Monday, September 30, 2013

Warranty in Europe (and the world): Don't listen to the seller

Today I went to Aldi to get two broken items refunded (both broke in a few months and both of course benefit from the legal two-year warranty).

I got told that:

  1. After one month, Aldi doesn't take care of it anymore and you should call the manufacturer
  2. Without ticket there will be no refund
I found that rather unlikely to be legal and did a little research...

It so happens that:
  1. The warranty is always an obligation of the seller
  2. The legal warranty exists even if the ticket is gone, and any way to prove the purchase origin should be accepted in court.

So once again, don't let them tell you you can't.

You CAN send back anything you don't like or don't want anymore within 7 days of delivery if you bought it online (and you should buy online because that warranty doesn't exist with brick&mortar shops).

You ALWAYS have a two-year warranty on new products and one-year on used products when you buy from a company (very important when talking used cars with any dealership, don't accept any less without a big discount).

That warranty is always that company's responsibility, and yours stops at bringing the item back to them (there is a gray area for online purchases, so pick sellers with free returns).



So about that Aldi thing...
1. After two attempts, I got one of the senior staff of the Aldi shop in Rixensart to make a request for a copy of the ticket.
2. After a month or so, I got the ticket ! I then brought that to the shop that told me they weren't allowed to do anything about it.
3. I then contacted their customer service that started asking me for details about that purchase.
4. I reminded them of the law and kindly asked them to respect it.
5. I got ignored.
6. I sent an email, following their return procedure
7. I got ignored.
8. I trashed the stuff and made a note to work harder so that I wouldn't ever consider buying stuff from Aldi ever again.