We take our obligations under the Consumer Guarantees Act (CGA) very seriously. We want to do right by our customers and ensure they spend more time doing what they love and less time dealing with faulty or incorrect products. Our customers are the key to our business, so we do whatever we can to put things right.
The CGA provides consumers with some good backup when something goes wrong. If a product has a minor problem that can be fixed, we will take one of three options:
- Replace it with an identical product at no extra cost.
- Repair it free of charge.
- Give a full refund.
The option we choose will depend on the situation, such as how long you have had the product, how much it is worth, and how easy it is to replace.
If a product has a major problem and is not fit for use, we will proactively contact you to advise you of the issue and remedy it before it becomes a problem. This is generally due to a fundamental design problem that makes the item unsafe, or, if the inherent issue were known, it would likely not have been purchased in the first place.
This does not generally include normal wear and tear, an unexpected manufacturing fault, or "not being fit for purpose" when the customer is using it for a purpose it wasn't originally intended for.
Before you start pulling it to bits...
If you start pulling a product to bits, be aware that in many cases this will void the warranty. The CGA states that we are not held accountable for a third party's repair costs unless we have approved it beforehand. Pulling a unit apart might also mean we are unable to determine the actual fault, which we do have a right to do before deciding on the action.
Inspecting Faulty Products
As part of the CGA, we have the right to inspect the product and undertake an investigation before committing to any action. This will sometimes require us to send the product back to the supplier for their expert opinion.
We, unfortunately, do get a lot of products back that turn out not to have anything wrong with them.
To save you time, we may send you some basic troubleshooting ideas before getting the product back. Sometimes, we can help out and sort out the problem without having to get it back from you. This saves us all time and costs in freight.
If we can't sort it before sending it back, we will get it back to the office to have a look at it. While we are not a fully operational technical servicing office, we do have a fair bit of experience with our wide range of products and some of the idiosyncrasies in regard to usage. We can often quickly determine the fault and then sort you out without having to send the products externally to the supplier.
With certain products, however, we will need to send it out to the supplier. Many of the fishfinders and trolling motors fit into this category. With many warranty claims, the supplier will ask us to send it back to them to evaluate.
It is very important to understand - most of the time; we are going to be testing the unit in isolation - to determine if the unit we have sold you is faulty or not. With many of the products we sell - especially those that require power or gas to run, this installation can affect the operation of the product. While we will do all we can to help with troubleshooting the installation, often it's beyond our ability (and obligations) to fix or redo the installation of the product. We appreciate the frustration this can cause for our customers - and sometimes we get to a point where we can confirm that the product itself is functioning fine, but once in the customer's system, it isn't operating as expected. This situation is beyond our responsibilities in regard to the Consumer Guarantees Act.
Change of Mind
While a change of mind is specifically excluded as a reason for return in the CGA, we acknowledge that sometimes something looks different on a website, or the fitting isn't quite what you expect. At Marine Deals we offer a 28-day right of return. While this is "no-questions-asked", we do require the products to come back as new. More details can be found here: https://marinedeals.freshdesk.com/a/solutions/articles/44001707611?portalId=44000094819
Service And Repairs
Due to the size and nature of our business, we are only able to offer limited servicing and repairs to products that are outside of the warranty period. Where the product has a local supplier with a service department, we can liaison and help our as best we can. We carry limited spares for the products we bring in ourselves.
Getting the Products Back
If the product has a fault, we will often need to get the item back before we can take action.
While the CGA states that it is up to the customer to get the product back to the seller, we will generally provide a return courier ticket to cover your costs. If you purchased an item in New Zealand, we generally won't cover international freight back to us.
Link to the act
The Consumer Guarantees Act can be found here: https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0091/latest/whole.html