Oh no, not again (advice sought)...

For the third (or is it fourth) time since new, my cd player has gone kaput. Last night, there was an almight bang and that scary smell of 'dusty toaster'. The case fuse remained intact but the 32mA dedicated spur's tripper went pretty damned quickly.

I checked all the connections and it would appear that my Opus 21 is buggered. The PSU sits at 'Initialising' and the transport whirs up (loudly) but never settles down. I detect a further whiff of smoke.

Given that the cdp came with a three year guarantee (which has now just expired, typical, huh?) but that the last transport was fitted early in 2004, do I have the right (under the sale of goods act) to demand a repair, given the fact that it's not been without its problems? I've yet to talk to my dealer, who may or may not be able to help, and I can't afford to buy a new one (and why should I? a £3k cd player ought to be able to last more than a few years without incident, yet this one was back and forth a lot under warranty).

Can anyone advise? I have accidental damage cover on the household insurance, though all I did was to switch the thing on - pointing to some fatal failure/defect with the unit rather than an accident as such.

Man, I'm ****ed off. I'm worried because it's just out of warranty but hoping, given the circumstances and case history, that the fact it's only just out (2 months) and the fact that it had transport problems previously, will make the distributor willing to fix or replace FOC. Am I getting my hopes up?

In the meantime, I have a Marantz CDR player that will give me something to play my silver discs on, and of course my Spacedeck is the primary source anyway, but, but...

John

 

Surely the replacement should also be covered for three years?

I think you should approach your dealer politely and see what they come up with, they should honour it if you are just out the warranty and the thing is a dog.

 

I think what is required here is a very reasonable, polite yet firm, approach to your retailer. Many people get carried away by their 'rights' and end up with disputes.

If the repair was also guaranteed, then you might have some recourse there. But just because you have a repair carried out within the warranty, this does not extend the warranty.

Also remember that the warranty is with the retailer from whom you purchased the equipment. They are the only ones with a contract with you. You have no recourse, in law, to the manufacturer.

More recent legislation relies on reasonable expectation; I think, though, that a judge would consider a 3 year warranty as reasonable for a purchase of this nature. I think you have lost (because of elapsed time) any possibility of rejecting the goods as not being of reasonable quality and/or not fit for purpose. If I ever have any warranty issues I always reject the goods, ask for a refund, and then re-purchase the item (if you still like it). I would very reluctant to accept any repair for any hi-fi item which failed within 6 months. You have much greater protection if you reject repairs and re-purchase.

You infer that you've had many problems with this CD player. If you can show evidence of this, a judge may well look sympathetically on any claim you might make. But the legal recourse is not cut & dried and will take time, effort & money.

So, off to see your retailer and remain calm! Don't start banging on about 'rights', etc. You may feel better and feel you won the battle, but you're most likely to lose the war with that approach! Remember, you're after a positive result for you ~ moral victories don't pay the bills and certainly don't restore the music!

Good luck!

 

Thanks, guys. I'm about to call the dealer right now. I'll certainly go for the 'reasonable, polite yet firm' approach. I will accept a repair, so long as that repair is warranted!

 

theres always household insurance

 

Update: The UK distributor is going to honour the warranty under the circumstances. Big sigh of relief. A real bummer that this happened, but I'd rather have a repaired unit than a dead one.

 

I think you have had very good advice here ....it may be worth contacting your insurance as well. You could have suffered a mains spike or other destructive mains even ....most house hold insurance will look kindly on such events ...but you do need to contact they yesterday as it were. They may offer to replace the unit or cover the cost of the repairs. If your cover is new for old and accidental damage you should be well covered.

 

talking of spikes and surges - with some(maybe all?) surge proof protectors (I have this one - http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...9395/sr=8-13/ref=pd_ka_13/026-6280082-2062061)

I've heard that is they get a bit surge / spike that you have to send the unit back for them to reset as they can only withstand one at a time...

 

On the other hand, you may not have had a mains spike, and you might be commiting insurance fraud and costing honest people like me money.

 

Chuck a cup of tea on it and claim on your house insurance.If you have accidental damage that is,if you pay around 50 quid a month buildings and contents chances are you have

 

Saab,

you are advising someone to carry out a criminal and fraudulant act. I'd be careful if I were you.

