Q: Two-and-a-half years ago, I bought an LCD TV set of a renowned brand for €870. It carried a two-year commercial guarantee. Six months after the commercial guarantee expired the TV set started to develop problems when it was on. A few days later, it just stopped working.

The local agent told me I had to pay €30 for transport and €60 to have the set inspected by the company’s technicians. Then I would have to pay for the repairs needed.

I felt these charges were exaggerated, so I decided to take the TV for repair to another established repair centre where there are no such charges. After the TV was checked, I was informed that the problem was the screen, which needed to be replaced. The cost of the screen was €300 plus labour charges.

In the meantime, I wrote to the mother company and complained about this unfortunate situation. This was a week ago and to date I have not received a reply.

I think it is unfair that I have to pay for such a fault when I only bought the TV two-and-a-half years ago. Do I have any legal rights?

A: Such goods are usually covered by two types of guarantees – the commercial guarantee voluntarily given to us by the seller, and the two-year protection stipulated by law.

The Consumer Affairs Act offers us a two-year protection from the date of delivery. We are legally entitled to a free remedy when the product purchased does not conform with the contract of sale. In your case, this has expired, so legally, you cannot claim a free remedy.

The commercial guarantee given to you by the seller has also expired by the time your TV developed the fault. Ideally, when we make such expensive purchases, we should shop around for products that carry commercial guarantees that are longer than two years. This would allow us to benefit from remedies available under the commercial guarantee when our legal rights expire.

Once guarantees expire, the Office for Consumer Affairs cannot help much. It was worth writing to the manufacturer and complaining about the defective screen. Sometimes manufactures do find an acceptable solution.

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