Please be aware - Last August we purchased a new tv from Vatan for 1100tl to use with our internet set top box. At the counter I asked the sales assistant if they would take the box to our car but this was declined. I also asked about the guarantee and was told that the receipt would suffice. At no time did Vatan staff open up the box, show us the guarantee or stamp it, tell us that we had to contact LG to come and install the tv at our house or that we had to keep the empty box in order to validate the guarantee. Once home my husband opened up the box and threw it out but unfortunately our friend who sets up tvs to the internet was unable to come and set us up until two days later.
Two days later when our friend came to install the tv to the internet he plugged it in and straight away told us the tv was broken. He told us to go back to Vatan which we did the next day. Even though the tv still had the sticker on the front of the screen, we had all the bits and pieces and the instruction booklet they asked where the box was. We explained that we did not have the box (typically, when you don’t want them to be, the dustbins had been emptied!) but that we had the guarantee card (even though it had not been stamped) and our sales receipt. They then told us it was an LG problem and told us to contact them. When LG was contacted, again it was asked about where was the box and they said it was a Vatan problem, no one seemed to be willing to do anything.
I thought about trying to claim on our house insurance and rang them telling them that we had purchased a new tv which was broken and that neither Vatan or LG were willing to do anything about it and that I wanted to make a claim. I was told that I could not claim because this was a new tv. If it had been dropped or broken accidentally it would have been covered. I then said that if I were to say the man who had come to install it knocked it over and broke it only to be told that this was not possible because I had already told them that this was a new tv so they would not accept a claim!
We then went to the consumer rights in Fethiye who took all the details and said this matter would go to court. They told us that we had to have a report from LG and we duly paid for LG to come out and look at the tv. When LG came to our house they said that it was obvious that the tv had been damaged in transit and that it should be a Vatan problem and yet again asked we were asked where the box was. We spoke to someone at the LG main office who said he would try to get us another box but then this was not acceptable because the bar code on the tv did not match that of the one on the box.
With the report, our statement and receipt the case went to court. In December we had a notification from the court. We went back to the Consumer Rights who told us to go back to Vatan as it had been awarded in our favour saying that Vatan should either give us a new tv or our money back. We are led to believe that Vatan were in the wrong for not having opened the box, telling us that LG should have come and installed our tv or the fact that it is an unwritten rule in Turkey that you have to keep all empty boxes in order for guarantees to be valid.
Thinking this was the end of the matter we went again to Vatan with the court decision only to be told that their solicitor had appealed to get the court decision reversed. We have 15 days in which to appeal and it will go to court again. We are told that Vatan are saying that it is the responsibility of LG and that if we loose the court case we have to pay all legal costs. All of this for the sake of an empty box! We are contacting our solicitor for advice but please take this as a warning that not everything is as it seems. Even if you can speak/read Turkish there are many unwritten rules that you may not know about.
I’ve asked a Turkish neighbour whether this is the case and normal practice and she told me that it is. I asked again at Vatan how long would we have been expected to keep an empty box and if it was for the duration of the guarantee. The man at the customer services counter said that it would only have to be six months. On another occasion my neighbour was told to keep the box three months, so what is the rule or do they make them up as they go along?!!!!
So what do we do next? At the expense of a solicitor do we go to court again with the off chance that we will lose and all the legal costs will be appointed against us (which could in essence amount to more than what the tv was worth). Or, do we just forget it, put it down to a costly experience and loose the money we paid for the tv?