£15 for replacement of faulty item.

[trills]

Hi, I purchased a Global knife, costing approximately £100, about 8 years ago. The one piece knife snapped whilst cutting cheese. Global have a 30 years guarantee policy so I paid £2.50 to have it delivered to them for inspection. The confirmed there was no signs of misuse and it was due to metal fatigue. They are now requesting £15 admin and postage fees to have it's replacement sent to me. When I contested the legality of this, they replied, " As this is an Extended Guarantee Offer, which is a special concession, this is outside of our legal liabilities and so the below is not appropriate."

Is this true?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

[2222]

Sadly, they can have a headline saying "30 year guarantee", but qualify that in the small print. Their current version says there's currently a £15 admin fee, but of course you need to find out what the guarantee said 8 years ago. There may have been no mention of an admin fee when you bought the knife.

[des8]

The wording of their guarantee clearly states that for the extended warranty a postage charge is levied.
As the guarantee is in addition to your consumer rights it is perfectly legal

30 Year Warranty

This extended cover is offered on behalf of Global Knives in the UK and covers a period of up to 30 years from the date of purchase. Details of the claim and circumstances are to be communicated to our Quality Control department at I Grunwerg Limited (Email – qualitycontrol@grunwerg.co.uk). If the claim is accepted as valid, and the knife returned to us, it will be replaced with a brand new knife of the same (or equivalent) type upon payment of an appropriate fee to cover postage and administration (currently £12.50 plus VAT per knife).

[trills]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure how I'd find out how it was worded 8 years ago? I imagine the costs would have been less though. I'll just have to bite the bullet. Lesson learn't though. Won't be paying over the odds for a 'high quality Global knife' in the future.

[2222]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure how I'd find out how it was worded 8 years ago? I imagine the costs would have been less though. I'll just have to bite the bullet. Lesson learn't though. Won't be paying over the odds for a 'high quality Global knife' in the future.

There are a couple of ways to find out the wording from 8 years ago.

1. Look at the packaging, which no doubt you kept. Oh well, let's turn to the other way.

2. Look at the internet archive, and that (more or less) shows that the admin charge was only introduced in 2017.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160819...ife-guarantee/

This is a snapshot of the guarantee in 2016, and there's no mention of any charge. You can press the blue triangle at the top of the page to see other snapshots. The £15 charge was introduced between the snapshots in Feb and Apr 2017.

Since you bought 8 years ago, you are entitled to the guarantee terms then, at the time of sale. Unfortunately, there's no snapshot from 8 years ago, but I think there's enough info in the archive to risk threatening legal proceedings against Global if they don't back down on this charge. In fact, they'd have to be mad to contest the case if you brought proceedings.

[des8]

That "guarantee" admittedly doesn't mention postage,but that doesn't automatically mean it will be down to the manufacturer.

IMO the wording is sufficiently wide ("will be replaced.... at our discretion" and "make a decision whether or not to offer a repair or replacement")
for them to argue that they could make their offer conditional on payment of an administration charge.

Could be an interesting point to argue in front of a judge.... but then I'd find it interesting to argue about how many angels could dance on the point of a pin