Hi,

I had an incident today @ Penrith good guys. I had bought a laptop from them in April this year. Suddently it stopped working and as it is under the warranty period still i took it to shop today. They said hard disk has failed and they have to send it to factory to fix and will take about 3 weeks. So when i asked do i have to wait without a laptop for 3 weeks, they said yes.

Is it the way how warranty works ? Or do good guys need to give me some thing until it is repaired.

Your advice appreciated.


Muditha

Sounds about right, if it had failed within a few weeks you would probably be able to get a replacement but as its now a number of months they are within their rights to send away to fix.

3 weeks for a warranty repair in Aus sounds pretty good, for my washing machine they tried to say it would be a few months to get the parts and my floor robot quoted 4 weeks before they even get to assess it for the problem.

And this is why, when the aussies say you should buy in domestic retail stores, rather than online from overseas, because you get a 'warranty' - you give a hollow laugh.

How is it different from any other country? I honestly can't remember the last time I had a warranty claim so have no idea.

Thanx everybody.

Just had the same sort of issue with my son's sat nav. 8 months old, used three times and it failed completely. Took it back to Dick Smith and they claim that they can only send it away for repairs and this will take 4 weeks.

Take a look at the Australian Consumer Laws website and the Good Guys returns policy on their website for a better understanding of your rights. In brief - if the problem is minor they will repair it under the manufactures warranty; if the problem is major then you have the option to have a refund, a replacement or a repair.

I agree that the system is not as good as that in the UK (always got a refund or replacement straight away) but there is not much else you can do.

I bought a Sony laptop in UK that had a hard drive failure within a few months. They took it away for repairs and certainly was not done immediately, think it was about 10 days. It happened again a few months later and same thing. When it happened the third time, they finally gave me a full refund but only after I hunted down and contacted the most senior person in Sony UK.

So in short, I think that OPs scenario is quite normal.

My lg smart tv developed a black dot on the screen.
I rang customer service only to be told that if it was covered under the warranty then it would be fixed, but if it wasn't covered then I would have to pay $80 call out, of which I would not have paid.

The tv was 11 months old. I asked if the problem wasn't covered what my options were they told me I would have to pay for it to be repaired or just put up with it.

I was livid, anyway the guys came out to it and decided they would have to pull the screen out, they had to take it away, I asked about the conversation I had had with lg and they couldn't understand it because they have some of the best customer service available.

Anyway it turns out that a small insect had found its way into the unit and the static from the screen was holding it there. All in all 5 days without tv although it was over the weekend.

Easiest way to get it sorted as to what you can do is phone the office of fair trading and see what your rights are. Everything else is just guessing.

do you get to have a replacement unit if you lease instead of buy an equipment/appliance?