Unable to get TV repaired..advise?

I’m hoping for some practical sound advice here.
I purchased a large screen TV for 1000 euro from an online (not Irish owned) retailer in mid April 07.

The purchase price was deducted from my credit card immediately but I didn’t receive delivery until mid May 07 as the online retailer was waiting for new supplies from their distributer.

The TV developed a fault in August 07 after less than 4 months use, and I tried to find a service centre that would repair it under warranty locally but could find none in Ireland who would do this.

Several of them suggested to me that the onus was on the retailer to arrange repair or replacement so I emailed them asking for them to arrange this.

I had several replies from them telling me that I should contact the manufacturer for repair options but on doing this on 3 different occasions the manufacturer replied that the responsibility lay with the retailer for the first 12 months. I sent these mails to the retailer who eventually acknowledged that this was the case. This whole process took until the end of November.

Finally in December the online retailer contacted and arranged to have a repair shop local to me undertake the repair work and to bill the retailer for the repair.
The repair shop collected the TV from me in mid December and then tried to source components for the repair through the on line retailer.
The online retailer provided the repair shop several contact sources which the online retailer had been advised of by the manufacturer.

To date the repair shop have been unsuccessful in sourcing the required parts and have now advised me that they consider the unit beyond repair because of this.
The repair shop has said that they want me to pay 100 euro to have it delivered back to me. It’s broken! Why would I want to pay for the return of a broken TV??

Despite a flood of emails and several long distance phone calls from me to the retailer over the last 6 months I am no nearer a resolution.
They tell me they are doing their best to provide a repair solution but the TV has been at the shop now for over 10 weeks.
I have had just 4 months usage from the unit in the 10 months since it was delivered to me.

What if any path can I take here to get a refund or a replacement from the retailer bearing in mind they are in the EU but not Irish.
I had considered asking my credit card company to do a chargeback but I don’t know if they readily do such a thing or if it’s even possible.

Any advise anyone?

Hi,

Have a look at the European Consumer centre site www.eccdublin.ie.
They should be able to help you.

I don't think the bank will do a chargeback in cases like this, but there is no harm in trying.

Update:

Finally received my repaired TV June 4th...Took from Dec 12th to June 4th to get the unit repaired and back to me.

Had followed up with the ECC crowd below and they were working this since March but from the correspondance received to date from them I dont think they had any influence on this.

The shop finally sourced the parts and billed the retailer for the repair back in April.

Once they recived payment on June 3rd they delivered the TV back to me.

Happy with the repair work, no problem with the local repair shop but customer service at the online retailer was non-existantant.

I was without this TV for 9 months, 8 of which they were aware of and they would not issue a refund.

Thanks for the update.

You've learned the hard way that online purchases have their downside. I don't think I'd ever buy a TV from an overseas supplier for this reason, unless I was sure that any in-warranty work would be carried out locally, no questions asked.