Helpdesk: Ask for clearest possible picture on return of goods

Q - I BOUGHT my 13-year-old daughter a Flip Mino HD video camera for Christmas, on offer at Argos in Edinburgh. At £60, the 8GB camera with a two-hour battery was half price. However, on opening it on Christmas morning, we found it didn’t work – it wouldn’t take a charge and wasn’t registering on the computer.

My daughter was bitterly disappointed because she wanted to film Christmas Day, so we set off from our home in Argyll to return it on 27 December – a three-hour round trip to Braehead near Glasgow.

The lady in the store confirmed that they didn’t have any similar cameras in store, or indeed in any of their other stores and weren’t getting them back in. All she could do was offer an inferior camera, a 4GB with one-hour memory, but as this was not included in the offer, I would have to pay an extra £15 to get it. (It was reduced, in a new deal, from £99 to £75.) I thought she should perhaps have offered a similar 8GB of another brand, but she said this was impossible.

After arguing my case, I asked her to phone head office and I spoke to someone there, who agreed with me that paying more for an inferior camera was not on, especially since the fault was with the goods they’d sold.

He suggested that we should be offered the cheaper camera and a voucher for £10, which would essentially mean that we’d get the £99 at half price too. I agreed with this, but on handing the phone back to the lady at the shop, she argued her case with head office and in the end put the phone down. She said all she could offer me was the inferior camera for no extra money, or to just refund the £60 paid. I took the inferior camera, just so that my daughter would have something straightaway. Her awful customer service manner had worn me down and, after an hour of haggling, I’d had enough.

I suspect by the letter of the law she is right, but I’d like to clarify with Argos that this is the way all customers would be treated in a similar situation.

KM, Argyll

A - AN Argos spokesman said: “We strive to offer the best customer service possible, and therefore we were very concerned to learn about the customer’s experience with the Flip Mino HD video camera.

“The store was unable to provide a new Flip Mino HD as the brand has been discontinued, meaning there were limited stocks available at Argos in-store and online.

“Argos has since apologised to the customer for the inconvenience and offered £30 in Argos gift cards as a gesture of goodwill, which she has accepted.”

• If you have a consumer issue that you would like tackling, contact Jane Bradley on 0131 620 8432 or e-mail [email protected].