Thank you very much. Very helpful.
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Contrary to earlier comments about āreputationā I still think replacing mother boards is part of the sales model. It will take something like Standards Australia to insist on sweeping reform to include this in the original configuration.
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Just as an update, I have had no response from Standards Australia or Tracey Grimshaw. The ACCC replied:
Thank you for writing to us about your air conditioning unit. We have recorded the details of your report. We can offer you information about your consumer rights, warranties and how to resolve a dispute with a business.
Your next steps
If writing to Toshiba doesnāt resolve your dispute, we would suggest you contact the Queensland Office of Fair Trading. Unlike the ACCC, which focuses on broad and national issues, your local consumer protection agency may be able to help resolve your dispute by negotiating an outcome. Find out more about how to make a complaint to Queensland Office of Fair Trading on its website.
If theyāre unable to help, you may need to take your complaint to your state or territory small claims tribunal.
Warranties
A warranty is a promise that a business makes about products it sells. A promise could be about:
- how long the product will last
- how well the product will perform
- the availability of servicing or spare parts
- what it will do if the product is faulty.
Businesses do not have to offer you a warranty. If a business chooses to offer a warranty, it can choose what promises it makes. It can also choose how long the warranty will last. If a business makes this kind of promise, it must fulfil the promise.
Warranties are separate from your automatic consumer guarantees. These guarantees apply regardless of any warranties suppliers sell or give to you. They apply for a reasonable time depending on the nature of the product or service. This means consumer guarantees may continue to apply after the time period for the warranty has expired.
Your rights: acceptable quality
Products you buy from businesses should be reasonably:
- acceptable in appearance and finish
- free from defects
- safe
- durable
- able to do what products of their kind normally do.
If a product you buy is not one of these things, it does not meet the consumer guarantee of acceptable quality and you are entitled to have the problem fixed.
The guarantee of acceptable quality takes into account what would normally be expected for the type of product and cost.
This guarantee does not apply if the seller told you about the problem with the product before you bought it. And it does not apply if you damaged the product by using it incorrectly.
Repair, replacement or refund ā faulty product
You have the right to ask for a repair, replacement or refund if a product fails to meet a consumer guarantee.
You can ask a business for your preference of a free repair, replacement or refund, but you are not always entitled to one. For example, the consumer guarantees do not apply if you got what you asked for but simply changed your mind, found it cheaper somewhere else, decided you did not like the purchase or had no use for it.
If a product you own has a minor problem, the business can choose to offer you a refund, repair or replacement. If the seller chooses to fix the problem, they must do this free of charge and within a reasonable time. If the seller refuses to fix the problem or takes too long, you may be able to get it fixed by someone else and recover the reasonable costs from the seller.
If a product you own has a major problem, you have the right to ask for your choice of a replacement or refund. Alternatively, you can choose to keep the product and negotiate a reduced price for the drop in value from what you initially agreed to payāthis may mean asking for some of your money back if you have already paid. You may also be able to claim compensation for any foreseeable losses resulting from the faulty product.
A product has a major problem when it:
- has a problem that would have stopped someone from buying it if the problem had been known
- is unsafe
- is significantly different from the sample or description
- does not do what the business said it would, or what you asked for, and cannot easily be fixed.
Check out our website for more detailed information about the consumer guarantees, including a retailer or manufacturerās obligations, how to return a faulty product and exceptions. You can also download the ACCC Shopper app to have consumer information on hand when you shop, as well as tools to set reminders, keep copies of receipts and write a complaint letter or email to a seller.
Your report: what the ACCC does with this information
The ACCC uses reports from the public, as well as other sources of intelligence, to inform our enforcement work. You can read more about how we prioritise our work on our website.
Please note, the ACCC generally does not comment on our work or what we do with the information we receive from reports. We will only contact you again if we require further information.
To keep up-to-date on public announcements from the ACCC, you can subscribe to our email alerts.
We hope the information we have provided is helpful.
Yours sincerely
Tom
Public Information Officer | Infocentre
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
23 Marcus Clarke Street Canberra 2601 | www.accc.gov.au
T: 1300 302 502
@acccgovau 
ACCCConsumerrights
Hello all. I am seeking assistance from anyone on this thread with a proposal to Standards Australia to investigate from the consumer standpoint the situation with split system air conditioning units being vulnerable to pest infiltration and the damaging of circuit boards. Here is the response I received from them. I would appreciate any input that I can include in my proposal, or perhaps you can submit your own. I have not read through all the linked information yet. Thank you.
Hi Nina,
Firstly, please accept our apologies for the delayed response to your first email to you ā we have been migrating some of our IT systems and your email was missed during the changeover.
In regards to prompting a review a or commission, we do have a process if you wish to propose a new standard or a revision to an existing standard.
New standards projects can be proposed by members of the public, government, industry groups and community experts. You can advocate for the development of a new Australian StandardĀ®.
In considering this option, please find a detailed explanation of the process on our website: [Submit a Proposal - Standards Australia] (https://www.standards.org.au/standards-development/developing-standards/proposal)
To summarise;
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All proposals to develop Australian StandardĀ® standards under Standards Australiaās development pathways must be submitted using the proposal form for standards development.
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Net Benefit is a key element of Standards Australiaās assessment and approval process and a Net Benefit case is a compulsory element of any new proposal.
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There are a range of development pathways available (but note the need for stakeholder support).
Please look through this information and if you have any further questions, please feel free to contact our Stakeholder Engagement Management atsem@standards.org.au and they will guide you on further steps.
