownership which comes at a price, which I doubt it why you bought it from Play.

[marshalla]

jamiebae said:

I called the number but was told that as it's outside 28 days it's up to me to contact the manufacturer to get it sorted. I know that under consumer law it is the retailer who sold the item who has to deal with it but ho hum.

Only if they're based in the UK and, as it says on the website, "Play.com, PO Box 192, Jersey, JE4 8RP "

and Jersey is NOT part of the UK.

[TooLateForAName]

I would slap a complaint in to their local trading standards. Companies ignore their obligations too often so a bit of re-education from TS wouldn't go amiss.

[jamiebae]

marshalla said:

jamiebae said:

I called the number but was told that as it's outside 28 days it's up to me to contact the manufacturer to get it sorted. I know that under consumer law it is the retailer who sold the item who has to deal with it but ho hum.

Only if they're based in the UK and, as it says on the website, "Play.com, PO Box 192, Jersey, JE4 8RP "

and Jersey is NOT part of the UK.

If they market and supply to the UK mainland then they're bound by UK consumer law as a condition of doing it.

It's not a big deal really, the camera works now and it was only a cheap point & shoot which hardly gets used, but it's a bit disappointing that their answer was just 'no, speak to the manufacturer'.

[Deluded]

It's not play.coms fault it's broken.

Call the manufacturer and get it fixed under warranty or pay for it if it's past (most likely cheaper to buy a new camera if it's a compact jobbie).

Alternatively, plenty of independent camera shops offer repair services.

Edited by Deluded on Monday 11th January 19:02

[nonuts]

jamiebae said:

It's not a big deal really, the camera works now and it was only a cheap point & shoot which hardly gets used, but it's a bit disappointing that their answer was just 'no, speak to the manufacturer'.

Why? In the box with the camera you'll have the details of the warranty and who to contact.

Independant article early 2008 said:

The entertainment retailer, which is the second largest online shop in the UK after Amazon, reported sales growth of 24 per cent in the three months to the end of December.

At the company's peak trading time on Monday 3 Decem-ber the website processed 700 orders per minute, up from 422 at the same stage in 2006.

Just under one million users visited the site during that day and over the month sales grew 29 per cent year on year.

So I expect it's now even busier, so you want personal service from a website that probably takes upto ~1000 orders a minute at times. That would make their service a little more expensive if they were to employ enough people to do a pointless job that the Manufacturers already do.

I expect a standard of service and I'm happy to pay for it but you're expectations just don't seem to be realistic or necessary.

[H_Kan]

Pretty much all places bar Costco and John Lewis will send you to the manufacturer. Like when my Xbox red ringed I had to send it to Microsoft for repair.

The issue comes when it is outside of warranty, it's at this stage that you'd need to use consumer law to get the retailer to fix the item, if that's reasonable under SOGA.

For a scenario like this, the manufacturer is by far the easiest way to sort things for everybody.

[jamiebae]

H_Kan said:

Pretty much all places bar Costco and John Lewis will send you to the manufacturer. Like when my Xbox red ringed I had to send it to Microsoft for repair.

The issue comes when it is outside of warranty, it's at this stage that you'd need to use consumer law to get the retailer to fix the item, if that's reasonable under SOGA.

For a scenario like this, the manufacturer is by far the easiest way to sort things for everybody.

Fair enough

I expected to be told to send it to Play.com returns with a reference number written on the outside for them to deal with. What happens from there is up to them but to not even give me an idea of where to send it to is a bit poor really, all I was told to do was send it back to the manufacturer.