tl;dr: The cooktop that I bought over 3 years ago broke, and both the retailer and the distributor refused to fix it citing out of warranty. What can I do regarding to Statutory Warranty, and how long the warranty should be, i.e. "reasonable period" for cooktops?
We bought a relatively expensive cooktop in March 2010 when we renovated our kitchen. A Highland 1x gas + 2x induction cooktop (something like this) that costed us ~$2,500 from Winning Appliances in Redfern. It's a great cooktop — when it works. It had already died twice during the 3 years we owned it, and both fixed under warranty.
And last week it died again — induction cooktops simply refused to turn on, although the gas one still works.
Called Winnings and they pushed us to call a different company that fixes this. After being bounced around they told us that they won't fix it because it's already out of warranty — which is apparently only two years from a brand that is "Series about Cooking". We argued that
- It is not the first time it died.
- We are not buying some no name brand cheap cooktop from Kmart. We expect quality for the money we paid.
Now they are saying maybe there's issue with our installation (which somehow the previous two technician visits did not discover). We are now waiting for the manager to callback.
Yes I know it is outside the warranty (although I cannot remember whether extended warranty was offered when we made the purchase). However for cooktop that's built into the kitchen benchtop, I would expect it to last a lot longer than 3 years. I am not familiar with statutory warranty, but what should be normal life expectancy of a cooktop? How then can I claim that warranty against Winnings / Highland?
Thanks.
I don't think there are any clear cut rules. I agree with you though, and would be disappointed if I was in your situation.
Have a look at your local fair trading for information. I know the QLD one has some quite good information on what is covered (http://www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au/guarantees-warranties-refu…).
If you are unable to get the retailer or manufacturer to come to the party, you may need to go down the fair trading path. I personally had success (~2 months out of warranty) but I gather in reality they are a bit toothless. Still, definitely worth trying if you aren't getting anywhere.