Do I Dob em in

[rod1949]

I brought this item from a company who state on their public website that their product has a 10 year warranty. On reading (at home) the guarantee certificate for the item it states our standard warranty is 5 years and there is an optional 10 year warranty for an addition cost of $500.00.

I wrote to them on this (I told them that they publically advertise the 10 year warranty with no mention of being at an addition cost, I didn't tell them where their advertisement was as they should know) and some other issues and won. They gave me a ten year warranty in writing and at no additional cost.

I deem their publicly advertised information to be misleading and /or deceptive compared to what is written on the guarantee cetificiate. I see their public site still states the 10 years.

So the question is: Do I dob em in to the regulatory authority?

[Gra]

Yep..

No question these guys need to be brought into line.. I'm sick of these sorts of scams, yeah they will say it was an oversite, but the oversites always seem to be in the companies favor..

A cynical bastard

[Bleedin Thumb]

No need to really as if they advertise a ten year warranty they have to honour it. People may not be as perceptive as your self ..that's their problem, the company did the right thing by you.... it would seem a bit rough to now go and stick the knife in.

Besides who actually makes warranty claim 10 years down the track.......

[HappyHammer]

Yeah but if they're misleading people conciously which I suspect they are then they should be dobbed in. They're probably quite happy to give 10 years to the perceptive customers because most won't read the detail and when they make a claim in 5 years and 1 month they'll get told to bugger off.

HH.

[echnidna]

let sleeping dogs lie

[Bleedin Thumb]

What ever happened to the Aussie ethos of never dobing others in, seems to have flown out the window. I don't actually mean in this instance just in general...the government is partly to blame with their constant ads -dob in a terrorist, dob in a welfare cheat, dob in a wife beater, Christ dob yourself in for failing to dob yourself in...its unAustralian in my opinion.

[HappyHammer]

I take that to apply to individuals rather than companies. I wouldn't dob in a mate. If he was a terrorist I'd........ actually I would dob him in. But in general I'm not a dobber or what we call a grass where I'm from where it applies to dobbin someone in to the cops which I wouldn't do to anyone I know.

HH.

[HappyHammer]

But in general I'm not a dobber or what we call a grass where I'm from where it applies to dobbin someone in to the cops which I wouldn't do to anyone I know.

Unless they were a pervert.....although there are other ways to deal with this but with all this dobbing going on they'll always be a do-gooder that'll dob you in for bashing someone regardless of what they've done.:?:doh:

HH.

[Big Shed]

I take that to apply to individuals rather than companies. I wouldn't dob in a mate. If he was a terrorist I'd........ actually I would dob him in. But in general I'm not a dobber or what we call a grass where I'm from where it applies to dobbin someone in to the cops which I wouldn't do to anyone I know.

HH.

In general I wouldn't dob someone I know in to the cops, but couldn't say that categorically. There probably would be circumstances where I would do that, child molestation is one I can think of. I don't care who it is, that person would be "dobbed in", although I would prefer to call it reporting in that case.

I guess I would have to judge every case on its' merits.

In the case mentioned above, it is obviously not an oversight, if it was it would have have been corrected as soon as you pointed this out to them.
I would probably report their actions, even though they "did the right thing".
If their attitude to honesty is that cavalier, I would hate to think what their response to a warranty claim would be.

[munruben]

I think anyone would dob in a child molester or something of a similar nature but in general, I think most people are not dobbers.

[rod1949]

Lets get back on the subject. This is ripping people off (it could be you). to me its misleading and deceptive.

You imput is appreciated.

[AlexS]

Yep. They know they're ripping people off & shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.

[Tonyz]

Go for it Rod

[manoftalent]

people are often ignorant of their own rights as consumers ...you rod are not ....if people want to go to a website and purchase something without looking into it fully .....thats their problem ...and have only "themselves" to blame ......simple as that.
If you jump in and play "big brother" for them ( dobbing is totally against my religion)...they wont "learn" anything will they....

sometimes the hand needs to be bit ....to know you should'nt pat the dog.

[rhancock]

Definitely. Have they changed the website? If not, call the ACCC on 1300 302 502. Misleading advertising is illegal and immoral. You wouldn't hesitate if there was only one battery instead of 2, so why is lying about the guarantee different?

Sure it's probably a hard working small business, but business owners have to be responsible for their actions.

[pawnhead]

I'd say it would depend on whether the price is advertised along with the guarantee.
If there's no footnotes, then it should be unconditional.

A bit off topic, but an interesting tale of ethics:

I'm a member of another computer forum, and news got out that a big PC company had made a typo on the price of their hard drives. Their on line ordering system automatically billed your credit card, and confirmed your order. The thread went crazy and it was the fastest growing thread on the forums, with some people ordering bulk (hundreds) numbers of hard drives at about five bucks a pop from memory. There was a lot of debate about ethics in the thread as well, with the community divided over it. Greed had well and truly set in, and the company lost a fortune honouring their commitments under threat of legal action, but they got away without honouring multiple orders by arguing that it was obvious to the purchaser that they were taking advantage of a mistake. No one in the market for hundreds of hard drives would actually think that the price was genuine. It was so ridiculously low.

Everyone who ordered got a single hard drive though.
Most unfortunate since the company had no intention of baiting the public. It was an honest mistake, but the vultures pounced on it.

