Kindle rant

SoapAlchemist

SoapAlchemist

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Well, if there was any doubt before, there is none now; I have officially joined the ranks of 'grumpy old women'. I was on the verge of buying a Kindle today in Car Phone Warehouse, but the last one they had was in a box that had obviously been opened. As it was for me, I didn't care too much about the state of the box, but was of course worried that the reason the box had been interfered with was that someone had brought it back due to a fault. I was humming and hawing, then said 'well, presumably if there is a problem with it, I can just bring it back and you will sort it out'. At this point, I was not only told enthusiastically by the young woman serving me, but also by the guy beside her who happily diverted himself from the customer he was serving to join in with the party line, that if anything went wrong, it was absolutely nothing to do with Car Phone Warehouse. Redress could only be had from Amazon, who were solely responsible for sorting out all and any problems.
I tried to explain to them that it would be their responsibility - 'no, our guys can't fix them, they have to go back to Amazon' - 'That's fine, but you then have to send it back to Amazon' - 'No, we're not allowed to send them back to Amazon, that's what we've been told' - 'But you're the retailer, people have statutory rights' -'Do you work for trading standards or something?' - 'No, but if I bought this and there was a problem and I bought it back, and you told me what you just have, I would certainly be reporting it to Trading Standards'. I assured them that I wasn't blaming them, as they were clearly only passing on what they had been told from on high, but asked them to pass on to those on high that if this policy is their idea of customer care, I wouldn't be buying from them. And off I self righteously stomped, with highly embarrassed grandson.
Now, my understanding is that Amazon customer care is pretty good. My points are two; firstly, Amazon in tandem with their chosen megacorp retailers cannot rewrite consumer rights in this country - I didn't vote for them; secondly, there are still people who have never bought an item online and have little or no idea of what or who Amazon is. I live with one such. It might have been my last phone call to Virgin (ISP) and waiting on an 0845 number for the 50th option that tipped me over the edge...or just a culmination of years of the same from the provider of every 'service' I have to deal with. Or just being old enough to remember a time when you phoned places and people who had some idea what they were doing answered the phone. Who knows? But right now I am very grumpy indeed. (If you've ever tried to park in Merry Hell shopping center, you'll know that being grumpy before you even reach a shop is guaranteed).
The powers that be may feel free to move this to the special thread for whining which has already thoughtfully been set up in the lounge.
 
soapalchemist said:
Well, if there was any doubt before, there is none now; I have officially joined the ranks of 'grumpy old women'. I was on the verge of buying a Kindle today in Car Phone Warehouse, but the last one they had was in a box that had obviously been opened. As it was for me, I didn't care too much about the state of the box, but was of course worried that the reason the box had been interfered with was that someone had brought it back due to a fault. I was humming and hawing, then said 'well, presumably if there is a problem with it, I can just bring it back and you will sort it out'. At this point, I was not only told enthusiastically by the young woman serving me, but also by the guy beside her who happily diverted himself from the customer he was serving to join in with the party line, that if anything went wrong, it was absolutely nothing to do with Car Phone Warehouse. Redress could only be had from Amazon, who were solely responsible for sorting out all and any problems.
I tried to explain to them that it would be their responsibility - 'no, our guys can't fix them, they have to go back to Amazon' - 'That's fine, but you then have to send it back to Amazon' - 'No, we're not allowed to send them back to Amazon, that's what we've been told' - 'But you're the retailer, people have statutory rights' -'Do you work for trading standards or something?' - 'No, but if I bought this and there was a problem and I bought it back, and you told me what you just have, I would certainly be reporting it to Trading Standards'. I assured them that I wasn't blaming them, as they were clearly only passing on what they had been told from on high, but asked them to pass on to those on high that if this policy is their idea of customer care, I wouldn't be buying from them. And off I self righteously stomped, with highly embarrassed grandson.
Now, my understanding is that Amazon customer care is pretty good. My points are two; firstly, Amazon in tandem with their chosen megacorp retailers cannot rewrite consumer rights in this country - I didn't vote for them; secondly, there are still people who have never bought an item online and have little or no idea of what or who Amazon is. I live with one such. It might have been my last phone call to Virgin (ISP) and waiting on an 0845 number for the 50th option that tipped me over the edge...or just a culmination of years of the same from the provider of every 'service' I have to deal with. Or just being old enough to remember a time when you phoned places and people who had some idea what they were doing answered the phone. Who knows? But right now I am very grumpy indeed. (If you've ever tried to park in Merry Hell shopping center, you'll know that being grumpy before you even reach a shop is guaranteed).
The powers that be may feel free to move this to the special thread for whining which has already thoughtfully been set up in the lounge.
Click to expand...

thats why i hate shopping :angel:
 
One thing worth mentioning is that if you don't like fiddling with setup parameters it's worth buying it from Amazon, as they'll set it up for your account. It's not hard to do yourself, but it is mildly tedious - and would be more so on the keyboard-free one, I suspect.
 
A similar thing happened with a Samsung netbook that my wife bought from Comet last year. It developed a fault after a few weeks were it became completely unresponsive, I gave up trying to fix it and we tried to return it to Comet for a replacement. They has us jumping through no end of hoops, having to phone up Samsung customer support numerous times ourselves and arranging to have the netbook sent off and examined to verify the fault. They could have just tried to turn the bloody thing off and on in the shop themselves and they could have seen that it was faulty. No amount of explaining to Comet that they were the retailer and as such our contract for the sale of the goods was with them got us anywhere. Anyway, Samsung verified the fault and after that we were issued with a refund by Comet. I promptly took my custom elsewhere (Amazon in fact) and won't buy anything from Comet or any of it's affiliates ever again. How stupid are they? They could have simply offered us a replacement, or at least done the donkey work for us, and still had our money and custom going forward. Now they have neither.
 
