Reader’s 85 per cent refund after catching Argos on a good day

While we have strong consumer-rights laws in the UK, one obstacle shoppers face is proving a product is inherently faulty. Once six months have passed from purchase, this is the shopper’s responsibility, and can involve an expensive examination of the product. Before this deadline, the retailer has to prove it isn’t faulty.

Computeractive reader Malcolm Haswell (see Issue 528) faced this hassle with a Garmin fitness watch he’d bought from Argos for £189.99 in December 2016. It stopped charging within six months of purchase, so Garmin sent him a new USB cable under its warranty. But when the problem reappeared months after the warranty ended, Garmin wanted to charge Malcolm £100 to replace the watch.

However, if Malcolm could prove the watch was inherently faulty, Argos would be responsible, and would have to refund, replace or repair. But we didn’t advise him to pay for an examination of the watch. Instead, we suggested asking Argos whether it would do so for free. And, as it happens, Malcolm caught Argos on a good day, because it actually offered to refund him £161.49 (deducting some money for the 16 months he had used the watch) – around 85 per cent of the full price.

Malcolm told us this was an “acceptable” refund. He added that Argos agreed to the refund after he stressed how difficult it would be to get the watch independently tested. So take note: this may be one tactic to use when asking for refunds after six months have passed.