Aldi Powercraft recip. saw broken

[Stephen]

Hello,

I bought an Aldi/Powercraft recip saw a couple of months ago. It's only had light use. This morning I pressed the button and nothing happened. I pressed it a second time and the saw came to life. Later on, the same thing happened again. I noticed a bright blue light coming from inside the saw whilst I was sawing. I'm sure there were a set of replacement brushes in the box. Is it likely these need changing so soon? When I've used my spare pair, can I get replacements or do I need to go back and buy a new drill?

Thanks, Stephen.

[Tim W]

Stephen wibbled on Thursday 29 October 2009 14:49

That should be covered under a statutory guarantee (which is 6 months IIRC and cannot be wormed out of for new goods) with the retailer. Take it back to ALDI.

[Cash]

Tim W

Don't you mean the Sale of Goods Act 1979 as amended?

As a for "cannot be wormed out of for new goods" - Aldi are perfectly within their rights to have the saw examined before they make a decision on whether to repair, replace, refund or do nothing. Also, if there is an inherent manufacturing fault, and a refund is offered, they can give a pro-rata refund to take into account of the use of the saw since purchase - see

the 6 months period is where it is presumed that there is an inherent fault, which Aldi has to prove or disprove, rather than the buyer - but there is no right to an automatic refund or replacement.

But saying all that Aldi will simply tell the OP to ring the number on the guarantee and arrange a repair - which the OP is perfectly entitled to say f**k off to, and tell them to sort it out (and the store manager will generally argue like hell at this) as the OP's contract is with Aldi and not the manufacturer.

And that's why I will not buy any thing that costs more than around £20 from them.

Cash

[GMM]

My first SDS drill was just as bad (some crap make cheap from Focus). I'd only used it a handful of times when the brushes went. Replacing them with the spares supplied was simple enough but I could track down another set anywhere and the ones I did see (wrong size) seemed unbelievably expensive for what they are. Still, it was enough to persuade me to get a decent one, and my brother got a free SDS with a very limited life expectancy....

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Cash" saying something like:

Aldi and Lidl just usually give a straight refund on items that break within a few months. No hassle. Others' experiences may differ, but it's been the case for me.

[mike]

There are contact details for the service agents in the manual but, if you've lost it, you should be able to find them here:

[Cash]

Never bought anything dear enough that's worth returning to be honest, but I have been in a couple of local Aldi's when people have had problems with their stuff (outside the Aldi 28 day no quibble replacement), and the only thing that they were told was to contact the telephone number on the leaflet that they hand out - and it's amazing that not one ever queried this or mentioned SoGA to the manager.

Cash

[<me9]

When my breadmaker failed after just over a year, it took lots of loud argument with the manager to get a refund. He insisted I had to go via the telephone number, and that it only had 12 month warranty anyway. I pointed out the 3 year warranty in the handbook, and that it was their responsibility as they had sold it, and after much further argument I got my money back.