[thesupervisor]

whats the web site i wanna see

[pawnhead]

whats the web site i wanna seeIf he's going to name them publicly, then he'd better be certain of this statement:

I deem their publicly advertised information to be misleading and /or deceptive compared to what is written on the guarantee cetificiate. I see their public site still states the 10 years.Deceptive would imply that it's intentional, and they may argue otherwise.
It could be a bit of a minefield with no reward for rod except perhaps satisfaction, or it could all turn pear shaped.

I'd just go to the authorities if you feel strongly about it.
If you hadn't made that statement, then you may have been able to ask opinions without making accusations, but the cat is out of the bag now.

[rodm]

Ask the company to change their Web statement. You say you didn't tell them what source you got the warranty information from and it just might be an oversight. Give them the opportunity to correct what they may have simply overlooked.

Lets face it most warranties have so many out clauses these days they don't cover much anyway. I read my car waranty recently and they do not cover gaskets. Does that mean a $2k bill if a head gasket blows? Who knows and I hope I don't have to answer that one.

[BobL]

Ask the company to change their Web statement. You say you didn't tell them what source you got the warranty information from and it just might be an oversight. Give them the opportunity to correct what they may have simply overlooked.

Lets face it most warranties have so many out clauses these days they don't cover much anyway. I read my car waranty recently and they do not cover gaskets. Does that mean a $2k bill if a head gasket blows? Who knows and I hope I don't have to answer that one.

I agree with you on this one Rod.

RE: Gaskets
Back in the 1980s I bought a 7 year old used car with a 6 month extended warranty (not on gaskets). About a week later the air conditioner compressor seized which cause a shirt load of other problems, alternator, water pump, warped head and the kitchen sink, something even went wacky with the power steering. Total cost for the repair was around $1000 but I had to pay for all the gaskets including the head gasket.

[rodm]

RE: Gaskets
Back in the 1980s I bought a 7 year old used car with a 6 month extended warranty (not on gaskets). About a week later the air conditioner compressor seized which cause a shirt load of other problems, alternator, water pump, warped head and the kitchen sink, something even went wacky with the power steering. Total cost for the repair was around $1000 but I had to pay for all the gaskets including the head gasket.

Bob, that would have hurt. Well it looks like new car warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on if gaskets are not covered. You sort of expect this sort of thing with used vehicles but not new cars. Sorry and typical of me I have steered this away from you thread. :-

[jow104]

My daughter had a problem with a well known motor company and gaskets,
they tried to duck from a $2000 claim but relented in the end but I think she only had to pay for some paper gaskets (gearbox areas)

referring to the UK

[flynnsart]

I wrote to them on this (I told them that they publically advertise the 10 year warranty with no mention of being at an addition cost, I didn't tell them where their advertisement was as they should know)

If you thought it was worth the trouble you could send them a note pointing out that the 10 year warranty was still advertised on their website and had they overlooked this fact, or had they now started offering the full 10 year warranty. If nothing were done after this, then I feel you would be justified in reporting it.

donna

[rod1949]

If you thought it was worth the trouble you could send them a note pointing out that the 10 year warranty was still advertised on their website and had they overlooked this fact, or had they now started offering the full 10 year warranty. If nothing were done after this, then I feel you would be justified in reporting it.

donna

Thanks Donna, but I don't think it is up to me, the customer, to tell a business how to run their business. And ya know the ironic part is they have a large poster on their office wall which has a muilti pointed red star with 10 year warranty stated in it, and there is no mention of the additional cost. So its right under their noses every day of the week.

[pawnhead]

I had sort of the same thing happen to me with a second hand car that I bought a while back. They advertised a years warranty, so I took it to the NRMA just before the time was up and they identified some engine problems. I took it back and they fixed it up, but when I went to pick it up, they gave me some BS about how the engine and drive train was only covered for three months, read the fine print. Then they gave me a bill for over a grand. I said "Who reads the fine print? You've got a big sign advertising a years warranty on all of your cars, and I would have gotten it checked out sooner if I'd known"

They kept arguing, so I jumped in the car and drove off.

Two days later it broke down because they did a shonky job of repairing it. I had the NRMA tow it to their yard, they identified the problems, and it sat there whilst I rang up the car yard and abused them. I told them that there'd be big trouble for them if they didn't fix my car properly for free, and I that I had the NRMA backing me up.

They fixed up my car for free. :D

edit, footnote: The car was a bucket of bolts (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/holgerdanske/BucketofBolts.jpg) and I'll never buy another one like it. :((

[notenoughtoys]

I But in general I'm not a dobber or what we call a grass where I'm from where it applies to dobbin someone in to the cops which I wouldn't do to anyone I know.


Sorry to get off track again but I'm amazed that no one wants to be seen to be a "dobber". The reason grubs get away with breaking into your homes, stealing your cars, bashing your kids for their MP3 players, is because no one is prepared to come forward to the police and say, "he did it" I'm sorry but I have no time for grubs and if someone I knew was a thief, a drug dealer etc, I wouldn't want to know em anyway and if they callled me "dobber", then that's a badge I'll wear. If you came home and someone had brokrn into your shed or house and stripped it bare and the next door neighbour said "I know who did it but I'm not dobbing", I think you'd have a different view. I reckon the ethos, don't be a dobber is something schoolyard bully's enforce when we're young for their own protection and it sticks

[Kym]

That pretty much sums up my take on 'dobbing' too. I have been burgled, my car has been broken into, my son was beaten. I think if someone like their parents had done some 'dobbing' much earlier, we wouldn't have been victimised.

Kym