Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil
What would you class as a reasonable life span for a washing machine under the sale of goods act, 5 years?
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Therein lies the problem - it all comes down to personal opinion and how good the consumer is when it comes to convincing the district judge of what's "reasonable".
My own opinion is that a washing machine, indeed all white goods, should last into double figures. There was a thing on the radio some time ago about a fridge which was over 75 years old.
However, like everything, the unit cost is the bottom line now, and items are being mass produced without consideration for ease of servicing later in the product's life.
The Sale Of Goods act (as amended) means that you have, in effect, a six year limitation on the amount of time you can sure for badly manufactured or badly designed goods. If an item fails within six months of purchase, the retailer (note,
not the manufacturer) is obliged to prove it's through misuse or negligence rather than a design or manufacturing fault. After that, the consumer takes on the responsibility of proving it.
The six year limit is just the time in which you can sue - it doesn't mean the item is expected to last that long, it just means that for something that is valuable enough and should reasonably be expected to last that long, you are able to take action.
When our new washing machine died after just 14 months, we should really have pursued it, but in the end, we couldn't be bothered. It's that sort of wussy modern attitude that manufacturers are relying on.