Reader accepts £165 voucher for cracked headphones

When requesting your money back for a faulty item that’s over six months old, you may have to accept a partial refund to reflect how long you’ve already used it for. That’s the compromise reader Alan Stevens made (see Issue 542) in his case against Currys PC World, accepting a £165 voucher for the faulty £269 Sony MDR-1000X headphones he bought in July 2017.

Soon after Alan bought the headphones they developed cracks in the plastic. Cracks also appeared in the replacement headphones sent by Currys PC World. Sony has admitted there’s an “abnormal fault” in the design of the headphones, and has offered free repairs and replacements - in China, at least.

Sony told Alan to take the headphones to its local repair shop, but he decided to negotiate with Currys PC World instead. He was happy with its offer of a £165 voucher, which he used to buy a pair of Bose headphones. Even better, he got £40 off these because the retailer misled him into thinking he could buy them at a discounted price during Black Friday last November.

Alan could have rejected the voucher and asked for a bigger refund, but the retailer would have been entitled to refuse this. It then becomes a matter of negotiation between retailer and customer. The problem is the law is vague on how much money should be deducted from a refund to reflect how long it’s been used for. All things considered, we think Alan got a good result.