Investigator has followed up on last week's letter about mobile phone damage with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Investigator put several questions to a spokesperson to get more insight into the issue of whether water damage can be used to exclude repair claims.
Your basic warranty rights
Statutory warranties are provided by the law and, among other conditions, state that goods must meet a level of quality and performance that's reasonable to expect given their price and description, and must be free of defects that weren't obvious at purchase. The goods must be fit for their intended purpose - they must be suitable for any purpose the consumer made known to the retailer.
What's the time limit?
Manufacturers or retailers may provide their own voluntary warranty, in addition to a consumer's statutory rights, which cannot be overridden or ignored. An example of a voluntary warranty is the 12-month warranty for repair. Note that statutory rights don't have a fixed time limit, regardless of what the manufacturer or retailer voluntary warranty states. Depending on the price and quality of the goods, a consumer may be entitled to a remedy after any voluntary warranty has expired.
So manufactures are free to include conditions in their own voluntary warranties, such as excluding water damage; however, these conditions must not limit the statutory warranty rights as provided by the law.
The water damage issue
So the issue of whether water damage claims can be excluded from warranty repairs rests on the question of whether this contravenes the phone's intended use and/or merchantable quality conditions of the statutory warranties provided by the law.
The ACCC advises that only a court or tribunal can determine this. At this point, this means that individuals will need to argue the case with the retailer/manufacturer and if they have no joy, lodge a complaint with the relevant Office of Fair Trading.
The Government has also just announced new national consumer laws that include protection for unfair contracts, misleading representations and unconscionable conduct.
If you lodge a water damage complaint with Fair Trading, let us know so that we can keep tabs on this issue.
Read about other consumer issues PC Authority's Investigator has tackled:
The "water damage" issue affecting mobile phones
Warranty woes: The tricky question of paying for extended warranties
The most common complaint we hear about online retailers
The nasty surprise affecting some owners of old GPS units
Do you have a question for the Investigator? Add your comment below or email us.