I have a Flymo Roller Compact 4000, which I bought early last year. I've been exceptionally pleased with it. However, now I have a problem. The height adjustment lever will not stay in place - at the slightest jolt it resets itself to the lowest (storage) setting, ripping the hell out of my lawn.
Having looked closely at the parts involved, I can see quite clearly why this has started to happen, and to my mind is is a definite design fault with the machine.
Having contacted Flymo, they have suggested that I return it to my local service centre, but said that any costs incurred will be mine, as I do not have the receipt, and therefore it is considered out of warranty.
I am considering arguing this point, because I do not believe this is a warranty issue, so much as an issue of the mowed not being built fit for purpose in the first place. A mower which collapses after 1 year of light use is not a mower fit for the job.
Before doing this, I thought I'd ask for your advice though. Where do you think I stand?
Here are some photos to help explain the issue.
Firstly this photo shows the height adjustment lever as it now sits when not under pressure.:
s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd144/bazzabearalbum/AO/?action=view¤t=DSC03757.jpg
And this one how it should sit. There is no spring, it is just a flexible piece of plastic, and as you can see it has weakened, and no longer sits flush against the body of the mower:
s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd144/bazzabearalbum/AO/?action=view¤t=DSC03758.jpg
And here is a picture of the sockets on the body of the mower, within which two prongs on the lever locate to hold it in place (you can just see them on the first picture). As you can see, they are made of very thin plastic, and have rapidly worn away:
s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd144/bazzabearalbum/AO/?action=view¤t=DSC03759.jpg
The combination of these two failures results in it not being able to stay in place.
Thanks for your advice!
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See here Baz ~
www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B0001IWHQ6/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
Find out who the head honcho is & write to him enclosing pic of the worn parts.
Give him the spiel about how you are a life-long Flymo customer,
Buy a Black & Decker or Bosch next time.
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If you cannot find the receipt, can you use a bank statement or credit card bill to prove when you bought it?
I've got to take something back to B&Q and I've thrown the receipt. They tell me if I provide the transaction code from my bank statement they can look it up and refund me. I figure you could do something similar to prove purchase date and thus have a warranty?
Then again if its over 12 months, did it come with only a 12 month warranty? My Flymo which was purchased in April has 12 months for the warranty - and the warranty registration card is in front of me because I've yet to register it because I was changing address.
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I'm quite sure that it is just over 12 months. I can check my credit card statements back 12 months and it's not on there. Since it's definitely outside their warranty period, I'm unwilling to spend the time trying to work out exactly when I bought it, as the credit card company charges £2 per statement for retrieving stuff older than 12 months!
The basis of my argument is that, even had I bought it 2 years ago, the fault is unreasonable.
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I have sent this email in reply to theirs suggesting that any repairs would have to be paid for myself:
Hi, and thank you for your correspondence.
However, I'm not really happy with this response. I am perfectly sure of the cause of the fault, having investigated it myself. The nature of that fault is, in my opinion, down to a design fault. It is reasonable to say that this occurring within the life of the mower - not just the guarantee period - constitutes the machine not being fit for purpose.
As such, I think the guarantee period being over is irrelevant.
I have attached some pictures I have taken of the affected parts to help to explain my conclusions and my position.
'Lower deck sockets' shows the sockets in which the lever locates. You can see that they have badly worn, meaning they no longer hold the lever sufficiently. This is after one season of light use, moving the lever twice per use - once out of storage position, once back to storage position. This level of wear after such light use is unacceptable in my opinion.
'Height adjustment lever' shows how the lever now sits.
'Height adjustment lever held' shows how the lever should sit. You can see that, because the lever is only held against the body of the mower by its own stiffness (there is no spring) the plastic weakening over time has led to it not sitting as firmly as it should, again contributing to the lever not being sufficiently held in place.
Again, it is my opinion that these were two faults are down to design faults with the mower, and therefore the mower was not fit for purpose under the Sales of Goods act.
Regards,
James
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Because you had said:
>> Having contacted Flymo, they have suggested that I return it to my local service centre,
>> but said that any costs incurred will be mine, as I do not have the receipt, and therefore it >> is considered out of warranty.
suggested it might have been in warranty if you had a receipt. If you know it was a 12 month warranty and was outside it then good luck proving a design flaw. Presumably the design is the same? Maybe pop to B&Q or similar to look at a new one? If you can show they changed the design then it might add strength to your argument.
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Sorry, I was unclear there. I only confirmed that it was definitely over 12 months after the initial run of emails.
Good tip on the checking of design - although I think they might have replaced the model. Will check it out though.
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If they replaced the model.... I wonder if there was a problem with the design of the old one ;-)
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I think you've definitely hit on something - none of the Flymo mowers which I can see currently for sale have the same height adjustment system.
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I bought Mrs K. a Flymo lawn rake about three years ago. She used it half a dozen times before it packed up - just out of warranty.
Stripped it down and found that they'd used nylon gears to couple the motor to the business end. The heat from the motor under load had melted the gear so that it was spinning uselessly on the rotor shaft.
I emailed their customer service folks and explained the problem. All they wanted was date and place of purchase. There was a replacement waiting for me when I got home from work the next day.
No problems with it so far. I guess that they've used something more substantial this time but I haven't stripped it to take a look.
Kevin...
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I had some problems with a Flymo 350 some years ago - turned out that the power unit was just not up to the job.
Flymo, even though the warranty was out of date, agreed to fully meet the cost of the upgrade to the Flymo introduced as a result of the original limitatations.
As a result, it's still going strong to this very day.
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Something for Watchdog perhaps? If they've changed it then clearly they knew about the issue to some degree.
The retailer themselves is responsible so take it back to them and explain. If they are a large chain they'll have more clout with flymo. It could also be considered a health and safety issue if it collapses while being used...
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I don't know whether Flymo are one of those companies who update their products every year anyway.
And the problem with taking back to the retailer is that, while I'm sure I bought it from B&Q, I can't remember 100% which branch I bought it from - either Talke or Hanley.
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Faulty Flymo - my next move? - Dog
