Drawing up warranty and repair conditions

Warranty and repair conditions

As soon as the return period has expired, customers will see information on warranty and repairs in their account. The information is as follows:

On your personal shop page, it says: ‘Deze verkoper hanteert geen aanvullende voorwaarden’ (this seller does not apply additional conditions).
In the customer’s account, after the return period, it says: ‘Is het artikel defect of wil je informatie over de garantie? Neem dan direct contact op met de verkoper’ (is the item faulty or do you want warranty information? Please contact the seller directly) – followed by your general contact information.

Do you have additional conditions or instructions for warranty and repair? Please add these. The same goes for a specific repair address. You can do this via ‘Instellingen’ and ‘Mijn winkel’ by clicking on ‘Garantie & reparatie’.

When filling in this information, take into account the rights and obligations under the Distance Selling Act and the European Directive on Sales and Guarantees:
If an item breaks down within 1 year, the law assumes that the item was already faulty at the time of purchase and you, as the selling party, must be able to prove that the defect was caused by the customer’s actions. This is your duty of investigation as the selling party. If it was not caused by the customer, you have to offer the customer another option such as a replacement or repair. If a defect is reported after 1 year, the burden of proof is on the customer to prove that the defect is not caused by use.

In general, the costs made for investigation and repairs are your responsibility, as the owner of the product. This is different if it turns out that the defect was caused by customer use. Please note: you must point this out to the customer in advance. So even before the product is returned to you, you should point out to the customer that the costs can be recovered from them if the defect was caused by use.

Warranty period

A legal warranty period is not fixed in the Netherlands. It depends on the item and the minimum expected lifespan. However, as part of the European Union we do have certain obligations for the warranty period.In fact, the Europese Richtlijn Koop en Garantie (European Directive on Sale and Guarantee) includes a statutory period of 2 years, this is the warranty period prescribed as a minimum to EU member states. We are only allowed to deviate from this period in favour of the customer. In the case of a TV, for example, there is an average lifespan of 5 years, so a customer may contact the seller even after those 2 years but within 5 years under warranty.

Manufacturer’s warranty

You can add information about manufacturer’s warranty by adding it to the product information of the relevant item.
Customers find it important to know more about the manufacturer’s warranty, particularly with electronic items. The more information you provide, the better. Therefore, check where you add information about the manufacturer’s warranty for your offer.

In general, as a seller, you are responsible for the warranty. However, you can refer the customer to the manufacturer for a warranty if it applies to your product. If the customer is unwilling or unable to contact you, you as the seller are still obliged to take care of communication with the manufacturer.

Warranty for orders via Logistics via bol
If you sold an item with Logistics via bol that turns out to be faulty, the warranty and/or repair will be handled by you as seller, see Article 8 of the General Sales Conditions for this service.

Having problems with a customer?
Has a customer contacted you via a customer query about a warranty issue and you are unable to resolve it together? Then you can always refer the case to bol customer service for assistance and mediation. Choose the option Hulp nodig van bol?” and then ‘Vraag het aan de bol klantenservice’.

Any tips on handling a customer query in case of a defect can be found here (in Dutch).