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'John Lewis isn't helping with our faulty Samsung TV, what are our rights?'
Do you have an issue you need put right? Which? is here to help get your consumer problems sorted.
Dear Which?
We bought a smart Samsung TV from John Lewis in April for £629, but within a few weeks we noticed problems. It kept cutting out when we used apps like Netflix or BBC iPlayer.
It continued to get worse, sometimes we would have to restart a programme five or six times before it was watchable.
Finally, in June, we decided to call John Lewis but it pushed us to speak to the Samsung repair team who got us to try several at-home fixes, none of which worked.
A Samsung engineer visited on 9 August, but their repair attempts didn't work. A second repair attempt was scheduled two weeks later.
Before the next repair appointment, the Samsung engineer called to say there was nothing they could do to fix it so it would be a waste of time to come out and asked if we were happy to say that it was not repairable. We agreed, but the Samsung engineer told Samsung we refused the repair.
We later found out this is because Samsung only gives the engineers three drop-down options after they've visited a customer - none of which include 'not repairable', so the only option was for him to say we refused and then explain the situation in the comments, which he did.
The third repair attempt was a few weeks later, but nothing fixed the problem.
We eventually made an official complaint about the situation. We were then told we needed one more visit so Samsung could confirm it couldn't be fixed.
We have now contacted John Lewis again and it said it can't do anything until Samsung confirms it's not repairable.
It's really stressed us out for the past few months, can you help us get it sorted?
Jade and Billy, London
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Put to Rights
Adam French, Which? consumer rights expert says: It's incredibly frustrating when something as seemingly straightforward as getting a new faulty television fixed turns into a long and drawn-out dispute - especially when the retailer should've dealt with it better in the first place.
The Consumer Rights Act requires the retailer to handle the repair or replacement of any faulty product it has sold - and it has one attempt at doing this before it issues a full refund to the customer if they are within the first year of ownership.
Instead, John Lewis gave you the cold shoulder and Samsung engineers have been back and forth on no less than four occasions, and the fault has still not been fixed.
When a retailer sells you something it is obliged by the Consumer Rights Act to ensure it is as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality - in other words, not faulty.
We bought this to John Lewis's attention and a spokesperson told us: 'We are so sorry to hear of Billy and Jade's experience.
'They first contacted us about the technical issue on 19 October when they explained that she had been in touch directly with Samsung to try to resolve it.
'We are trying to contact them to offer a full refund or a replacement TV.'
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If you've got a consumer rights problem you need to put right, email us at yourstory@which.co.uk.
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