Microwave died 2 weeks after warranty expired - any recourse?

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Brentor

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Our microwave died this week. Checked the warranty to find it expired 2 weeks ago:(.

It is a mid range Panasonic model, probably the 3/4th one we have had in the past 40 years, hence I expect microwave ovens the last a long time. Some of our previous ones we replaced just in case they were unsafe.

It was purchased from John Lewis. I few years ago I would have expected them to offer some form of assistance in this situation. We have yet to contact them, but after my dealings with them over the past 4 years or so, I am not hopeful.

From some quick research it appears that the Sale of Goods Act may help as it mentions 6 years liability and various articles suggest they should help with a repair/replacement as such electrical goods should have a life expectation of say 5 years.

Anyone experienced a similar situation and what was the outcome?
 
From the Which? magazine. As you say..up to six years. If you go to a smalls claim court .... https://www.switalskis.com/blog/small-claims-guide. Also this guide

Which ?..."If a defect develops after the first six months, the burden is on you to prove that the product was faulty at the time the goods were delivered to you."

"In practice, this may require some form of expert report, opinion or evidence of similar problems or defects across the product range"

"The retailer can also make a deduction from any refund for fair use after the first six months of ownership if an attempt at a repair or replacement is unsuccessful"

"You have up to six years to take a claim to the small claims court for faulty goods in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and five years in Scotland"

T"his doesn't mean that a product has to last six years - just that you have this length of time in which to make a claim if a retailer refuses to repair or replace a faulty product "
 
JohnC6 said:
T"his doesn't mean that a product has to last six years - just that you have this length of time in which to make a claim if a retailer refuses to repair or replace a faulty product "
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This is the potential problem.

Other guidance (from the Consumer Rights Act 2015 which replaced the Sale of GoodsAct) states:

Satisfactory quality,​

As​

Described​

Fit for purpose​

And last a​

Reasonable length of​

Time​

 
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I think the Sake of Goods Act has been superseded.

It is about what is reasonable. How long is reasonable for a microwave to last.

It’s not clear from the post how long you have had it?
 
Contact the retailer, your contract of sale is with them so that should be your first step . You never know, you might get something out of them.
 
Goods should last a reasonable amount of time.
A reasonable amount of time is not defined and will be determined by the item itself and the price.

Personally, I think it's a sad state of affairs if we can't expect something like a microwave to last more than two years but JL may see differently and in that case you would have to take them to court. If it was a £50 microwave you probably wouldn't expect that to last very long but one costing a couple hundred quid would be a different story.

I would start by contacting JL and see what they say. If you don't get very far in the store then write to the CEO's office. You can usually find template letters online for such things.

Without trying to teach you how to suck eggs. You have checked the fuse in the plug haven't you?
 
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ecoleman said:
Without trying to teach you how to suck eggs. You have checked the fuse in the plug haven't you?
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It turns on, the controls work, the turntable rotates but it won't heat the food. It also smelt of burning when was last used,
 
@Brentor

Would you care to share the make & model number? Doh! sorry reread your OP re: Panasonic

Hopefully you will find John Lewis supportive.

PS and FWIW we have a Daewoo that I think is in excess of 10 years old and still just does what we need of it. IIRC it replaced a Panasonic that lasted around 5 years and then developed a crack in the casing.
 
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Though from 2009 perhaps has relevance?

forums.moneysavingexpert.com

Panasonic Microwave - faulty but out of Warranty

I have a Panasonic Microwave that is just over 2 years old and has stopped working.
forums.moneysavingexpert.com forums.moneysavingexpert.com

Similar discussion from 2018
forums.moneysavingexpert.com

Faulty Panasonic microwave from Argos

Hi, I’m looking for advice regarding a microwave purchased from Argos in September 2015. It cost £70 for a Panasonic NN-E271WM (Argos item no. 400/7999).
forums.moneysavingexpert.com forums.moneysavingexpert.com
 
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I always say this but with appliances it’s simply the luck of the draw. You can get cheap stuff that can last donkey’s years or expensive things that go phutt in a couple of years, and there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason why. Case in point: we had a relatively expensive AEG built in microwave in our last kitchen. It lasted 30 months before it stopped working. (I pulled it apart after I discovered it wasn’t worth repairing…….despite the AEG label, some of the innards were stamped up as Panasonic). But then our last washer drier was a dirt cheap Hoover, which we’ve only just got rid of because the bearings were getting a bit noisy, although it still basically worked ok. That was over 12 years old.
 
