Sticking it to the man
I became a first class complainer after an experience last year.
A month out of its 12 month warranty, my Xbox began mangling discs, cracking them about an inch from centre hole. This happened to three discs (including CoD4, at the time, about the only game I was playing).
MS wanted paying to repair it, but I was not best pleased (particularly as we bought the damn thing a week or two before the huge price drop).
Mrs S mentioned she'd seen something on Watchdog about a bloke returning a faulty Xbox, so I looked it up on t'interwebs and was introduced to a fantastic bit of info...

THE SALE OF GOODS ACT

In short, it says that the burden of responsibility for a faulty item rests with THE RETAILER for a certain amount of time. It's vague, but it's at least a year, and anything up to 7 years, depending on what it is. It's based on the idea that if something breaks down 'early' there's clearly an inherrent fault, and it's the retailer's responsibility to repair, replace or refund.

So, I phone the Head Office of the game station from whence I bought the Xbox. (I figured dragging it down the high street and talking to sataurday staffer on minimum wage was not a good option).
Initially the nice lady I spoke to was having none of it.

"I'm afraid if it's more than 12 months old, there's nothing we can do."
"OK", says I. "I didn't want to go down this route, but are you aware of the Sale of Goods Act?"

Pause

"Can you hold the line a second?"

A further pause.

"OK, what we'll do, we'll contact your nearest store, let them know you're coming in, and they'll exchange it for you for a new one, and we'll then send it off to MS and claim it back from them."

BINGO!

One sentence totally changed her attitude, and what she could do for me. The next day I was the owner of a brand new Xbox with a brand new warranty.

I'd say if you try it, you have to be a bit confident, but not aggressive. People in shops and that tend to react better to people who don't shout and rant and rave. Know what you're talking about as well. Chances are the staff in stores (including managers) won't know what you're on about, so ask them to contact their head office for confirmation.
( Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Fri 3 Sep 2010, 8:35, 4 replies)

I had JBHifi in Australia try and pull the same stunt with a broken external hard-drive.
"I'm afraid that since you bought it over a month ago and had used it, you have to contact the manufacturer and talk to them about getting it fixed."
"Oh really?" [fake look of disappointment] "See you later then."
Back to the office I went, and straight to the ACCC website (Australian Consumer Affairs).
Back to JBHifi (at lunchtime so that other customers could hear me kicking up a stink).
"Can I speak to your manager please?" [manager duly appears] "Now one of your staff members appears to have informed me that you cannot provide a refund for this broken hard-drive, and that I would have to contact the manufacturers? Is this right?"
"Ummm. Yes?" says Mr Manager.
"Well, here I have highlighted the relevant pieces of legislation that you and your staff have breached in telling me those two things. So can I have a refund please?"
"Ummm. Yes?"
(theremin put the lotion in the basket on, Fri 3 Sep 2010, 9:52, closed)

Oh it's great, and you can use it for pretty much anything
My friend bought a pair of jeans that ripped after four months' wear - with the receipt and a copy of the Sale of Goods act, she went back to the shop. The lady behind the counter said: "Well, you could have been wearing them down the park, or playing sports in them or anything.", to which she replied: "All of which would fall under normal use for a pair of jeans." Result: one new pair of jeans, which nevertheless ripped about four months later :)
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 3 Sep 2010, 10:03, closed)

There's a lot to be said for legal sounding sabre rattling
I have spent a big chunk of my life living in Brazil, where almost every complaint you care to make will be met with total indifference, on the basis that 99.999% of people can't be bothered to follow up.

I used to have a simple solution. We had a couple of lawyers working in our office. When I was met with a blank response to a complaint, I would just pick up my mobile, call our 'legal department', loudly discuss all the laws that were being broken* in front of the whole shop, and apart from in one case, got it resolved there and then.

(one case - Telefonica Brasil. Wankers).

*and probably some that weren't, but sounded good.
( Not Pineapple anymore, Fri 3 Sep 2010, 11:17, closed)

There are other tools to use on the tools...
In particular the Sale and Supply of Goods Regulations 2004, which implemented Directive 1999/44 EC on faulty products.

Basically, for most things the retailer is obliged to REPLACE up to 2 years after purchase, and repair for up 4 years after that, if the product could reasonably be expected to last that long. The courts have accepted that publishing MBTF (even by 3rd parties) or referring to TCO periods will establish evidence of a minimum time during which the product should perform as expected.

Oh yes. Could someone paste a purple cock into the post, to make up for the lack of funny?
(all my scars face forward possesses 2.5% of a hyperalloy combat chassis, Fri 3 Sep 2010, 12:11, closed)