Warranty - B2B or with Manufacturer

[baggz]

Hello all,

My company purchased a £24,000 projector from one of our suppliers in Feb 2010. The projector was not delivered to us until September 2010.

The projector has now developed some serious faults that make it near un-fit for purpose. The projector came with a 2 year warranty, which from date of goods received is still valid.

The manufacturer has a 'build date' of the projector as 2009 and our supplier is trying to tell us the warranty expired in Feb 2012 - the date our supplier ordered the projector from the manufacturer.

The projector has had very little run time and has only been in our hands for less than 2 years.

Our supplier is now insisting that our warranty is direct with the manufacturer, which has now expired and we must pay for any inspection/repairs.

At the time of order, the supplier offered a ridiculously priced maintenance contract 'which would have superseded the warranty' - which in my opinion is irrelevant as we should be covered from when the goods were supplied - as effectively, we have missed 8 months of warranty that we could claim on.

Any advice on this anyone?

Thanks

 

[baggz]

any advice anyone?

 

[Cylon]

I'm pretty sure the Sales of Goods Act covers B2B sales (sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong) and in this instance I presume you weren't invoiced for the projector until its was dispatched which would be the date your warranty started, without seeing the warranty I'm presuming it has a few wear and tear clauses etc but that doesn't matter at this stage as the contract exists between you and your supplier.

Depending on your relationship with your supplier I would send a letter of complaint at the information you have been given and also contact the manufacturer as they are best placed to repair the product and offer a new warranty on the repairs done.

If the repairs aren't free I would bill your supplier for any extra costs incurred and let them know beforehand you intend to do this.

This can all get a bit messy so the cheapest option maybe to just contact the manufacturer direct and take it from there.

You could waste a fortune on this with solicitors letters etc but i would just cut all ties with your supplier as they are just trying to fob you off and pursue a percentage of repair costs based on the manufacturers findings.

 

[The Resolver]

Yes the SoG applies when buying B2B.

The warranty is an irrelevance. Under the Act, the company was entitled under the contract to a projector of a standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking into account the description, the price and all other relevant circumstances. Would it be thought reasonable that a brand new projector costing £24,000 would cease to function after less than 2 years (assuming it has not been mistreated).

You can submit a claim through my company at www.modria.com if you wish - just PM me as to how. We can then allocate an online mediator. Although the liability is on the supplier best to invite in the manufacturer who might well want to own the issue.