Hax; it was because I had already read a litany of the same from Tesco's buyers that I was on the ball enough to be such a grumpy old woman. Tescos's purchasers are being told the same it seems.
Please don't tell me about 'parameter' things I don't understand Dr. Rick. I'm just busy feeling chuffed that if it ever arrives (supposed to be a present to me from HWMOM - don't ask), I've worked out that I shouldn't need to try to 'configure my wi-fi', I can just plug it in to the computer. I did wonder how Amazon would know it was mine, and that the books I buy should go to this one.....is that what you mean? I can cope with that as a one off......I think.
Shankey.....you and HWMOM both......
 
soapalchemist said:
At this point, I was not only told enthusiastically by the young woman serving me, but also by the guy beside her who happily diverted himself from the customer he was serving to join in with the party line, that if anything went wrong, it was absolutely nothing to do with Car Phone Warehouse. Redress could only be had from Amazon, who were solely responsible for sorting out all and any problems.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. The Sales Of Goods Act states that, by law, the retailer is responsible.

From the "Which" website.

"In most cases, your rights are against the retailer – the company that sold you the product – not the manufacturer, and so you must take any claim against the retailer."

As you have purchased the item from a retailer, your contract is with them, and not Amazon.


Ian
 
IanM said:
soapalchemist said:
At this point, I was not only told enthusiastically by the young woman serving me, but also by the guy beside her who happily diverted himself from the customer he was serving to join in with the party line, that if anything went wrong, it was absolutely nothing to do with Car Phone Warehouse. Redress could only be had from Amazon, who were solely responsible for sorting out all and any problems.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. The Sales Of Goods Act states that, by law, the retailer is responsible.

From the "Which" website.

"In most cases, your rights are against the retailer – the company that sold you the product – not the manufacturer, and so you must take any claim against the retailer."As you have purchased the item from a retailer, your contract is with them, and not Amazon.


Ian
Click to expand...


True........ but I had a phone off one of CPWH's subsidiaries, I had no end of problems with both the product and the contract and in short it was never resolved.........

I think that they think that Distance Selling Regulations and Sale of Goods and Services Act don't apply to them.........
 
I would buy direct personally, from what I have read on various forums about people who have had an issue with the device, Amazon have always been very fast to replace. I wouldn't buy any open box electronics at full price.
 
Every time I've had to contact Amazon they've been brilliant, the time I had a question about my Kindle included. Also my bro-in-law had a problem when he was at mine, he called them up and they were great. Amazon has its knockers :blush: but they are hard to fault on service.
 
Surely soapalchemist this is more of a rant about Car Phone Warehouse and less about the Amazon Kindle?

Yellow Jim said:
A similar thing happened with a Samsung netbook that my wife bought from Comet last year. It developed a fault after a few weeks were it became completely unresponsive, I gave up trying to fix it and we tried to return it to Comet for a replacement. They has us jumping through no end of hoops, having to phone up Samsung customer support numerous times ourselves and arranging to have the netbook sent off and examined to verify the fault. They could have just tried to turn the bloody thing off and on in the shop themselves and they could have seen that it was faulty. No amount of explaining to Comet that they were the retailer and as such our contract for the sale of the goods was with them got us anywhere. Anyway, Samsung verified the fault and after that we were issued with a refund by Comet. I promptly took my custom elsewhere (Amazon in fact) and won't buy anything from Comet or any of it's affiliates ever again. How stupid are they? They could have simply offered us a replacement, or at least done the donkey work for us, and still had our money and custom going forward. Now they have neither.
Click to expand...

Yellow Jim, did you have the extended warranty they seem to love selling, and if so did you get that back as well?
 
I bought a kindle for my wife the other week and at the same time there was a guy taking one back to tesco.

He had spoken to Amazon who advisd him to take it back to point of purchase and the guy left tesco with a replacement.
 
I sympathise, I've had the same with Currys. I had a Toshiba laptop that lead a very troubled and short life (constantly in for repairs and then died completely at 14 months old).

I took it back to Currys and told them I was rejecting it as unfit for purpose under the sale of goods act. No says the seller, send it back to the manufacturer, nothing to do with us. I had the supervisor in, he said the same thing. Flat refused that it was their responsibility. Eventually after 30 minutes of discussion with the supervisor I eventually got the general manager, who proceeded to tell me the same thing. Even after me producing the printout out of the sale of goods act specifying the retailer's responsibility, he still swore blind I must be wrong.

It stayed that way, unresolved... I probably should have elevated it to head office but I've only got so many hours in the week dedicated to dealing with fuckwitts who don't know their jobs. Maybe they rely on that? The only thing I can do is to avoid Currys forevermore.
 
Stranger and stranger. Anyway, I have set aside all principles and ordered from Amazon today with guaranteed delivery for tomorrow. I've also bought a cheap plastic case from cyberboot for under £5 delivered. The Amazon case with the light that uses the battery from the device unfortunately for this latest keyboardless model doesn't seem much good, so I won't be asking for that for my birthday.
 
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