Getting a broken item from amazon fixed.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ok, the item in question is 8 month old, and its a digital TV adapter for a Mac, from eyeTV.

Bought from Amazon.

The dongle is thumbnail sized, and after 8 months, the weight of a coax plugged into it has snapped the internal aerial connection.

Its all sub micro stuff and well beyond my ability to resolder - the pad has come off the board.

Elgato say 'contact who you bought it from' but amazon has no button to click for 'it broke after 8 months of normal use plugged in the back of a floor standing mac, its crap'

and of course who knows where the packaging has gone.

Have I just basically been ripped off?

[Bob Minchin]

Sign into your amazon account and contact customer services. If it does not pick up your original order then the there is a button to contact them for 'another reason'

Bob

[The Natural Philosopher]

I already looked at their T & C;s and it says 'if it breaks over 3 months, contact manufacturer'

Which I have, with a scalding reflection on how on earth the expect a socket carrying the entire weight of 75ohm coax with less than 1 sq mm of soldered joint to support it, to be fit for purpose.

It is, on reflection, an appalling bit of design. The dongle plugs into a USB socket, so that's 'rigid' and the cable plugs into an adaptor that plugs into a teensy coax socket the size of a match head, soldered to a thumbnail sized board.

And to cap it all, the Aga just went out. Bad day.

[John Williamson]

Too late to help now, I know, but the last USB TV dongle I bought had a short USB extension lead in the box, and a note in the manual saying to always use the dongle on an extension, not plugged into the USB socket directly.

[Martin Warby]

Fairly sure that it's still amazons problem under Sale of Goods Act , maybe falling under 'not of merchantable quality'. I'm no expert but perhaps worth contacting trading standards/citizens advice

Martin

[John Rumm]

They sold it retail, so its still their legal responsibility. You don't have a contract with the maker, but you do with Amazon.

Give em some grief.

[The Natural Philosopher]

hauppage do that. Elgado do NOT.

[D.M.Chapman]

In my experience (we buy a lot of stuff from amazon) although they say to contact the manufacturer, they are well aware of their responsibility under the SoG act.

Log in, go to the contact bit and there will be a button for call me

Enter you number, hit go, the phone rings. Answer it - explain it's faulty and you want to return it and they will email you a link.

If you don't want to take that route ring them on 0800 4961081

Follow link, print out first page, stick in box with item. Print second page, stick on box, drop into postoffice (often the hardest bit). They pay postage.

Simpler than most online companies I've dealt with.

Darren

[John Williamson]

With the size of the latest one I bought, I was a touch worried about leverage pulling the USB socket off the motherboard of the laptop I use or cracking the board.

[Dave Liquorice]

Amazon direct or an Amazon seller?

Either way you have retail contract (assuming this wasn't a business purchase) with who ever you bought it from and it is up to them to sort it out not shunt you off to the maker.

[Mark]

You are correct. Retailers do like to pretend that the SoGA does not apply to them but they cannot override your statutory rights.

If the manufacturer is willing to put things right then this might be the easiest option, although you would likely be expected to pay postage.

Arguing the toss with a retailer can often be a load of hassle, especially if you deal with a call-centre.

As the item is over 6 months old then the onus is on you to prove that is was not conformant, which is not always easy.

How much did this item cost BTW and was it Amazon themselves or a marketplace seller?

[The Natural Philosopher]

about 70 quid and amazon themselves.

I emailed Elgato. There has been zero response.

Frankly as with anything to do with a Mac, its 'we will take your money, and its all wonderful, and if it goes wrong, spend some more money'

I suspecet I will ask a friend who has micro soldering capability to try and repair the damned thing..

[Mark]

It definiely should last longer than 8 months.

A good reason to avoid all Apple products IMHO.

Failing that you can either write it off or threaten to sue Amazon.

[Steve Firth]

Elgato.

And they must have changed their design because the Elgato unit I'm looking at has two inputs. One a 3.5mm socket with a 75ohm socket on a short lead, the other is a micro USB socket which takes a multi-headed lead with remote, s-video, sound and phono inputs.

I know I shouldn't feed you information, because past experience is that you don't make good use of it. Go back to Amazon, remind them of their obligations under the SOGA and tell them, if necessary that you are rejecting the device as being of unmerchantable quality and unfit for purpose. I've never had any problems with them replacing items that are unfit or on the one occassion that it happened, items that were dispatched but not received.

Elgato are correct that you have no contract with them, your contract is with the retailer, Amazon.

If all else fails, you do realise that the Elgato EyeTV software works with just about every USB stick ever made, don't you? So if you have a Hauppage stick lying around you can plug one of those in. I use a Hauppage Diversity dual tuner stick as well as the EyeTV hybrid stick.

Both work well.

Mind you, I'm still tempted to believe that you broke it rather than it just broke.

[Steve Firth]

[snip]

You said before that you had a response, didn't you? Oh no, it's your usual strangled inability to express yourself. You looked at a website and gave up, apparently.

I've found Elgato to be extremely helpful in the past. Mind you I didn't accompany my complaints with unhinged rants.

Oh FFS, neither of these companies is Apple. Your complaint is with Amazon.

And thereby lose any right to complain if it fails to rectify the problem.

[Steve Firth]

Oh right, do you get all hissy about Microsoft when something bought from Medion breaks?

[The Natural Philosopher]

It was 'third party, we sell for Apple users'

[D.M.Chapman]

What did amazon say when you rang them (or asked them to ring you via their feedback pages?)

I've found Elgato to be pretty good at responding - albeit only software questions, not hardware.

How long ago did you get this thing? Amazon will ship you a replacement and then wait for the return in my experience. Have you actually spoken to them?

Darren

[The Natural Philosopher]

October 2010

Amazon will ship you a replacement

Not yet, BUT I haven't got 'all the bits' and packaging..

[D.M.Chapman]

If they still sell the item, they'll send another one out IME.

New one arrives, put broken bit back in box with 'all the bits' from new one, stick barcode into box, stick postage paid label on outside. Drop into postoffice.

Did it a couple of weeks ago with a pair of dect phones from panasonic. No problem at all.

Darren