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I just checked our mini oven, Panasonic bought from JL ten years ago. Still going strong :)
 
boogie man said:
I always say this but with appliances it’s simply the luck of the draw. You can get cheap stuff that can last donkey’s years or expensive things that go phutt in a couple of years, and there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason why. Case in point: we had a relatively expensive AEG built in microwave in our last kitchen. It lasted 30 months before it stopped working. (I pulled it apart after I discovered it wasn’t worth repairing…….despite the AEG label, some of the innards were stamped up as Panasonic). But then our last washer drier was a dirt cheap Hoover, which we’ve only just got rid of because the bearings were getting a bit noisy, although it still basically worked ok. That was over 12 years old.
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My bold:
We bought an AEG tall freezer ...about £650..from John Lewis. After 10 months the coolant motor malfunctioned. It wasn't keeping a low temperature and food was softening. I called John Lewis who told me to contact AEG. I told the 'customer care' person I had my contract with John Lewsis. It took me several calls to get them to sort it .An engineer (contracted) was sent out and deemed it extinct. 'dead' We were given a new one. It's rusting in places on the outside and a piece of plastic on the base falls off now and then. We bought it because we thought a German make was better quality . Sounds like the other thread re German cars.

I did a bit of Googling and AEG no longer exist and haven't done so since 1994. The Swedish company Electroluxe bought the badge name. The nearest any part comes to Germany is probably in a lorry or a plane en-route to the UK. Electroluxe own AEG, Anova, Frigidaire, Westinghouse and Zanussi.

Btw. AEG got the contract to install the electrics at Auschwitz .It had a factory in Riga, capital of Latvia, which employed female slave labour and elsewhere concentration camp inmates under inhuman conditions. Same with Audi...BMW..Mercedes ...Porche Opel..Miele. Well, pretty well any German manmufacturer.

Look at the list and what they did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_in_the_Holocaust
 
JohnC6 said:
My bold:
We bought an AEG tall freezer ...about £650..from John Lewis. After 10 months the coolant motor malfunctioned. It wasn't keeping a low temperature and food was softening. I called John Lewis who told me to contact AEG. I told the 'customer care' person I had my contract with John Lewsis. It took me several calls to get them to sort it .An engineer (contracted) was sent out and deemed it extinct. 'dead' We were given a new one. It's rusting in places on the outside and a piece of plastic on the base falls off now and then. We bought it because we thought a German make was better quality . Sounds like the other thread re German cars.

I did a bit of Googling and AEG no longer exist and haven't done so since 1994. The Swedish company Electroluxe bought the badge name. The nearest any part comes to Germany is probably in a lorry or a plane en-route to the UK. Electroluxe own AEG, Anova, Frigidaire, Westinghouse and Zanussi.

Btw. AEG got the contract to install the electrics at Auschwitz .It had a factory in Riga, capital of Latvia, which employed female slave labour and elsewhere concentration camp inmates under inhuman conditions. Same with Audi...BMW..Mercedes ...Porche Opel..Miele. Well, pretty well any German manmufacturer.

Look at the list and what they did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_in_the_Holocaust
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I was going to say that AEG is part of a bigger conglomerate company but you’ve already covered it. They’re basically just trading on the previously respected name nowadays, same as many others like Bosch, Siemens etc.. Certainly there’s no guarantee where your “German” product will be made, but that pretty much applies across the board. Our “German” Audi car was made in Mexico. :rolleyes:

I had no idea about AEG’s murky past.
 
Eliott mentioned the fuse. My microwave has a seperate fuse inside as well (in the back) it blows when the bulb goes, it's a small glass fuse. Mind it's 35 years old or there about.
 
I had to buy a replacement Panasonic microwave for my Mum ... she still has the receipt for the old one that failed.

She paid £130 for it in 1993!

I bet the new £90 one won't last 31 years.
 
