Sorry, An Insect Flying Into Your TV Is An Act Of God

When a few pixels go out on your 65″ TV that’s still under warranty, the warranty should cover that, right? That was the dispute between Currys, a UK electronics store sort of like Best Buy, their customer, and an alleged insect, now deceased and stuck in the TV’s screen somehow.

The retailer refused to grant the customer a warranty repair, calling the broken screen an “act of God.” That doesn’t mean that the Almighty flung an insect at the TV set, but only that the event wasn’t the owner’s fault and wasn’t the manufacturer’s fault, and isn’t covered under the warranty.

The retailer asked £95 for the repair, which is about $144. That’s not an unfair amount, but the customer still thought that it ought to be repaired within the warranty.

That’s what he was told when he dropped it off, at least. Then there was a call from the store. Instead of telling him to come pick up his freshly repaired TV, he reports that the repair service called him, saying “they wouldn’t repair it and were really vague as to why.”

Now he is receiving a warranty repair, but it’s not clear whether Currys changed its mind again before or after he took his story to national television news. Either way, he should get a working and bug-free TV set back, and won’t have to pay for a warranty repair on a set that he paid £800 ($1,219) for after last Christmas.

We are sorry that [the customer’s] experience with us did not reflect our usual high standards.

We understand LG are now repairing his TV but we will contacting him to offer a future gesture of goodwill and hope he is back enjoying his box soon.

Currys refuse to repair £800 TV broken by fly because it was an ‘act of God’ [ITV News]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist