Other Does the UK have a two year manufacturers warranty law?

I'm dealing with a warranty claim with Panasonic which is proving to be very frustrating. I was under the impression that the EU had made it a mandatory requirement that in all member states manufactures of consumer goods had to provide a two year warranty. EU Directive 1999/44/EC to be precise which came into affect January 2002 and has been mentioned in one of Bretts articles.

How ever the response from Panasonic is always the same.

Is that correct? Can any one point me to UK legislation which contains the EU directive?

 

IIRC it's only 12 months, with an option to extend. There'll probably be something at the Citizen's Advice Bureau.

 

I am not sure about the two year thing. However under the consumer goods act it does state that a product must last a reasonable amount of time. IE a big tv should really last more than a week. I have quoted this many times and have got up to 5 years accepted for a laptop.

However I can not guarantee this I am not a lawyer, and don't even know that act that well so don't do anything on my advice might just be worth you looking into.

 

Did you buy it on a card? See if there's an extended warranty for products bought using the card, if you did. A few offer it now.

 

I thought it was six years.

http://www.hants.gov.uk/regulatory/tradingstandards/buygoods.html

 

http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l32022.htm

But the key phrase here is "any lack of conformity which exists when the goods are delivered to the consumer".

See also here.

So in the first 6 months the onus of proof is on the retailer, after that the buyer has to prove the goods were faulty as-sold. And there is no blanket 2-year warranty.

 

Your a legend! Exactly what i was looking for.

 

I wonder if I can get some help on a similar but somewhat different issue.

I am a reseller, residing outside the uk but within the EU, to a British company selling electronic equipment.

I am required by EU law to give my customers 2 year warranty. The parent company is insisting on only one year even though I know that the UK is also in the EU and should also abide by the same rules.

Some 4 months ago I installed a unit at a customer site which failed within 3 months of installation. When I analysed the problem I concluded that the unit did not fail due to customer negligence and so a proceeded to replace it with a new unit. The second unit failed in a similar fashion to the first right from the beginning. These incidents occurred after about 11 months from when I, the reseller, received the goods.

I have returned the 2 units to the parent company requesting that these models be replaced with a better model even if I have to pay for the difference in price but this company is refusing, stating that the one year warranty starts from when they ship the parts, and since I had made the claim just inside their one year they are only entitled to replace the parts BUT with no warranty whatsoever.

Previously it was stated that the UK had the best consumer protection in the EU but with all due respect, this sound like cr_p to me.

I welcome any advice I can get on this matter.


regards

 

the UK already had consumer legislation in excess of the minimum standards required by the then incoming EU legislation.
However, your case won't be covered by consumer legislation as you are a business.

 

Ok, let us assume I was a normal comsumer. Would I get the 2 years minimum that EU legislation guarantees, in the UK?

If a consumer purchases a product and it fails within one year; then he gets a replacement and that also fails within the same year in exactly the same manner. Is the consumer in the UK entitled to get something better or at least a refund? Or at the very least an extended warranty? this seems normal common sense to me.

In the case of businesses, do they get any protection at all?

regards

 

The law and common sense have very little in common im afraid. Your best bet is to talk to a lawer/ Solicitor if the value of the product makes that worthwhile. You might easily find that a letter from a solicitor will have much more impact with the parent company.

Moriquendi

 

Doesnt quite work like that, you're not "entitled" to get anything outisde of the first year, but as a consumer, companies often do give things or refund things outside of the year. Extended warranty..? no, thats a chargable service, it wouldnt jsut be given to you. If you wanted to cover the product for longer then go and buy a warranty service for it...

 

of course the other question is whether your case should actually be handled in the UK or in whatever EU country you resell in.
Do you actually import yourself or do it via an agent/distributor etc.?

You really need legal advice imo.

 

One thing is for sure, before you seek legal advice you had better know yourself if you have a law to protect you. And that is the reason why I am writing to this thread.

In essence does the caption of this thread have a positive answer or not?

Two years ago I had purchased a DVD recorder from a local shop which failed on me after 16 months. At the time this shop had given me one year warranty but after learning about the EU law and some insistence with the shop owner I was able to at least get my money back.

 

i think it depends upon the seller however it should be usually a year and you can increase it if you desire

 

I found this thread in Google and immediately register in this forum: I was searching something that would have explained me why the 2 Year European Warranty - and I repeat European - on my Fujifilm purchased in Italy )and I have a Warranty sheet) it's not valid in UK You know what, that big island in the North Sea is a continent apart from Europe.. Now that I'll have to buy a new camera I'll definitely buy it in "Europe" and not in the island: any of the other EU countries simply because I will get a better customer service and an extended warranty of 2 yrs by European law...
Honestly it's simply incredible, apart all the blabla statements like "there is no legislation in place to require warranties to be at least two years. Our manufacturer's warranty is one year" are simply rubbish because I can confirm that UK is in Europe even if British people don't think so (they thought me that at school long time ago), and moreover UK is part of the EU and must obey to its rules) but it doesn't because British people as I said don't think to be in Europe but in a world apart.
I honestly don't believe that UK has the best consumer protection (who said that?), I found more than one time that instead this is really cr@p. Have you ever been abroad, guys?

 

well, e.g. Sony & Nikon's European Warranty is 1 year (Nikon UK give a 2nd if product is registered within 30 days but this is in addition to the European warranty) so they obviously don't agree.
e.g. here is Sony.Nl's warranty page http://www.sony.nl/view/ShowArticle.action?articlesection=1&article=1091522753112&site=odw_nl_NL - " ÉÉN JAAR"= ONE YEAR

You have no contract within the UK as you didn't buy it here so whereas you normally would take it up with the retailer with whom you do have a contract & he would take it up with his supplier etc. that route doesn't exist.

In xuraax's case you also have to consider that he isn't acting as a consumer so consumer legislation doesn't apply to him ...

 

Probably... but if in my warranty sheet there is written that the warranty is valid within Europe means that is valid also in UK. UK is not Alaska or Ghana or Japan, is it?
It's like to say UK is in Europe but it's not in Europe...
...Dunno, maybe I'm thick

Then, I checked for curiosity the same page in the Sony's Italian website and over there anything has 24 months warranty: it doesn't say a lot about EU laws, but definitely shows that Sony Italia has a better customer protection compared to Sony UK or NL
http://www.sony.it/view/ShowSiteSec...ection=ODW+SS+ALL+Support+Sub3&site=odw_it_IT
I am more and more convinced to buy my next camera over there..

 

Hey sorry for joining in a bit late (err, like a whole year!), but I just found this topic from a google search for exactly the same purpose as the original post.
Anyway, I did some searching and found this:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:1999:171:0012:0016:EN:PDF


Found from this:
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/consumers/protection_of_consumers/l32022_...

It does say quite a bit about the 2 year warranty etc. Interesting, yet boring at the same time.
Hope it helps anyway


And this also popped up in the google search:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1187190/EU-law-gives-consumers-year-guar...

Cheers

 

To be sure I bought my camera over there

amongst all the links, just the pdf file works anyway..

But it's late and I will read it tomorrow, thanks!