The MiL managed to destroy 2 in fairly short order, first by forgetting to put anything in one and then leaving a metal spoon in the food.
 
Nod said:
The MiL managed to destroy 2 in fairly short order, first by forgetting to put anything in one and then leaving a metal spoon in the food.
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There used to be a bakery across the road from one of my studios years ago. Every day the old ladies working there would heat a pie in the microwave in the foil tin giving us a free fireworks display. She'd take the tray off and heat it again. Then the next customer waiting in line would buy a pie and she'd do the same thing again, over and over, day after day.
I wonder how long those microwaves lasted. The shop closed after a few months.... sadly...
 
Not sure I want to admit this, but it may help others. My wife contacted JL through the Web chat and they referred her to a repairers. They did however suggest trying to clean the microwave by putting a cup of water on full power for 5 mins and it worked. I also gave it a thorough clean, although I did not appear to be too dirty. Perhaps the waveguide cover had debris in the wrong place. I'm not sure why it wouldn't heat at all before, some inbuilt protection?

Anyway, it saved an argument with JL and the £250 for the replacement we had selected.

Everyday is a school day.
 
All's well that ends well, as they say. Glad you got it sorted.
 
Box Brownie said:
Hopefully you will find John Lewis supportive.
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I hope so too, but my experience is their service in this respect is nowhere near as good as it used to be.

I had a problem with my Oculus Quest so I followed the instructions from Oculus / FB on how to trouble shoot. This process takes literally days (you need to cycle the batteries a couple of times). When this didn't work, I called JL. My warranty had actually expired whilst I was trouble shooting and they wouldn't even discuss any action. Obviously I should have checked the date before calling them but they didn't used to be like that.

Fortunately, some people on FB talked me through getting it going again :)
 
JonathanRyan said:
I hope so too, but my experience is their service in this respect is nowhere near as good as it used to be.

I had a problem with my Oculus Quest so I followed the instructions from Oculus / FB on how to trouble shoot. This process takes literally days (you need to cycle the batteries a couple of times). When this didn't work, I called JL. My warranty had actually expired whilst I was trouble shooting and they wouldn't even discuss any action. Obviously I should have checked the date before calling them but they didn't used to be like that.

Fortunately, some people on FB talked me through getting it going again :)
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A tad disconcerting that JL took the "jobs worth" line.

But at least you resolved it to your satisfaction.
 
JonathanRyan said:
I hope so too, but my experience is their service in this respect is nowhere near as good as it used to be.
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My recent experience with them when our Dyson hand held vacuum developed a fault whilst still under warranty was not good. They insisted that it was returned to Dyson as they provided the warranty. Fair enough but Dyson were terrible, which is mirrored by Trust pilot, but is surprising given that they sell premium products at premium prices. After much chasing, they tried to repair it twice but failed.

I went back to John Lewis customer care and they recommended I took it to the local store who would try to sort it out with Dyson. However the local store were not at all interested, showed no sympathy, said customer care were wrong and said to return it to Dyson again. I ended up buying a new battery with a part contribution from Dyson although the fault started when it was still under warranty, which covers batteries, but given all the delays ended up when it had expired.
 
Brentor said:
My recent experience with them when our Dyson hand held vacuum developed a fault whilst still under warranty was not good. They insisted that it was returned to Dyson as they provided the warranty. Fair enough but Dyson were terrible, which is mirrored by Trust pilot, but is surprising given that they sell premium products at premium prices. After much chasing, they tried to repair it twice but failed.

I went back to John Lewis customer care and they recommended I took it to the local store who would try to sort it out with Dyson. However the local store were not at all interested, showed no sympathy, said customer care were wrong and said to return it to Dyson again. I ended up buying a new battery with a part contribution from Dyson although the fault started when it was still under warranty, which covers batteries, but given all the delays ended up when it had expired.
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That's really bad. My near neighbour who worked for a high street bank..well, when they had them :) and told me that his bank and companies in general will string along/wear down customers until they get to the last 10% who just won't give up at which point they settle their complaint.

Unfortunately ,I can't recall the incident but when I was in the US something happened re a product and the store was great. I told one of the Americans I was with how good the service was and what was likely to happen here and I'll always recall his answer. "If they did that here it would be commercial suicide"
 
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