I thought that a requirement had come into force a few years back, that any electrical item sold here and for use here, had to be supplied with the appropriate plug. Before that it used to be you either had to cut off the two pin one and get a 3 pin one from Woolies.
Ask trading standards when they reopen.
Illegal (but common from eBay/Amazon sellers).
There are adapters available which are legal for this purpose, and if supplied with one, it would then be legal. The only legal ones I've seen hinge shut over a European 2 pin plug and include a BS1362 fuse. It's designed to be permanently fitted, and not added/removed like you would a regular adapter. I don't think these would work for a wallwart with integral 2-pin plug. Importers will normally source wallwarts separately for each country, or use ones with interchangable plug parts. (It's not illegal to supply the wrong plug in addition to the right one.)
It applies even to second-hand sales.
Plugs and Sockets Act (I forget the year).
Only for domestic items.
Commercial items can be sold without a plug.
Things that spring to mind are theatre lamps, professional welding sets and so on.
Lobster wrote in news:TSJZm.29756$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe20.ams:
The Plugs and Sockets etc.(Safety) Regulations 1994 Statutory Instrument 1994 No. 1768
Search for the text of the Regs on the Statute Law Database here:
Kind regards
Which I mentioned yesterday but someone else has suggested does not apply to the OP's case .I have no idea why not if he is right ?
Lobster :
First you should check the item description on Amazon's site to make sure that it wasn't your mistake. Non-UK-plugged items are available from UK sites and I've bought some in the past (phone chargers, for instance).
Then contact the seller directly, tell them that the goods were not as described and ask for a replacement or refund. Be nice to them, work on the assumption it was an error that they'll be happy put right. I'm sure you'll have no difficulty getting satisfaction. Quoting the law at this stage would do no good and might put their backs up. If you don't want to accept an adapter (I wouldn't either) that would not be an acceptable solution IMO.
If the seller doesn't play ball your next port of call is Amazon's web site. You might be eligible for protection under the Safe Buying Guarantee. But I'd be amazed if the matter got that far without being resolved.
Usenet Nutter wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
My reading of the Regs (but IANAL) is that it does apply. The exclusions stated do not apply; if the device is fitted with a Euro plug, then it should be supplied with an adapter which covers the pins. It's in the text of the Regs, but the Explanatory Notes at the end (which do not themselves form part of the legislation) explain the intent:
"The requirement to fit a fused standard plug does not apply to appliances which are correctly fitted with a non?UK plug complying with the safety provisions of the International Electrotechnical Commission standard IEC 884?1 (1987) and fitted with a conversion plug of a type approved for use with such a non?UK plug which encloses the fitted non?UK plug and can only be removed by the use of a tool. Requirements similar to those governing the approval of standard plugs apply to the approval of conversion plugs (regulation
12).Part II prohibits persons from supplying, offering to supply, agreeing to supply, exposing for supply or possessing for supply any appliance to which that Part applies but which does not comply with its requirements. However, it does not prohibit any person from possessing for supply an appliance at any time before it is first supplied, offered for supply or exposed for supply in the UK, or before it is first agreed to supply it in the UK, which has been imported into the UK and which does not comply with the requirements of Part II (regulation 12)."
Kind regards
And things which can't run off 13A, eg electric cookers.
Owain
You need to get a 'Schuko' (German-type socket) adaptor for that, it has a 2-pin socket in a circular recess with grooves to hold the body of the 2-pin plug.
I suggested that they will not apply to certain wall warts, as Dave Liquorice mentioned Motorola and HP and I have seen both phone and computer wall warts that as supplied will not plug into any standard socket anywhere in the world, but have a number of clip-on adapters that allow them to be used in a variety of sockets. This is obviously not the type of adapters that the regulations are aimed at, they are instead an equivalent to the mains plug/lead/figure-eight plug arrangement that connects many PSUs to the mains and are easily removeable as such devices not only need to be supplied to many countries, but are also used by travellers and need to simply unclip with no tools.
