The Swollen Battery: What the Shop Can and Cannot Say
Seán buys a €649 smartphone from a high-street electronics shop on 12 March, paying by debit card. In August the battery begins to swell and the phone shuts down without warning. He returns to the shop with the receipt.
The assistant says three things:
- "Your 12-month manufacturer's warranty means you must post it to the manufacturer yourself - we are just the retailer."
- "Our store policy is a refund within 30 days only, so a refund is out of the question."
- "Because it is five months old, the best we can do is €150 in store credit as a goodwill gesture."
Seán needs the phone for a delivery job and says he cannot manage for the three weeks the shop says a repair would take. The same model now sells new for €699; a good used example is about €430. The shop's written complaints procedure promises a response within 14 days.
1. Evaluate each of the assistant's three statements. Identify which parts are legally correct and which are not, and explain the basis for your view.
Read the worked answer
Statement 1 - wrong. The contract of sale is between Seán and the retailer, not the manufacturer. Under the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980, goods sold in a consumer sale carry implied conditions: they must be of merchantable quality, fit for the purpose made known, and as described. A seller cannot contract out of these in a consumer sale. The manufacturer's 12-month warranty is a separate, additional promise - it does not replace Seán's statutory rights, and he is under no obligation to use it. Telling a customer to deal with the manufacturer is one of the most common consumer complaints, and the shop is wrong.
Statement 2 - half right, wrongly applied. There is no statutory 30-day refund rule; a shop's own policy cannot override a consumer's legal rights, so the policy is not the deciding factor. But the assistant is right that a refund is not automatic: the law provides for repair, replacement or refund, and after five months of use a retailer is normally entitled to attempt a repair first - provided it is done within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience. The shop's mistake is presenting its policy as the limit of Seán's rights, not whether a repair-first remedy is reasonable.
Statement 3 - inadequate. A swollen battery at five months on a €649 device points to goods that were not durable, i.e. not of merchantable quality. €150 in credit is under a quarter of the purchase price and about a third of the value of a like-for-like used replacement (€430). A credit note is not a remedy Seán is obliged to accept.
The genuinely arguable point is the three-week repair, not the refund.
2. Recommend the remedy Seán should pursue and set out the escalation route, in order, with the reasoning for each step.
Read the worked answer
The remedy to ask for. Not a full refund - that invites a refusal he will then have to argue past. Ask instead for: a repair completed within 7 days, a loan handset while it is away, and, if the repair fails or overruns, a replacement or a refund. That is a proportionate request that the shop can say yes to, and it addresses the actual loss, which is the three weeks without a phone for work.
Escalation, in order:
- Written complaint to the shop manager, by email so there is a record. State the purchase date, the fault, the section of the 1980 Act relied on, and the remedy sought. Quote the shop's own 14-day promise and diarise it.
- Evidence. Photographs of the swollen battery, plus a short written quote from an independent repairer. This converts an argument about opinion into an argument about facts.
- Head office, if the branch stalls. Branch staff often apply policy mechanically; head office has more to lose.
- The CCPC for information on his rights and the correct wording of a final letter. It does not adjudicate individual disputes, so it is not a substitute for step 5.
- Small Claims Court - a District Court procedure for claims up to €2,000, a fee of about €25, no solicitor needed. This is the realistic endpoint and the shop knows it.
- Debit card chargeback, asked of his bank in parallel. Worth trying, but weaker here: chargeback windows are typically 120 days from the transaction or from when the fault could reasonably be discovered, so he is close to the edge.
Practical advice: do not spend the €150 credit note if he intends to claim - accepting it may be treated as settling the matter. Keep the receipt and any emails.