House & Home: unfair practice not to honour guarantee

I BOUGHt a microwave from House & Home. It has a two-year guarantee and 10-year warranty. The digital display was faulty and I took the microwave back before it was even a year old.

The consultant I spoke to refused to replace the microwave under the guarantee, but said it would take three days to repair. I got no response from her and then I spoke to a manager, who said that I had signed that it would take 21 days to repair.

I asked for a loan microwave as I felt it was unfair practice to not honour the guarantee, now that I am expected to wait 21 days for my microwave. Please help me.

According to my knowledge, a guarantee is replacement and a warranty is repair. Twenty one days is not fair. Sophia

Georgie: You’re not quite correct: a guarantee is an assurance that a product will be repaired or replaced if not of a specified quality. A warranty is a promise to repair or replace if necessary within a specified period of time.

The store has the right to send it away for an assessment and since it’s within their guarantee period, they can dictate the terms and repair period.

The Consumer Protection Act affords consumers a six-month warranty of quality – after that, the manufacturers can dictate the terms.