Who’s h ’ responsible for my faulty headphones?
QI bought a set of £81 headphones from Roccat ( www.roccat.org) in October last year, but they’ve cracked in the meantime. I attempted a repair, unsuccessfully. When I contacted Roccat, I was told returns were now handled by online-payments company Digital River ( www.digitalriver.com), who said I was too late under its 30-day returns policy. Can you help?
Derek Winson A
To help Derek we need to find out who’s responsible for a refund. And for that, we need more information from Roccat and Digital River about its partnership agreement for running the web store. Roccat, the manufacturer of the headphones, would be responsible for the refund if it sold the products to Derek directly. This would mean it had entered into a contract with Derek. However, if Digital River was running Roccat’s web store at the time, carrying out not only sales but also replacements and refunds, then it would be responsible.
Whatever the truth, both companies need to be reminded that Derek’s rights under statutory law far outweigh their returns policy. Too many companies continue to try to fob off customers with excuses that pay only lip service to the law. Digital River, for example, says it offers only 30 days to return goods, but for inherently faulty goods Derek has up to six years (five in Scotland) in which to make a claim.
The only problem he faces is proving the fault is inherent. Wear and tear isn’t likely to be considered after less than a year, but he’ll have to show he didn’t accidentally damage the headphones. We’ll update you as soon as we find out the legal position concerning these companies.