Some of the specific text is A supplier and a manufacturer guarantee that:
• goods are of acceptable quality
• goods will match any description provided
• any express warranties will be honoured
and
If a supplier fails to meet a guarantee, the remedy may be:
• a repair, replacement or refund
• cancellation of a service
• compensation for damages and loss.
on p12 it states acceptable quality can include durability. An aspect of the ACL is the consumer can judge what is and is not acceptable quality considering the products price and normal expectations for its type (eg a fridge, or toaster, or dishwasher, or whatever).
p19 left column shows the retailer and importer/manufacturer are both responsible for ‘acceptable quality’. Since Westinghouse fobbed you off you might best approach the retailer.
p21 illustrates remedies for ‘minor problems with goods’. Since yours was easily repairable, and you believe Westinghouse should have repaired it but fobbed you off, you could reasonably request compensation for the part and labour and hope for that or just the cost of the part considering you did not follow up with the retailer in the first instance. Perhaps since Westinghouse fobbed you off you may not have been properly informed of your rights?
You could claim the ‘reasonable cost of repair’ (p22).
If you wish to proceed, send a Letter of Complaint including references (with minimally) all of the above points made, to the retailer.
I trust this has been helpful whether or not you follow through.
thank you very much. I did contact the retailer (Winnings) first off and they said go to Westinghouse, not their problem. Westinghouse did send me an automatic emailed reply saying they would get back to me in 48 hours. So I am waiting and seeing, but many thanks for the ammunition!
Winnings cannot legally do that. It is their problem under the ACL (p19). You should ‘call them out’ on their abrogation of responsibility and have it in writing, and report them to your state fair trading organisation.
In contrast with your experience I recently had an issue where the manufacturer said ‘out of warranty’, $435+shipping for the user serviceable part that was the problem. There was history to the product, not germane here. I sent a pleasant ‘Letter of Complaint’ to the retailer including the history, who intervened and arranged the part at no charge. That is how it is meant to work.
edit: various Harvey Norman franchisees have been fined for making similar claims about ‘not their problem’. You might quote this to Winnings.
Just to be a devil’s advocate for a moment, is it possible that this was the problem and the service person just repositioned something and charged you for something unnecessary? Was the local service person someone you know and trust?
Are you cerain the fan was the cause of the problem? Did the service person point out the problem(s) for you to see, and did you actually see the service person perform the fan replacement?
You should be certain of this before following the proceeding ACL advice and approach the retailer (Winnings).
Many thanks meltam! Yes, my husband watched the guy who immediately diagnosed the problem (which my son who had also looked at the back of the frig had suggested, as the fan would only go if encouraged with a finger) I have the old fan and the frig seems to be going better now. The panel between the two frigs is no longer hot to touch. I have used the service guy before.
My Westinghouse 340L is now 6 years old. It’s never given me a moment’s problem and I am only getting rid of it now, because in becoming more decrepit, I realise I should have got a smaller one, and bottom mount. I can no longer reach the back of the fridge without a “reacher” and getting down to the vegie bin is a major excavation! You don’t recognise the shortcomings of larger fridges until your health deteriorates.
Assuming your timeline is per your posts, you apparently did not know your rights when you independently got your fridge fixed.
so you got your fridge fixed and then ‘met with us on the forum’ where you learned about your rights under the ACL.
Then Westinghouse fobbed you off with
which seems odd to be kind to them.
The ACL Consumer Guarantee regarding quality/durability is not time limited and any manufacturer warranty is subordinate to the ACL and cannot reduce your rights; refusing assistance and fobbing a customer off to the manufacturer is legally misleading and subject to a formal complaint to the ACCC. If Winning had a pattern of doing that, that could be established, as it was with Harvey Norman franchisees per my prior post, Winning could be prosecuted and fined.
Unless you have notes including the date, time, and who advised ‘not their problem go to Westinghouse’ it could become a ‘he said she said’ issue where they could take the position you misunderstood, and that would be a diversion but not necessarily ‘the end of it.’
You could reasonably expect Winning to reimburse your repair costs or minimally reimburse for the part; why? if all is as you posted they seem to have given you what appears to be false and misleading information regarding your rights under the ACL and their responsibility, assuming there is no more to the story. If one looks at the Winning web site they are proud of their expertise and service, neither of which you appear to have satisfactorily received.
