Isakat

OH has a Seat, which is part of VW, same here, lots of unresolved issues. Hard to find garages around where I live as many closed down. He vowed no more Seat, just ordered a Giulietta, however it might be worse with Fiat Italia?

37100

VW has closed all it's garages here too, except one. At least with a Fiat you know what you are getting. You don't expect VW's door locks to seize up, do you?

Pica

We returned a 6 month old phone back to the shop we bought it from as it had ceased to function at all. They sent it back to manufacturers-this was 2 years ago!!! We've given up asking where it is...

Pinco Pallino

I find that with customer service issues Italians will usually try to help the consumer – but can soon revert to the 'jobsworth' bureaucratic: 'non dipende da me' if the issue falls beyond the company's or organization's policy.

Compared to the UK, Italy has so many more independently owned (or franchised) retail establishments (including 'phone shops), so unless an item is clearly defective there is a general reluctance to exchange or replace – or (god forbid) give a refund, as this would probably have a direct effect on the bottom line.

I guess that a 'phone shop would be more likely to offer a replacement if the 'phone were provided as part of a contract as opposed to having been purchased outright; but there must be so many instances of 'furbizia' where 'phones dropped in the sink or bath are taken back to the shop as 'not working any more' – so if you or your boss had invested in the item what would you do?

[As an aside, the OH dropped her iPhone down the loo when we were back in Blightly during the Christmas holidays. We dashed to the Apple store; they checked proof of ownership on their database and then offered an 'out of warranty' replacement for £119. We paid up and were given what looked to be a brand new iPhone, dashed back home, synchronised the 'phone on iTunes, and within 5 minutes she was 'up and running' again with all contacts, messages, call register, settings and everything else exactly as it had been not long before the 'iPhone in loo' incident!]

Lorna at Vicenza

Hey peeps,

going back to my phone .............
I looked up the "Codice Del Consumo".
Have a read of this extract from article 130 and tell me please, if like me, you read it as saying that the shop could have and should have substituted my phone. I know full well though that the laws here are often so ambiguous that the same law can be interpreted 10 different ways by 10 different lawyers.



2. In caso di difetto di conformita', il consumatore ha diritto al ripristino, senza spese, della conformita' del bene mediante riparazione o sostituzione, a norma dei commi 3, 4, 5 e 6, ovvero ad una riduzione adeguata del prezzo o alla risoluzione del contratto, conformemente ai commi 7, 8 e 9.
3. Il consumatore puo' chiedere, a sua scelta, al venditore di riparare il bene o di sostituirlo, senza spese in entrambi i casi, salvo che il rimedio richiesto sia oggettivamente impossibile o eccessivamente oneroso rispetto all'altro.

http://www.codicedelconsumo.it/index...d=53&Itemid=57

Pecora Nera

My Mini One, allegedly built by BMW is utter crap. It is back in the garage again because the drivers door will only open from the outside. I have to get in and out duke of hazzard style.

So far it has had the following.
1) Steering pump failed while I was driving around a roundabout, boy was I scared.
2) Drivers window freezes, smart thump to the inner panel one a month to repair fault.
3) Self-leveling headlamps that sometimes work and sometimes don't. Drivers light points at the stars while the other points at the piece of road just in front of the wheel. Sometimes they swap and the passengers light points at the stars just for the fun of it.
4) Plastic trim on the A frame cracked and disappeared.
5) Roof gutter trim fell off.

It is going to be valeted and sold this summer.

ononno

If it has been passed and published in Gazetta Ufficiale then there should only be one interpretation. I would be tending to scream 'caribinieri' 'viglili' 'guardia di finanza' if a shopkeeper tried to wriggle out of his obligations. Thanks for the link, and well worth printing out and carrying around when making important purchases.
ciao for now,
'o nonno

Lorna at Vicenza

I'm printing it too and I'm off back to the shop tomorrow and asking to speak to the manager.
Whether they substitute my phone or not is one thing ........ what they say to me could well be another but I'm curious now as to how they will respond to the points in that codice.

I was talking to my sister yesterday and she said that if they send your phone off for repairs in the UK, they never just leave you without one. You might get an old, crappy version to use but you do get a phone from them.

Lorna at Vicenza

I've just had a feeling I might be barking up the wrong tree because point 1 says

1. Il venditore e' responsabile nei confronti del consumatore per qualsiasi difetto di conformita' esistente al momento della consegna del bene.


and the phone was working and didn't have any defects when it was "consegnato"

37100

Yeap, well that's the theory. Me, I send n° 1.

We are trying to sort OH's pension out at the mo because the way his pension is paid changed on Jan 1st and is now paid in part directly by INPS. Oh dear, we now know why people complain about them. It should be sorted in the next few mnths, but what the heck are people supposed to do if the have to rely on it.

Isakat

So, I chose a main dealer garage to fix the car( whole new passenger side).
I called them a week in advance and told them I would need a curtesy car for the week while my car is repaired. So, on Friday, I was offered the tiniest possible car( think like Smart) and I refused it.
They then offered me the same as mine( 2ltr engine), but they told me I can not keep it for the whole period and that I have to drive to them and give it back once another, smaller car gets returned.
The garage is not close to me, about half an hour drive. On top of this the lady gave me the keys and said-Look signora, we cleaned the car for you.
I just looked at her and said, oh good, my children will not be fishing out empty crisp packets from the back pockets like last time.
They just do not get it that the car must be clean, she thinks she was doing me a favour!!

And the bloody car's hand brake does not work, I discovered this this morning on my steep drive with the kids being late for school and me trying to stop the car and go back in the house to get the remote control for the gate......

Pecora Nera

Italian Customer service does not exist.

MarkRD

FIAT deal garage didn't realise after the tagliando and a more specific check up on the GPL that there was a big hole in the 'polmone' or something...

Kept having problems so took it to the GPL people who found the whole €600+ repairs.

FIAT "customer service" thing ring me a few weeks later and I tell them in so many words that they are crap. Then they ask at the end if it's OK to send on a recording of our phone call to the garage/dealer!!!
Politely, I refused permission.

Isakat

Why not Mark, were you afraid of being sued for telling the truth?

I had to go back this morning to the garage to change the curtesy car. I was given a 3 door one with dogs hair in the boot.
When I complained about how much the back tires were worn out he smiled and said there was still tread left. I also told him to sort out the handbrake of the old one before he gives it to someone else as it is dangerous and told him about the bubble on the side of one of the tyres.
So, they are waiting for the part next week and the perito never turned up.
Another week without my car. bol..x to that.

Pecora Nera

The camera on my Blackberry Playbook, stopped functioning. I phoned Blackberry UK and explained the problem.
The woman was very very helpful. She said she would organise for the collection of my playbook and it would be sent for repair. I asked if it was possible for the playbook to be sent to the UK. She asked why. I explained that if it was sent to the Italian repair facility I doubted, I would ever see it again.

After she had stopped laughing she said the repair centre is in Germany.

My Playbook was collected on Wednesday 22nd and a new playbook arrived on Friday 24th.

Amazing service, just think how wonderful Italy could be if it got it's act together.

As I was typing this, Blackberry phoned me to ask if the new Playbook was ok and if she could now close the repair.