What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
(I'm going to word the product details a bit generic so that the other party won't happen to come across my post).
I purchased an automated home decor product almost 5 years ago. It was expensive, just under $10,000. The dealer convinced me with their sales pitch to go with the premium controls with home automation integration. They are a major showroom dealer for this product and I had the impression that the system they were configuring was tested by the manufacturer and had the same quality controls. The manufacturer has a 5 year warranty and is known for high quality. The dealer also talked up this 5 year warranty as part of their sales pitch.
Now the system has been a nightmare ever since. The internal mechanisms never synchronize properly, so it looks awkward in the home, and it makes an annoying noise that is not supposed to happen. I have called out the dealer at least 5 times for service calls (perhaps 10 times), each time it's like having to twist their arms to come out to my home (they don't return my voice mails or emails until several weeks later). Each time they have to re-program the firmware with some cryptic commands to re-sync mechanisms that got out of sync, and they tried replacing mechanical components but the exact same problems are still happening. We go through this cycle every few months -- works halfway decent for a few months, and then I have to call them out again as it gets out of sync (and sometimes I just live with the problem for a year or so before calling them out again).
I tried to get them to come out for a service call again, but a couple weeks went by without returning my voice mails or email. So finally I decided to contact the manufacturer directly to ask for a warranty replacement of the ENTIRE system and to complain about the dealer. The manufacturer looked at my invoice and determined that the system internal assemblies were altered by the dealer, so the 5 year manufacturer warranty is void. This came as a surprise to me, I thought I bought a system that was tested and supported by the manufacturer. It turns out that the dealer altered the system internal mechanisms in order to upsell me on the home automation tie-ins. But by doing so, they put inferior components inside that never work properly.
I feel that they tricked me about the warranty -- they never told me that they voided the manufacturer warranty and that they are the ones responsible for the warranty (there's nothing in the invoice either to indicate this). Their own warranty statements mirror the manufacturer's warranty length of 5 years, and covers the same parts, as if they're trying to mirror the same terms to make me think I got the same guarantee of this high quality reputable brand. Now after numerous service calls it is obvious the system will NEVER work properly and I need a complete replacement of the entire system with one from the factory that is NOT modified with their mickey mouse hodge podge modifications. At this point I would settle for a slightly less fancy system that actually works, even if it doesn't have those home automation tie-ins that they talked me into buying (which they pitched as premium controls, making it sound like it's fully supported by the manufacturer).
I am thinking my next step should be to take them to small claims court to get a refund for the system or a complete replacement. What would be the best approach? Seems like breach of contract? It appears they are just trying to run out the clock by servicing the system every few months, even though it never works properly after the service calls. I have a lengthy email trail documenting these problems as I write to the dealer asking them to come out to fix it.
(I'm going to word the product details a bit generic so that the other party won't happen to come across my post).
I purchased an automated home decor product almost 5 years ago. It was expensive, just under $10,000. The dealer convinced me with their sales pitch to go with the premium controls with home automation integration. They are a major showroom dealer for this product and I had the impression that the system they were configuring was tested by the manufacturer and had the same quality controls. The manufacturer has a 5 year warranty and is known for high quality. The dealer also talked up this 5 year warranty as part of their sales pitch.
Now the system has been a nightmare ever since. The internal mechanisms never synchronize properly, so it looks awkward in the home, and it makes an annoying noise that is not supposed to happen. I have called out the dealer at least 5 times for service calls (perhaps 10 times), each time it's like having to twist their arms to come out to my home (they don't return my voice mails or emails until several weeks later). Each time they have to re-program the firmware with some cryptic commands to re-sync mechanisms that got out of sync, and they tried replacing mechanical components but the exact same problems are still happening. We go through this cycle every few months -- works halfway decent for a few months, and then I have to call them out again as it gets out of sync (and sometimes I just live with the problem for a year or so before calling them out again).
I tried to get them to come out for a service call again, but a couple weeks went by without returning my voice mails or email. So finally I decided to contact the manufacturer directly to ask for a warranty replacement of the ENTIRE system and to complain about the dealer. The manufacturer looked at my invoice and determined that the system internal assemblies were altered by the dealer, so the 5 year manufacturer warranty is void. This came as a surprise to me, I thought I bought a system that was tested and supported by the manufacturer. It turns out that the dealer altered the system internal mechanisms in order to upsell me on the home automation tie-ins. But by doing so, they put inferior components inside that never work properly.
I feel that they tricked me about the warranty -- they never told me that they voided the manufacturer warranty and that they are the ones responsible for the warranty (there's nothing in the invoice either to indicate this). Their own warranty statements mirror the manufacturer's warranty length of 5 years, and covers the same parts, as if they're trying to mirror the same terms to make me think I got the same guarantee of this high quality reputable brand. Now after numerous service calls it is obvious the system will NEVER work properly and I need a complete replacement of the entire system with one from the factory that is NOT modified with their mickey mouse hodge podge modifications. At this point I would settle for a slightly less fancy system that actually works, even if it doesn't have those home automation tie-ins that they talked me into buying (which they pitched as premium controls, making it sound like it's fully supported by the manufacturer).
I am thinking my next step should be to take them to small claims court to get a refund for the system or a complete replacement. What would be the best approach? Seems like breach of contract? It appears they are just trying to run out the clock by servicing the system every few months, even though it never works properly after the service calls. I have a lengthy email trail documenting these problems as I write to the dealer asking them to come out to fix it.