Welcome to the Community @Bluemoose. Sorry to hear about your oven issue, I am sure you will get some good advice and support on this site from many here.
If the oven is only 3 years old you should be protected by your Australian Consumer Law (ACL) rights even though the Manufacturers warranty may have run out. An oven should last more than 3 years, including the glass doors. Of course if if it has been misused in any way that caused the problem then you will not be covered.
CHOICE has provided some advice about how long household devices should last, Ovens they considered should last for basic ones around 10 years, medium value around 15 years and top end models 20 years. ACCC would use something like these values when determining if a product should be manufacturing defect free and covered by ACL.
To read the article about how long things in your household should last see:
Regarding your contact with whomever you are going to call (hopefully most of the following will not be necessary and they will fix the issue as soon as possible):
- If you haven’t already done so, make yourself familiar with your ACL rights (https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/consumer-guarantees) & (https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/complaints-problems/make-a-consumer-complaint). If you are a member of CHOICE contact the CHOICE Help Service (https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/consumer-rights-and-advice/choice-help), as they can give you advice of where you can seek help from and CHOICE has templates of letters to help you provide the right written request you need.
- If you need or would like Legal advice the link that follows has listings for every State/Territory of free legal advice centres (Free Legal Advice Centres)
- You should contact the retailer who you purchased the oven off first, before trying the Manufacturer’s offices. The retailer under Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is required to help you and they cannot tell you to go to the Manufacturer rather than deal with them.
- Remember to get proof of purchase from your records if possible eg Credit Card Statement, the invoice or similar proof…any of these will help establish date of purchase.
- Keep a record of whom you spoke to, what was discussed and any promises and or refusals made by the business.
- If they won’t refund, fix or replace the oven, then if you haven’t done so yet put your request/demand in writing, in the letter state what happened, what you want done eg repair and by when. You may also be entitled to some compensation for any costs you incur due to the failure while waiting for the outcome you require. Quoting your ACL rights can be helpful as they then know you are aware of what you are entitled to. Give them a reasonable time to respond eg 7 days. Email is acceptable as it has proof of being sent. Request a received receipt if you can so it shows when they read/opened it. If you prefer send it by post but do so by registered post or similar so you get proof of receipt.
- If they do not respond satisfactorily to your written request then you should contact your State/Territory Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as they administer the ACL for their respective State/Territory. They will not help you unless you have already written to the Retailer/Manufacturer requesting a remedy to the problem. That is why you also need to keep proof of what you have done so far. The following is a link to an article by CHOICE that lists the various OFTs and Administrative & Civil/Consumer Tribunals and other contacts (https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/consumer-rights-and-advice/make-a-complaint/articles/useful-contacts)
- If the OFT is unsuccessful in helping you resolve the issue or if you wish to do so without using the OFT, you can submit a dispute with your State/Territory’s Civil & Administrative Tribunal.
- You can also lodge a complaint with the ACCC at this address https://www.accc.gov.au/contact-us/contact-the-accc/report-a-consumer-issue. They are not likely to take action over single events but they sometimes do or if they have received enough complaints they often take action to make the businesses follow the ACL.
I hope you have success is getting the issue resolved. Please keep us informed of how you go, if you would like to.