However, please note this process can take some time as we work through our 6 stages: Our Process - Standards Australia. In addition, we publish voluntary standardsand have no regulatory, compliance or enforcement powers. This is the role of regulators or legislative bodies with the power of the law, such as the organisations you have previously contacted, for example, as the ACCC, the Office of Fair Trade and Federal & State Parliamentary bodies. We maintain a list of some of these here: click here for a list of consumer regulatory bodies. For a quicker resolution, we would recommend you contact these organisations.
State and Commonwealth governments often refer to standards in their legislation. When this happens, these standards can become mandatory. You can contact your local representative to advise them to refer to Australian Standards in proposed legislation if you feel this would be an effective way to advocate for your position. As a developer of Standards who work to the net benefit of all Australians, we cannot and do not suggest any particular Australian Standard is referenced in legislation to avoid conflicts of interest or perceptions of bias.
Thanks again for contacting us, and please let us know if you need anything further.
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Hi all,
Just FYI, Standards Australia has this week reached out to myself and another industry member of the air conditioner standards committee for our views on this issue (of geckos and other creatures wrecking the PCBs etc of air conditioners). Generally I think the industry will be resistant to solving this at a standards level, and Iām inclined to agree that the air conditioner standard probably is not the place to solve this. But that doesnāt mean there arenāt other things that manufacturers can do. The problem certainly exists in many parts of the world. However the culprits can range from geckos to mice, ants and even snakes, which means that a universal solution is difficult.
But itās at least started an email discussion. I wouldnāt hold out too much hope of any radical changes coming from this, but I am hopeful of getting some better industry information about their views and experiences in this area, in particular as to whether any āanti geckoā treatments actually work.
I have suggested that at the least, manufacturers and installers could be more proactive in warning consumers (especially in affected regions such as FNQ) about this potential problem and what is actually covered under warranty.
Iāll keep you posted with any progress.
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A standard can be prescriptive in how something is to be achieved, or it can prescribe an outcome leaving the manufacturer free as to how they comply. Iād hope the second option remains open.
Iām empathetic towards the consumer view point, as we are 110% reliant on the assessment and opinion of the repairerās service personnel. There is a significant degree of industry self interest. Iām about to go around the same loop with a 5+yo Fujitsu that supposedly has a failed main board in the outdoor unit. Itās not FNQ. Itās Brisbane. Iāve an appropriate background to argue the cause of failure once the damaged item is removed. Most consumers do not.
Re failure rates and causes. The ACCC is in a position to cause the Aussie industry to provide failure rates and data for review. By manufacturer would force a focus onto which brands and models are suitable for gecko etc prone sites and which are not. Perhaps it needs to add this to its long list of consumer issues awaiting adequate government funding? A broad industry view that their products are not proof against geckos needs a clear warning pre purchase if they are common causes of failures. Not one in the fine print, implied after reading the enclosed warranty conditions?
The challenge with Standards Australia is the dominance of industry representation on their committees. Why consumer organisations are not better represented and have greater say over consumer outcomes, it would be enlightening to hear more. 
P.S.
Apologies if Iām being repetitive here relative to prior posts. The difficult question SA, the ACCC, the suppliers and manufacturers of air cons is there are many installations of outdoor electrical equipment in Australia. From Pad Mount out door electrical substations through to NBN cabinets. They seem to be mostly free of gecko issues.
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Indeed 
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I donāt see that is a reason to do nothing. If you enclose the works in solid metal or vents with (say) a 10mm mesh over them all but the insects are excluded.
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Asian house geckos could use a 10mm mesh as a four lane highway.
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I think perhaps Syncretic meant a 1mm mesh but added that errant zero by numberpad digiting.
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That is what the (say) is intended to convey, it could be 5mm, 4mm 1mm whatever.
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Thank you all for your support. It is gratifying to be leading the charge, so to speak, knowing there are other people, lay and professional, who can add to the discussion and hopefully we will all have some positive impact.
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Hi Mark. I forwarded your message to my contact at Standards Australia (āSAā) because I think you raise a very good issue. However, SA has no affiliation with the ACCC and she can only suggest making a claim to the ACCC. Here is the link:
Would you be in a position to do this, or at least assist me in doing so?
Thank you.
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Iāll PM a note.
Iām still at Stage 1, mostly due to Covid related restrictions.
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Hello again. My air con has been fixed at lastā¦in time for winter heating I guess. Survived the entire humid Queensland summer without itā¦never mind. I think I may now turn my attention to the ACCC claim. I will keep you in the loop.
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Hi Mark. I have drafted an addendum to attach to the request for assistance from the ACCC. Would you like to review it? Itās not very technical but I donāt think it has to be at this stage. It is just an invitation to see if they can get involved since I have exhausted all the other suggestions made in this thread?
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Hi Chris. I hope you had a nice Easter. I have drafted something to send to the ACCC inviting them to weigh in on gathering data from air con manufacturers so that consumers can easily ascertain which air conditioning systems have the least PCB failures due to pests. Would you like to weigh in on it? Am I able to attach it privately? Thanks.
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Yes I can, you are welcome, if you would like to send it attached to a PM.
You can communicate with @ChrisBarnes the same way.
Just click on his or my name and select āmessageā.
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thanks. I canāt work out how to attach a word doc. The clip seems to be for a hyperlink.
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It wonāt allow me to upload either a word doc or a pdf
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You can upload images and pdfs. You will see the tools across the top of the window.
The upload tool is 7th from left and just before the bullet indent tool. You can also drag and drop files into the editing window if you are using most PC browsers. It is possible Discourse (the forum software) limits what you can do as a ānoviceā member so if you do not see everything in the image above, that is why.
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