Jon:
Tanya in Heidelberg; good morning to you. You’re through to David.
Tanya:
Good morning. I’ve got a consumers’ rights question. We bought a car in 2011 and, just before the warranty expired in June 2014, we noticed that there was something wrong with the condenser. The sound changed and they said there was nothing wrong. Then in December the whole thing failed when we had it re-gassed and we had to replace it in February.
Jon:
We’re talking about the air conditioner here, Tanya; are we?
Tanya:
Yes; the air-conditioning condenser failed. So we had it replaced in February 2016 and then I did think that it was starting to fail but then I just thought I was being neurotic, but then again in November 2017 the whole thing has failed again and originally when we had it replaced we just accepted that these things happen.
Then in November, we got this awesome air-conditioning guy and he said hang on there’s something wrong here. It’s not anything that you’ve done, you know a crash or anything like that, there’s a fault in the condenser and it’s exactly the same as the last one that I replaced for you. And he said it’s no damage, it’s a fault in the condenser. So because it’s out of warranty, they refused to acknowledge anything and say that there’s any problem with the parts.
DW:
Can I say, Tanya, you do have a claim you can bring at VCAT. Because presumably you bought the vehicle in Victoria.
Tanya:
Yes.
DW:
But what you’re going to need is expert evidence to say, in effect, that they sold you faulty goods. Cars are getting more and more complex so the answer would be there would be an expectation that these things do happen. You would need to get your expert to be able to say there was a fault with the unit and if they put in a faulty unit they can’t expect it to last.
Jon:
Alrighty, Tanya?
DW:
Two years wouldn’t be long enough.
Tanya:
Okay so just ring VCAT. Thank you.
Jon:
Go for it.