GUARANTEE PROBLEMS AT LIDL

It's not just Lidl. It's everywhere. There is no such thing as customer service in Spain. Bought an angle grinder from ferris in Villena - cut off switch wouldn't work. Extremely dangerous. Took it back 1 DAY LATER - with receipt. They had to send it away - took 6 weeks to get it back. (They refused a replacement.) Same thing with an Eliptical Trainer from Carrefour. Broke down after 3 uses. !st time they sent an engineer to look at it, he supposedly fixed it, but it went again after another 20 minutes use, they refused to send another engineer so then I had to go down the libre de reclamacions route - 6 weeks later I got a very begrudging refund. So Ferris in Villena and Carrefour have never had my business again for anything like that. 

Hi charliew.  I have also had similar problems at Ferri's and more than one stand up row.  All they want to do is sell you new all the time.

They have no facilities to fix anything.  I heard of someone who took a petrol strimmer back. Two weeks later he got a box of bits back and they said it was irreparable.  He took it to a friend and he had it running later the same week.  No parts needed..

I also had a strimmer problem and their idea of help was to give me the address of the people who made it!!!

The words after sales service simply don't exist in Spain.  Ferris's has a good stock of a lot of nice stuff, but buy it at your peril..

I can well imagine Carrefour will be the same but as I never shop there I've no idea.   

Hi Classic man,

EU consumer law protects your rights and stipulates what redress consumers can claim from the retailer:

https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers/consumer-contracts-guarantees/consumer-guarantees/index_en.htm

as does the Spanish government:

https://administracion.gob.es/pag_Home/en/Tu-espacio-europeo/derechos-obligaciones/ciudadanos/consumidores/compraventa/devolucion.html

In your situation, I would print off the relevant pages from the links above, take them to Lidl, ask to speak to the manager and tell him that he's breaking the law.  If he still tried to fob me off, I'd ask for the "Hojas de Reclamaciones" complaints book.

Your contract is with the retailer, not the manufacturer.

Good luck 👍 

Kind regards, 

Kim

Spain? Much the same ( years ago UK) It's the same all over. Larger companies avoid the consumer protection law, by making it difficult. I am not "picking" on such-like, Carrefour, Lidel, Comet (uk) etc...etc. But, a local supplier in Spain, will give more after-sales service than ANY multinational. Here in Spain, more local outlets exist. (IE local companies which still exist, they may not be here forever): edited.

Choose where u shop.      V

Technically the warranty is with the manufacturer not the retailer. In the UK you take it back to the retailer, they claim from the manufacturer. In lots of cases in the UK now, the retailer will send the item back to the manufacturer and wait for their report before refunding or replacing. All depends on the retailers terms and conditions afterall they didn't make the item. 

I bought a hot water bolier 3 years ago after i replaced a gas hot water heater as in winter so fed up of it cutting out half way through a shower , i bought a boiler from Bricodepot , it was not the cheapest model nor the most expensive but just average costs , i installed it and for 3 months worked great , then i had several days of electric tripping , i unplugged every electrical unit and it was the boiler at fault , i googled and found that this unfortunate model had a history accross europe with heater element problems , it was made by Bosch but it traded under different name , anyway i contacted Bricodepot and as we didn't know great deal of spanish then, it was difficult and frustrating and i was getting no were, fortunately our Spanish freind came to our house next day , we just explained the problem and she kindly said she would sort out , it took her 6 phone calls to different departments, call centres ect and she said herself how extremely difficult it had been and we would most probably never have been able to resolve and how embarrassed she was at the situation. I had in fact throgh searches on google actually found a service agent in Villena for these models , i asked our freind if she would come with me to there shop which she duly did , it was 4.30pm Friday afternoon when they reopened, we went in and showed photos of boiler and seriel number, Bricodepot receipt , she said it wanted engineer to repair, now my Spanish wasn't any good then and even now i dont think i could have ever followed what thay said but for 5 minutes its was a big argument and as i am sure you know some Spanish ladies can have a loud voice but our freind her voice was raised by some considerable decibels , apparently the engineer was saying he will go monday or tuesday but our freind said no , go now , reluctantly he did and followed me home but before this we stopped of at a shop and he came out with a new boiler all in box ext so knew it was not a second hand or service repair , i showed him faulty boiler , he just took of the cover were electrics are , sniffed it and went ahhhh problema , he then removed old boiler and replaced with brand new , in fact was a better one than i had , our freind stood guard over him all the time to make sure he did good job , he said if anymore problems please call him straight away and was really helpfull in the end , so after 3 years had no problems with replacement, so yes it can be a utter nightmare if trying to replace but if you have any Spanish freinds who can help , please do so you'll be amazed at what nationals can do as aposed to expats of any country . 

I agree completely. I was a heating engineer in the UK and always went to warranty breakdowns. However if it was a manufacturing problem or either the product itself we had to contact the manufacturer for a next day call out. Some manufacturers same day. All I was saying is the fault with the product is guaranteed by the manufacturer not the supplier. The supplier may rectify subject to their terms and conditions. But they will ultimately claim against the manufacturer. They actually have no obligation to honour a warranty. The manufacturer does.

Hi Mike,

As you probably recall I had a strimmer problem and had bought at Ferri’s, an expensive set up which had hedge-trimmer and everything else incorporated. They sorted it out in a day. I was also pleased with other minor services.

Recently I bought a pool cleaning robot in Ferri’s as I have arthritis in my shoulders and the ‘hoover’ set up was painful for me. I imagined the robot would save me pain and effort. I was wrong.

I went back to Ferri, explained that it doesn’t do what it says on the box, it is not lightweight as they say once it is filled with water, when I lift the robot out of the pool, full of murky water, I need to get the now heavy robot totally out of and away from the pool otherwise the dirty water goes back into the pool. The robot sucks up the dirt but most comes out in the pool so I never get the clean pool I used to have. 

They said I was 5 days over their 15 day return date. I said I’d had Covid and had been told by the doctor to stay at home. So no Certificate, only an anonymous test result. 

We are talking about €900, it wasn’t the most expensive on the market but the most suitable for my rectangular pool. However, it went where it wanted (a bit like small children, lol) spat out dirt, so what did I spend my money on?

They are going to send a ‘supervisor’ to see where I am going wrong. Keeping my fingers crossed as that was a lot of cash for something which isn’t doing the job.

Janice

Hi Janice,

I wish you luck.  Hopefully you can get a resolution.  However I doubt you will get your money back.  That just doesn't seem to happen here.  Keep us posted

Mike