Year Two, Who Pays? We Broke Ten DTC Products After the Guarantee Ran Out
Photo: broken appliance repair receipt warranty paperwork desk UK, via imgs.mongabay.com
A year is a strange unit of time. It's long enough for a kettle to feel like furniture and short enough that a manufacturer's promise still feels fresh in the mind. Then month thirteen arrives, the thing breaks, and you discover that the warranty you vaguely remember wasn't a warranty at all — it was a return window with better marketing.
So we ran an experiment. Ten direct-to-consumer products, bought at full price in the autumn of 2025, all deliberately left alone until they hit month fourteen in 2026. Then we broke them — or rather, we waited for them to break, which most of them obligingly did — and filed a claim exactly as an ordinary customer would. No legal letters. No naming a solicitor in the first email. Just a polite message and a photo of the damage.
What followed was a masterclass in how much of a second-year failure a brand is genuinely prepared to eat.
The fault we chose, and why it matters
We picked the dullest possible failure: a hinge, a seal, a battery that stopped holding charge. Nothing dramatic, nothing that could be blamed on a drop down the stairs. Each fault was the kind that appears in year two of normal use and never in year one, which is precisely the period most warranties are designed to forget.
Every claim went out on a Tuesday morning, in writing, with a photograph and the order number. Where a brand's website had a warranty form, we used it. Where it had only a chat widget, we used that and asked for a transcript.
What the law actually gives you after twelve months
The 12-month figure is a habit, not a rule. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods must last a reasonable length of time — and in England, Wales and Northern Ireland you have up to six years to bring a claim (five in Scotland). The burden shifts: after the first six months, it's broadly on the retailer to show the fault wasn't there at purchase, and the remedy can be a repair or a replacement rather than a refund.
The catch is that this is a route through the retailer, not the brand, and retailers know that very few people bother. So the warranty — the voluntary one — is what actually decides whether you spend six weeks arguing or get a box in the post. That's what we measured.
The ten, and how they scored
| Brand (category) | Year-two claim route | Proof demanded | Postage | Outcome | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kettlewell (smart kettle) | Web form, buried in help | Photo of receipt | Paid by us, £11.40 | 40% off replacement | 4/10 |
| Northfold (rucksack) | Email to repairs team | Order number only | Free label | Free repair, 9 days | 9/10 |
| Pell & Row (cordless drill) | Phone line only | Receipt + serial photo | £18.95 | Replacement at half price | 5/10 |
| Marrow (electric toothbrush) | Chat, then email | Screenshot of order | Free label | Full replacement | 8/10 |
| Halstead Home (bedding) | None | Free | Replaced, no questions | 10/10 | |
| Orrin (desk lamp) | Warranty portal | Receipt PDF, dated | £9.50 | Repair attempted, failed, refunded 50% | 6/10 |
| Tarn & Co (coffee grinder) | Receipt + video of fault | £14.00 | Refused, offered 15% code | 2/10 | |
| Beckworth (headphones) | App-based form | Order number | Free | Replacement, 21 days | 7/10 |
| Solway (cast-iron pan) | None | Free | Re-seasoned and returned | 9/10 | |
| Fennick (robot vacuum) | Chat only | Receipt + photos + video | Paid, £22.10 | 30% off parts, labour free | 3/10 |
The pattern isn't random. The brands that scored well were the ones whose product is cheap to fix and whose reputation rests on durability — pans, bags, bedding. The brands that scored badly were the ones selling electronics with a battery inside and a marketing budget outside.
Where the money actually went
Across the ten claims, we spent £75.95 on return postage and were offered £0 in cash compensation. Total value recovered: four replacements, one repair, two partial refunds and two discounts we'd charitably call insults.
Worth noting: two brands asked for proof of purchase we couldn't provide in the form requested. One wanted a PDF invoice, but the order confirmation had been an image inside an email. Another wanted the serial number from a sticker that had worn off in the wash. Neither was a refusal, but both added a week and a fair amount of swearing.
Response times ranged from four hours (Halstead Home) to eleven days and two chasers (Tarn & Co). Six of the ten replied within 48 hours, which is better than we expected.
The three questions that decide who pays
Is there a published warranty page at all? If the only mention of cover is a line in the FAQ, assume year two is your problem.
Who pays postage both ways? A free label is worth roughly £15 on a mid-sized parcel. A brand that makes you post a kettle to a depot at your own cost has already told you its answer.
Repair, replace or discount? A discount code is not a remedy. It is a second sale.
The practical bit
Keep the order confirmation as a PDF the moment it lands, photograph the serial sticker, and register the product if there's a portal — even the tedious ones. Note the fault date. When you claim, lead with the order number and a photo, ask plainly whether they'll repair or replace, and mention the Consumer Rights Act only if the polite version stalls. It usually doesn't.
And when you're choosing between two nearly identical products at a similar price, spend ninety seconds on the warranty page. It's the cheapest insurance you'll ever read — and the one thing the discount never covers.
