My Soundbridge radio died last week after just 18 months use. After looking on here and reading Alanmc's posts I decided to contact Amazon who I purchased from.

My first reply was unsatisfactory, basically a "out of warranty, not our problem" sort of thing. I replied back, quoting Alan's info re statutory rights and sale of goods act etc. Lo and behold, I received a reply from them hours later saying they would give me a full refund. Result!!!!!

I would advise anyone with this issue to chase it up with your supplier and don't take no for an answer, be firm but polite and you will get a result. We are in the right and they know it! I just want to thank Alan for his useful posts, without his info I would have probably just thrown the thing in the bin!

I have put my refund towards a Pure Avanti Flow, again from Amazon and am loving this radio so far, I could recommend it.

Well it looks like it only works some of the time. Thanks for the info you provided via PM but maybe I didnt use the right tone or right words because I don't seem to be getting anywhere with Amazon

I woke up 2 days ago to the dreaded dead R1000 situation, having purchased this from Amazon in Jan 08. I have contacted Amazon, politely explaining the issue, referred to the order number, suggested Sale of Goods, Statutory rights etc.

I have now had 3 replies, the last 2 from their 'Executive Customer Relations Team' and had a phone call all to no avail, offering me £21 towards the cost of the repair

I called Consumer Direct (who suggested I need to put it in writing, recorded delivery, etc) which I guess it looks like I need to do. They told me when I spoke to them that I may need something that would suggest the product was faulty when it was purchased.

With everything I've been able to read on this forum, is there something that I can best point to that best describes the problem with the power supplies? (it will save me getting an 'independent inspection'). Or any further tips that anyone can offer on how to deal with Amazon on this.

I appreciate any help

In reference to my previous post, having followed some of the advice on this forum to take advantage of the Sale of Goods Act, against my 17 month old defective radio, I can report that this has gotten me nowhere, with both Amazon (the retailer) and American Express (credit card used for the purchase). Through many notes to Amazon resulting in the lack of help noted in my previous post, I subsequently contacted Consumer Direct, who recommended I also contact the Credit Card company (hence the contact to Amex)

The basic problem here, as I'm sure many know, is that the Retailers and Finance Co's are protected by the point that says the 'goods need to be proven to be defective at the time of purchase'. So, Amazon and Amex throw this back at me, suggesting that I get this from the manufacturer (ha - are they mad?, what manufacturer is going to admit that), or to get my own inspection done, where it can prove the item was faulty, or could have been faulty at the time of purchase. It is not simply enough to point to forums like this where many customers have had problems (the standard response is that the only people that post are the ones that have complaints)

So, my question to this forum, having initially believed that I had a case here, from reading some of the posts on this forum, having tried quoting things like 'legally obligated', and having already spent more time than I wanted to on this, is to ask if anyone has had any electrical inspection that could be used, and whether this is even a course worth pursuing? (I know there are engineers out there, so is it possible to look at the PSU problem and say that this was defective workmanship when it was sold?). And if there is something that could obtained, then why cant we share it (I would pay for it, and happily share it with others, but I'm just not sure if it is even worth doing this)

I welcome the views of others, and am especially interested if anyone has been down this path before

Hi dogon

This is my view, I'm not a lawyer. If you were hoping for someone to tell you that you are entitled to a full refund then you are going to be disappointed. Amazon are playing hard but are following the letter of the Act, as is their right. Even if you can prove that the product was not conformant at the point of sale (that it had an inherent design or manufacturing defect) you have had 18 months use of it so any remedy offered must take that into account. They can offer to repair or replace as well as refund, it is up to the 2 parties to agree on the remedy.

Be pragmatic about this - do you have the time, money and energy to spend on pursuing this to the end, which will almost certainly not result in a full refund (unless Amazon realise it is in their best interest not to put up a fight, cf banks and their charges). Compared to cost of the R1000 this does not make economic sense to me.

That said, you may be able to persuade your local Trading Standards office to look into this matter further, citing this forum as potential evidence.

Take the offer of repair costs from Amazon (not a great deal I know, you might like to squeeze a little more out of them) and put it towards actually getting it repaired by Pete (PM to g0pkh or email hillyp01-roku@yahoo.co.uk), ask him for a quote. You end up with a working R1000 which is a pretty good outcome.

How difficult can it be to get a straight answer on this. All we want is a refund for our broken radios. Other posts tell us we have statutory rights and a 2 year eu warranty, but according to jjaf we are stuffed, which frankly sounds like nonsense. Is there anyone who actually knows what we can do???

ourhouse wrote:

. . . All we want is a refund for our broken radios. Other posts tell us we have statutory rights and a 2 year eu warranty, but according to jjaf we are stuffed, which frankly sounds like nonsense

Get off your backside and research the situation for yourself in respect of your UK Statutory Rights, The Sale of Goods Act and the precise understanding of a "Warranty".

Until you understand the complexity of same, you are in no position to make demands to get a refund from a supplier, or decide just how far down the road you want to go in order to press your supplier to repair/replace/refund. But it is imperative for you to personally know your legal position before contacting your supplier, thus enabling you to destroy any and all counter-arguments that they choose to put forward.

Both jjaf and myself have on several occasions merely offered our personal opinions on the options that are open to those who have experienced failures with this poorly designed product that regrettably then has proven to have been manufactured using several inferior components by the fact of all the comments and reports posted in these forums.

If you are not happy with your supplier, stop using them; you are the master in that relationship. Anything on Amazon can be bought from somewhere else and they will suffer if they lose your custom and that of all their other dissatisfied R1000 purchasers. It may be worthwhile making that point, when trying to negotiate an improved offer from them.

[/quote]Get off your backside and research the situation for yourself in respect of your UK Statutory Rights, The Sale of Goods Act and the precise understanding of a "Warranty".

All my research and activity to date, after contacting the supplier, the credit card company and trading standards, have resulted in a seemingly clear conclusion in that it is up to me to prove that the product was faulty at the point of sale - what am I missing? . . . frankly, I don't see how this statement helps - exactly what tactic/comeback/other ammunition or research into the situation can you do to counter this?

I notice you have not tried exercising the 2 year Pinnacle warranty.

2-year warranty for R1000 power-supply-related issues

Thread: http://forums.rokulabs.com/viewtopic.php?t=21130
posted: Mon July 27, 2009 17:43 GMT by RokuLyndon (on the instruction of Roku CEO Anthony Wood) confirms Roku’s recent policy change in respect of a new/revised two year warranty for R1000 power-supply-related issues, which is now available for all customers who purchased a R1000 SoundBridge radio from Roku or Pinnacle or a dealer.

The above quoted thread states that Roku have now extended their normal 1 year warranty in respect of power-supply-related issues with the R1000 due to a failure-rate that is higher than is normal.
Additionally, it states that if you have paid for a repair in the past on this model, and would not have done so had a two year warranty been in place, you should contact RokuLyndon - email lallydice@roku.com

A very timely post from the folks at Roku- great that they are stepping up. Hopefully this will be a smooth process as I'm sure there will be many customers contacting them, judging by the number of people that have experience this issue.

I am now in touch with RokuLydon on how to process the warranty repair

Thanks for pointing me to the thread

alanmc wrote:

2-year warranty for R1000 power-supply-related issues

NICE!!!


But

- are they replacing the failed PSUs with new units that will also fail or have they upgraded the design of the unit?
- how long is the replaced/repair warranty?

ccomley wrote:

But - how long is the replaced/repair warranty?

Yes, it would greatly help if Lyndon posted an "Announcement" at the top of this forum that detailed the full Terms and Conditions of this very welcomed two year warranty for R1000 power-supply-related issues.