UKH

Hello,

I bought a pair of ski touring boots on Saturday from a shop in the Alps. I skied with them on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

By this point several of the buckles had partially come off, one had fallen off completely and was lost in the snow. I got this buckle replaced (thankfully FOC) by a local shop and it came off again the next day. I was skiing using leashes, but none of the buckles were pulled off by the leashes.

I returned the boots to the shop I purchased them from yesterday. They were not willing to refund me my money immediately. I left the boots there on the understanding that the shop would speak to the manufacturer in the morning. I was hoping that the situation would be quickly resolved and the shop would refund me my money.

I have just heard that the company have agreed to replace the buckles, but not the boots.

I am not very happy with this. I would ideally like money back as I need a new boot before I go skiing in Austria in March.

I paid for the boots with a credit card.

Any ideas?

Tom

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:










Buy them in Decathlon next time, they change for 12 months, no questions asked, I've done it twice just because I wanted different ones.

I see you paid by credit card, ring them. they will tell you what your rights are, probably the shop has fixed then so that is that.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:










I don't really see what your issue is here. Your boots broke. The manufacturer have agreed something is up and are fixing them, presumably FOC. That's all they are obliged to do, and you will still have a four day old, functioning pair of boots.

In reply to ianstevens:

My experience in France is that shops don't have the same legal responsibility as in the UK to replace faulty goods, only to get the manufacturer to do so. As a matter of interest what make and model of boots are they?

In reply to ianstevens:

If your boots broke again half way round a five day ski tour or even half way round a day ski tour, after they had already broken, then you would perhaps get what the issue is.

And, they are actually obliged to give you a new pair under EU law, not fix the old pair, as these ones were not fit for purpose.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

Easy for a buckle to shake loose descending lots of ice. At some point it becomes your lookout to check the fastenings for tightness.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:
No idea what you can do, sorry.

Were the buckles riveted or screwed? Did you have them totally unbuckled when skinning and is this when they came off? Sounds a bit poor to me, what boots were they?

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

They weren't Scott Cosmos boots by any chance ?

In reply to Nemo9:

Got it in one. Have you had the same problem?

In reply to kevin stephens:


You sir, are wrong...

EU Consumer law, is pretty extensive. And actually, most of which you "dub" as UK legal responsibilities... are EU Consumer protection mandates. And they are very much in full effect, also in France.

That said, quite a few (smaller) shops, would rather not refund stuff and so on. But again, EU law says that they can. Problem is the fact that when bought from store, the return -no questions asked- policy timeframe is a lot shorter than if bought online (30 days). But even after this timeframe, you can veto on not fit for given purpose. By which the seller can have the goods, fixed, replaced or refunded...

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:
Surely if they replace the buckles and that fixes the problem then they've fulfilled their obligations? Might be worth checking with the manufacturer that the new buckles are a permanent fix.

Understandable that you still might not trust the boots for a bit but if they dig their heels in there's nothing you can do and I doubt they'll worry too much about pissing off a non regular customer.

Oh and Loctite.

In reply to DaveHK:


Yes, if bolts...

Unfortunately a lot more iffy is rivets... loctite won't help there...

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

Well known problem with these and their last model

Does anyone know anything about French consumer law?

The shop are trying to claim they don't give refunds on products that are discounted, regardless of if they were faulty or not.

Any information would be gratefully received.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

will try to find out this morning

tony

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

Their law has to conform to EU regs which are pretty good on consumer protection. I would be surprised if that's allowed, although I guess if they got them fixed for you first, it might be to do with that?
Good luck.

In reply to TobyA:

No idea of their legal status but I've seen signs for 'no refunds on sale items' (or similar) in the past

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:
Hi Tom, e-mail us, and I will get back to you with some information

Tony

P.S. Or call me on my mobile

In reply to Doug:


There was a sign like this in shop I purchased the boots from. I presume it is invalid if the product is defective however?