How long do you expect products to last?

[surrey jim]

There was a clue in the company name...Mowers are their (only?) game & I wouldn't go near them for one of em that are designed NOT to give Wembley stripes

Agree that I wont get the Wembley stripes but with a small (ish) garden, I need a mower which wont break the budget and which is reliable enough to do the job every week.

 

[symyjym]

Thanks to all for the advice,

I have written to Flymo in relation to the points raised and citing the 2year warranty in Europe. Wait to see what they say.

Have just read up briefly on the small claims court. It appears to cost £25+ to register. May just be worth buying a cheap £20 trimmer rather than the hassle of going through there.

One peice of advice for anyone, I wouldnt bother with a Flymo product again. Poor quality and non existant customer service.

That £25 you will get back from Flymo as costs when you win, and if they want to fight it, it will cost them again if they dispute it.

First thing you should do is see what their reply is to your letter, and if it is a negative response write them another letter instructing them to give you a complete refund to be paid to you within two weeks or you will take them to small claims court which will include the added court costs of £25. They will then have to respond to you with their position and, or pay you.

Only after this warning letter to them should you go to small claims, but the chances are they will pay you before you have to.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The OP should have bought a Bosch strimmer of course.

 

[TheJasperCo]

Research "planned obsolescence". Says it all really.

 

[Cian]

Same applies to vacuum cleaners , why buy a Dyson for £300 when another make does the same job for a quarter of the price.

If you want to find a company who does stand over their products and provide parts and service options for years (decades now for the first generations), it'd be Dyson. You do very much pay for style and branding initially though.

 

[virtual22]

May be wrong but don't you lodge sale of goods act claims against the retailer and not the manufacturer?

 

[CheeseRolls]

The most reliable piece of electronic gadgetry in our house, is the printer, which is 10 years old and still going strong. Uncanny really given the pricing model used to sell printers. Basically they lose money selling printers and make it all back selling you ink.

 

[surrey jim]

Just to give an update. After 6 weeks of letters back and forth, complaints I got a replacement.

Would still stay well clear of Flymo products in future. Flymo customer service was also the worst I have ever come accross.

Thanks to all who helped

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Just got rid of a candy washing machine that lasted 14 years,very impressed with that.

We had a new machine delivered this morning. They took away the Candy one, which we got as a wedding present in 1995!

 

[OzMike]

Till one week after the warranty runs out.

 

[Eeyore]

My new Asus desktop ? About 24 hours. I've had enough of it.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Took my Hoselock sprinkler back today for a 5th replacement as, like all the others it has stopped oscillating. Lasted all the time since April. Easy to find the receipt also as I leave it in the car glove compartment as it's guaranteed to put to use

 

[Mellotron]

Interestingly, whilst studying for her design degree my partner was taught that her products should be designed to fail. This was because if they lasted too long there would be no repeat business.

Worrying stuff really.

There was a very interesting documentary on BBC recently about this sort of thing. They managed to get phone manufacturers to pretty much admit that they design the phones to fall apart after a 2-3 years' usage.

 

[Trufflehound]

We had a new machine delivered this morning. They took away the Candy one, which we got as a wedding present in 1995!

Bought our Zanussi in 1995 and that's still going strong.

One day I may even ask the wife to show me how it works.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Bought our Zanussi in 1995 and that's still going strong.

One day I may even ask the wife to show me how it works.

To be fair, ours stopped working in 1998. We just kept it to use as a worktop.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I purchased a Flymo strimmer last March. Over last summer and from April this year, I use it most weekends when mowing the grass to go around the edges. At the end of each use it gets cleaned up, and put away and stored in a dry garage.

I came to use it last weekend and it wouldn’t work. Have tried changing fuse, tried different plugs but the item is dead as a do-do. I called up Flymo customer services who took the product number and serial number, only to advise me that the warranty is only for one year. I asked the lady on phone where it could be taken to be repaired. Her reply was that it’s not worth repairing and just to throw it and get another one. I questioned this as it is only 18 months old and she told me that they wont last forever.

Whilst I agree it wont last forever, I would expect it to last at least 5 years. It wasn’t the basic 'cheap as chips' model I purchased (IIRC I paid around £70 at the time).

How long would you expect products like this to last? Am I being unreasonable that it would last more than 18 months?

Maybe worth looking up Patcham-based Preston Mower Services. Bloke's a mower repair wizard and even cheaper than chips.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

I bought some Beats headphones at a US airport for around $150. The cable which connects to the earpiece frayed after having them for just over a year. I used them daily and would never normally complain, but was just a bit peeved that the first pair of half decent headphones I'd ever bought had broken sooner than my cheaper ones.

I wrote Monster an email and they told me to send a copy of a bank statement (I had no receipt) and the faulty headphones back to them in Holland, which I did. Within 3 weeks they'd sent me a brand new pair which I still have to this day! Can't say fairer than that!

It's always worth trying to contact the company if you're not happy. In many cases I think the small cost of a replacement outweighs the bad PR and potential loss of a customer.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I bought some Beats headphones at a US airport for around $150. The cable which connects to the earpiece frayed after having them for just over a year. I used them daily and would never normally complain, but was just a bit peeved that the first pair of half decent headphones I'd ever bought had broken sooner than my cheaper ones.

I wrote Monster an email and they told me to send a copy of a bank statement (I had no receipt) and the faulty headphones back to them in Holland, which I did. Within 3 weeks they'd sent me a brand new pair which I still have to this day! Can't say fairer than that!

It's always worth trying to contact the company if you're not happy. In many cases I think the small cost of a replacement outweighs the bad PR and potential loss of a customer.

Sometimes they're just TOO damn ready to replace tho. Had a beautiful sleek black and silver 2nd Generation ipod nano which, ok i never used much, but i foolishly jumped through the Apple hoops to have replaced by a 6th generation version of same because maybe two out ten million 2nd generation models had burst into flames in Japan or somesuch. Total respect for the Apple replacement process, which was seamless and must have cost a pretty penny, but the replacement itself is a squat ugly one inch square thing of few redeeming qualities. Safe to say, it'll be living in a drawer from here on in. Gah!