dr wadd

The DVD drive on my XBox is failing and needs replacing. Microsoft have quoted a price of £80 for the repair job. This is not a price I`m particularly happy to pay as I can pick up a replacement drive on its own for £40.

However, I`m wondering whether I can catch M$ on this on under the Sale of Goods act. The relevant bits of the legislation are covered in this bit I found on another web site.

The sale of goods act 1979 (section14) which notes that goods must be of a †˜satisfactory qualityââ‚à ‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ and implied in this is †˜appropriate durabilityââ ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢. It also notes that †˜for the purposes of this act, goods are of satisfactory quality if they meet the standards that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking into account any description of the goods, the price (if relevant) and all other relevant circumstances. Noteworthy also is the †˜sale and supply of goods to consumers regulations, 2002ââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ which states the consumer has the right to †˜choose repair, replacement, partial or full refund, or compensation if a fault appears within 6 years (5 years in Scotland) and it is reasonable for goods to last that longââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢

The XBox is about 20 months old. Taking into account that it is the DVD drive failing I've been checking out the MTBF for various models and they all have a lifespan much, much longer than 20 months.

In my opinion, the XBox should last longer than 20 months before it suffers a hardware failure. I`m guessing that most people would agree with this, but does anyone actually think that a lifespan of under 2 years for an XBox is reasonable?

My other question is does anyone have a view on whether I could wangle a free repair under this legislation. My take on it is that I could potentially have them over a barrel, as the only way I could see them getting out of this one would be to argue that the XBox actually does have that short a MTBF, something that I couldn`t seem them being happy to do.

Thanks in advance for any comments.