Legal Question in Business Law in California

I suggest letting the service technician come out to look at it. They are entitled to a reasonable opportunity to fix the problem and you have installed things incorrectly somehow. If they can't get things to work, demand your money back in writing and take them to small claims court if they won't cooperate.

The warranty is that the good will work. If the good doesn't work as warranted then yeah they can repair and replace as those are options they have under the Song Beverly Act which covers consumer warranties. Only if they cannot do that within reason (you shouldn't have to wait months for a replacement or suffer numerous repairs) then you should demand your money back and sue in small claims court. Note the law requires a demand for them to repair or replace the item before you're allowed to sue for breach of warranty. Also the the promise it would work is a warranty as well....

I'm thinking that the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act applies (with a few exceptions) only to sales of NEW goods. See Civil Code section 1791(a). However, other law including the California version of the Uniform Commercial Code does provide an implied warranty for used merchandise when sold by a "merchant" (a term meaning someone who deals in that kind of stuff for a living).

Commercial Code sections 2314 and 2315 seem to me to set up implied warranties when the seller is a merchant, whether the goods are new or used, and Commercial Code 2508 seems, by implication, to limit the merchant's right to make things OK when it delivers goods not meeting the warranty to a timely substitution of conforming merchandise within the period allowed for delivery. Here, the time for delivery was the time of delivery. So, the merchant has no right to replace or repair the stove.

So, the remaining question is whether the stove is defective or whether it isn't properly installed. That will determine the outcome. Maybe your gas company would be willing to do an inspection and give you an opinion. Sometimes they'll do this for free if there may be safety issues involved.

Mr. Whipple see Cal Civ Code � 1795.5. about Song Beverly Act as it does apply to used goods, albeit not to implied warranties on used goods. "Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (a) of Section 1791 defining consumer goods to mean "new" goods, the obligation, the obligation of a distributor or retail seller of USED consumer goods in a sale in which an express warranty is given shall be the SAME..."(Id.)

Note an express warranty is just an affirmation of fact by the seller ("it works"). Thus they're obligated to try and fix it for the guy, if they fail to then replace or reimburse. See Cal Civ Code � 1795 the non-manufacturer who made the express warranty (the seller here) is obligated pursuant to Cal Civ Code � 1793.2 (d)(1) to act as the manufacturer would be required to act:

"if the manufacturer or its representative in this state does not service or repair the goods to conform to the applicable express warranties after a reasonable number of attempts, the manufacturer shall either replace the goods or reimburse the buyer in an amount equal to the purchase price paid by the buyer, less that amount directly attributable to use by the buyer prior to the discovery of the nonconformity."

Do as Mr. Whipple said and have the gas company check it out as well. If it is indeed broken and they won't take it back, under Song Beverly you get attorney fees if you win. Thus if you Poster want to eventually sue and are in southern California I'd take the case.