At this juncture it important to be formal and the ACL process seems new to you, so if you are a Choice member I suggest you contact Choice Help as @phb posted; they may take a few days to engage with you, but they can walk you through your options and help in an orderly manner. What sometimes happens on the forum is that we can overwhelm someone with information. I hope we have not done that.
If you are not a Choice member this might be a good time to ‘join’. Otherwise we can persevere with advice on the forum, but in the end it is up to you to be able to grasp the process and carry it through.
I have dealt with such in the past, perverance astounds them. You want your 330 refunded. My advice is be very clear, it was a danger so had to fixed immediately. You could not have your self or your husband…satiating his age here…that unnerves some…risk a slip. Good luck. Sometimes there are several numbers and can get onto one in its lair, or a woman who is happy to do the same. Good luck. Better than the breville fast slow cooker I boufght on choice recommendation…non stick carcinogen coated.
Choice do performance testing. They rarely do lifetime testing. Meaning they mostly test a commercial piece of equipment to see if conforms to a performance spec. Because there was a component failure outside the warranty period is not the fault of Choice or necessarily the manufacturer’s fault. Manufacturers purchase a range of reliable components to produce their products any of which can sometimes fail. They monitor this continuously and base their purchases on this data.
In particular with fridges there are a number of regular maintenance procedures that must be regularly undertaken if the components and the fridge itself are to enjoy longevity. These include cleaning the condenser, the drain trays and the seals. Positioning the fridge is also important. In the majority of cases preventative maintenance is rarely carried out.
I support the statement that the castor system on most fridges does not allow the fridge to be easily pulled out in order to conduct routine maintenance. It is compounded by the fact that when a fridge gets moved a few times such as when moving house, the castors and levelling mechanism often tends to get damaged.
I am cautious about shaming publicly unless the writer gives a full description of the problem to enable the reader to make a judgement about where the real problem lies.
The issue discussed is an after the fact realisation of consumer rights under the ACL and how Winning and Westinghouse may have abrogated them. That is the ‘real problem’ in this topic, not that a part failed.
Australian Consumer Law provides for expensive items out of warranty, I believe.
In determining what is an appropriate period for a guarantee to apply, the law forces courts to consider the nature of the goods, the price of the goods, and statements made about the goods either on the packaging or by the supplier or manufacturer.
In layman’s terms, that means a consumer can expect a longer legal guarantee to apply for goods that generally last a long time, that are relatively expensive, and where any claims are made about the quality and/or durability of the product by either the salesperson or manufacturer.
For example, if consumers generally buy a television with a reasonable expectation for it to last five years, then they may have a statutory guarantee against the retailer that lasts substantially longer than the one year manufacturer’s warranty.
If the TV is a more expensive brand, especially one that makes claims about its quality and durability, it will be held to a higher standard of quality and durability under the ACL than a home brand that is half the price and does not make similar claims.
Same lousy Westinghouse frig and freezer - now 5 years old and the three tray ice block “twist and serve” plastic gadget has completely fallen apart. The replacement I am told today, will cost $71.50 plus $14.95 delivery cost. Just outrageous for a crummy bit of plastic!!
Spare parts for many things are profit centres as they are with vehicle parts from dealers, often driven by the reality the parts sit for months or often years before one is sold, so they often mark them up accordingly. In these days when a case of wine is shipped to most of Australia for $12 they are indeed somewhat proud of the shipping cost considering the plastic ice maker looks smaller and lighter than a case of wine.
You will get it cheaper from some of the appliance spare parts stores. Not knowing your model number of your fridge for compatability…it is worth trying:
You’re right, @pmslaytor, my small Westinghouse fridge had a twist and serve ice tray: totally useless, you can twist as long as you like but nothing comes out!
I’ve replaced it with a sensible ice cube tray from the old fridge, in fact I’ve taken out all but the shelf in the freezer section and have much more room now.
Wow. My Westinghouse is 6 years old (or maybe 7) and the twist/serve tray is still in working order. I use the words loosely because I HATE it, but I do use it a lot, especially through summer. The cubes come out… but frequently leave pieces behind. I just make more on top if needs be. Its a crap design and if mine fell apart I doubt that I would bother replacing it. Like Gaby, I’d use a different tray. I bought 2 decent ones from a $2 shop at they work a treat. However, they take up shelf space so I keep using the twist and serve for as long as I can.