 

No, he is not telling you all the circumstances........

There is no need to tell porkies

an engineer will be asked to produce a report for the insurance company confirming the the burnt out psu or what ever. This is the normal way ie it was the way when my tz's psu expired due to a spike ...along with a few dozen other peoples locally whose various electrical equipment rolled over.

If a spike was the cause and was of a sufficient size the electricity provider should have it logged.

lastly ....if your sat in your chain and you hifi goes pop, an accident of some description has occured. No illegal act has taken place...but I do agree that saab's suggestion should be taken as the jest, he intended.

 

I can confirm that insurance companies have access to all sort of info, including where there was poor weather and electricl issues. My mate got a new mac when he phoned to report a spike due to lightning. They phoned him back an hour later after speaking to the weather department!

 

Folks, the one thing I can say is I don't think it was a spike: though the tripper on the spur went (it's an RCBO and therefore quicker to trip than a case fuse would blow) the fact is that something got damaged in the cd player. The preamp, which was connected to the same spur, is fine. I think a component inside the cd player (probably in the transport box rather than the PSU box) has failed - maybe something as minor as a resistor or a capacitor. It does happen, after all - recently I had a PC motherboard die as a result of cap leakage, though there wasn't a pop in that instance.

Main thing is that the distributor has agreed to fix it free of charge (whatever it is). It could be minor (cap/resistor, say) or it could be major (transport mech died, embedded chips fried, who knows). Or maybe all of the above. All I know is that, yes, I'm disappointed that it has happened, but at least the distributor hasn't done things 'by the book' (as my warranty has recently expired). Goodwill on the part of people in the industry should be cherished. Now I only hope that whatever's gone wrong is fairly easy and cheap to fix (for his and my sake).

The worst part is having to put up with a Marantz player in the meantime. Yuk!

 

I can confirm a CIA satellite has indeed caught me,I am on my way to Guatanemo as we speak.

The 'cup of tea' was meant in jest.If you have accidental damage insurance it will cover for spikes.It is costly,about 40 quid a month,but worth it particularly if you ahve kids.

 

Regardless Saab, insurance fraud is a crime, and those perpetrating it are stealing money out of honest people's pockets - just like any common thief. The guy who mugs my neighbour causes me less hassle though.

 

Don't waste your soapbox on me.

 

Stereo mic........

My insurance covers me for accidental damage, that can cover me carrying an item down stairs and dropping it, or slipping and tipping a cup of tea into the back of my tv.

Your trying to say that... when saab slips on the milk he spilt whilst making his cup of tea. The tea ending its miserable life in the back of the cd player, causing a short, and the cd goes pop. Your saying that this is not an accident ?

How do you know ....you were not there.

Just because you were not in full posession of the facts from the first statment, you should take time to assess all the information available so as not to jump to the wrong conclusion.

As a house holder I have made a number of claims, [thats why you have insurance] on the face of two or three, without a complete understanding of all the fact you could easily jump to the wrong conclusion. I was asked by my mother to move a tv from one house to another, in the moving I tripped on the door jamb, dropping the tv, the tube imploded in the biggest bang since the big one. Now would you say that was an illigal claim ? ....more info... the tv was dead it had been for a couple of years. But we got a brand new tv .....do you now say thats an illegal claim ? The fact of its age and condition were told to the insurers, they said it didn't matter as the policy I had covered new for old, and full accidental damage. Now you can see that if you are in possesion of only half the story ....your likely to come to the wrong conclusion and make an ass of yourself.

Alternatively most people considered saab's comment as a jest....I suggest you crank up you humour a couple of notches and lighten up.

 

Zanash,

It's all to do with the intent as you well know.

I'm a great believer in Karma personally, so I'm sure you will get rewarded appropriately for any actions you may take in the long run.;-)

 

Anyway, guys, go easy on each other. Hopefully all of this will be moot - with a bit of karma as you say, SM, it'll just be a resistor or cap that's gone and all will be easily fixed. With some luck, the distributor will fix it and he'll receive a nice bottle of whisky as a thank you, and everyone will be happy