Everyone buys these products knowing they come with a warranty. You just cant dump it back at the dealer and demand your money, it doesnt work this way. You have to give the dealer every fair and reasonable opportunity to provide factory warranty and fix the item.
Hi,
Whilst you are on the money with your second point about providing the Dealer with "reasonably opportunity" to repair the goods, your first point about warranties and refunds is not correct under current Australian law.
Since January 2010, nearly all new products sold in Australia are covered by the Australian Consumer Law (a.k.a "Lemon Law" - though the ACL strictly isn't that). The ACL provides consumer guarantees enshrined in law that override any warranties or guarantees provided by Dealers or manufacturers.
http://www.consumerlaw.gov.au/content/Content.aspx?doc=fact_sheets/FAQ.htmIn a nutshell, the ACL covers everything from toasters to new cars and provides consumers with the ability to obtain repairs AND refunds. The repairs/refunds clause has no expiry time, does not have anything to do with "express" warranties issued by dealers/manufacturers and is subject to a "reasonableness" test.
Simple example would be that if you bought a TV for $3k that had a two year warranty from the manufacturer and the TV died unrepairably after 2 1/2 years (6 months outside of "warranty"), the ACL would consider such an early major failure on an expensive item to be "unreasonable". You would then be able to request a repair, replacement or a refund and take action under the ACL.
My area of experitse with the ACL is with automotive and more and more frequently new car owners are pursuing their consumer rights under the ACL to request full refunds or replacements of new vehicles that have had "major" faults.
There are no time limits on how long the ACL stays in effect - simply that the product was sold to a consumer after 1st Jan 2011. The trick is that it is all subject to the "reasonable" test, and what is reasonable for someone may not be for someone else.
To bring it back on topic somewhat, if Stern's "warranty" on ACDC is 6 months and a NIB owner had a major fault at 8 months that required extensive/expensive repair, then the NIB owner could argue that a $10k product failing within a year was not reasonable and request repair, replacement or full refund of the purchase price. Whilst in theory you could go straight for a refund, you must allow Dealers/manufacturers a "reasonable" opportunity to recitify the problems first, which would mean that repair would be the likely outcome.
Consumers have much more power these days - make sure you are aware of your rights!