SteveW
At least one of the two wallwarts I have with clip on 13A adpaters has the connections between wart and adapter suspiciously similar to the US two flat blades connector. These hinge to be flush with the wart when used with a clip-on adapter or stick out to plug into a socket...
As he has no legal leg to stand on quoting it at any stage would be rather pointless. He didn't buy the goods so he has no contractual relationship with the seller.
Indeed. You can sometimes get away with plugging a European mains plug into a shaver socket, but it won't be reliable or secure. A shaver or toothbrush won't plug into a standard European socket at all.
Richard.
I was under the impression that the SOGA applies if the buyer informed the seller that it was being bought as a gift?
And is this relevant?
The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999
Before this law was passed and came fully into force on 11 May 2000 only the buyer and the seller had rights in contract under 'privity of contract'. This legislation gives rights to anyone who was intended to benefit from the transaction.
For example if someone buys a gift for a friend and the gift proves to be faulty the recipient or the buyer of the gift can take action for breach of contract (however it must be obvious that the goods are to be for the benefit of a 3rd party.)
The legislation you quoted was primarily aimed at commercial contracts and allows a third party in a contract who is not party to it to benefit from the contract under certain specific conditions.
For it to apply the original contract must identify the third party by name or description and both parties must agree to the third party involvement. It is not enough to say to an operator at the checkout "this is a present for my mate". The chances of the original purchaser having informed the seller that "this item is being purchased for Fred Bloggs to whom I transfer my rights as purchaser, do you agree?" and the seller then agreeing to that term are, to put it mildly, small.
The third party's right of enforcement is also subject to the contract's terms and conditions and most companies protect themselves against the inadvertent granting of third party rights by specifically excluding the 1999 Act in their standard T's*C's.
It is a piece of legislation which, in most cases, does not alter the lack of contractual relationship between the recipient of a present and the original seller in any practical way.
Well, "Wott-evva" as my kids would say: in fact the gift was from the OP's SWMBO so not a problem for the purchaser to whinge to the retailer direct!
David
(x-posted to uk.tech.digital-tv with the new query!)
The plot thickens...!
These object of me getting these headphones was to use them on a TV (I watch the telly while on the rowing machine in order to stave off the abject boredom, and apparently I have the TV volume so high - to drown out rowing sounds - that it disturbs the neighbours). Said TV has no headphone socket, but does have SCART and RCA line outputs. The headphone transmitter box comes with a 3.5mm jackplug plus a Y-adapter to two RCA plugs.
However, I can get no sound out of the phones at all when connected through the RCA plugs; I've replicated this on other AV equipment and also verified that they work fine when plugged in via the 3.5mm jack.
Now I'm aware that line outputs are lower voltage than headphone sockets and won't drive standard plug-in headphones; however I've read in several places that they *will* work with cordless headphones. The manual for my set
Any comments please?
Thanks David
(a) Are you *sure* they're outputs?
(b) Is there a separate volume setting for the line outputs somewhere in the setup menu?
If you use a separate digi box then that may have phono/RCA outputs as well as SCART, or you can use a splitter to split out an audio signal on phono from the SCART connection.
Owain
I wondered that - or even an outright mute. Maybe the OP has something other than the headphones he can connect to them to verify that they're working at all?
To complicate things further, the last TV I had in the UK was some Ferguson piece of junk - ISTR it had RCA outputs, but various sound 'profiles' could be selected via the remote to change speaker configs, and the RCA outputs weren't enabled for every profile.
I wonder if the TV can run either the RCA or audio via SCART, but not both? In other words, if it thinks there's something connected via SCART, maybe it's disabling the RCA outputs altogether.
cheers
Jules
A very good point! I had certainly asssumed so, I suppose on the basis that I don't possess a camcorder but do have a separate surround-sound speaker system on my main TV in the living room; ergo I hadn't considered the possibility of an input to the TV.
Have now connected the phones to what is evidently bidirectional SCART socket via an another adapter, and all is now well with the world. Many thanks for the help!
David
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