In article ,
Don Pearce wrote:
On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:22:10 +0100, Rob wrote:

Just had an update on the second* driver replacement for a 7 year old
Contour speaker. The glue had failed along a 1cm join, at the point
where the rubber surround meets the driver cone.

All fixed, new woofer, for £135. However, the retailer was instructed
not to allow me to keep the broken driver. This is policy and all
replacement drivers are only supplied to authorised dealers on this
exchange basis. The driver has been returned to Dynaudio for examination.

Apart from not being that happy about this type of failure, I'm not
exactly enamoured to the 'closed shop' way of doing things. Anyhoo . . .

Rob

* the first failed a couple of months ago.

What do you mean "not allow" you to keep the old one? It is yours -
not theirs. I suppose you could always off er sell it to them.

IMO:

If it's warranty repair work, then the manufacturer is perfectly
allowed to keep the replaced parts.

If the Rob paid full retail price for the driver and paid for fitting,
then the broken driver should be the property of Rob.

However, if the driver was supplied at a part-exchange price, then as
part of buying the replacement driver, the broken driver is
exchanged.

I don't think there's anything illegal in any of the above and I don't
think any manufacturer is obliged to offer all of the above.