Monday, 07 October 2002
Dear Sir/Madam,
This may be a long letter so bear with it.
On the 8th September, myself and my wife (8.5 months pregnant),
decided we needed a dishwasher to cope with the added amount of
workload with our impending arrival.
We went over to your new store in Stevenage on the Roaring Meg
Retail Park, and indeed purchased the shop floor model of Ariston
AS100.
We asked for it to be delivered and installed and paid the appropriate
fee for this service. While we were paying for the item, as I
am not a plumber, I asked if the installation was so it would
work before the delivery man left, I was assured that this was
the case.
Problem 1 – Delivery driver arrives later
that week and informs us that we don’t have the appropriate
pipe work to perform the installation. He told us that all installation
was, was him screwing the pipes from the back of the discwasher
into the plumbing and plugging it in. This was not was I was promised,
we then had to employ the serives of a plumber to come and deal
with it.
Problem 2 – The plumber arrives, carries out the
appropriate plumbing work, he goes to screw the connecting pipes
from the back of the machine to his plumbing and he tells us that
there are no pies – they were not supplied, the plumber
goes away having cost us £80.
Problem 3 – The wife phones your store
and as there is no one available to speak to us and someone would
call her back. No one called, the next day, my wife called again
and insists on holding while someone becomes available, we were
promised/assured a delivery of the relevant pipes the next day
in express post.
No pipes arrived, we waited another day (benefit of the postal
service), but still no pipes.
The wife phones again and no one could speak to her. With this,
my wife (8.75 months pregnant and hardly able to drive) went to
the store, she was given pipes and instructions and off she goes
home called the plumber who then came and tried to fit the pipes,
but the store had omitted to include any washers with them, the
plumber has some on his van and we were charged another £15
for the privalige of his time and washers.
The plumber also told us that the instructions that we were given,
were for a different Ariston machine, the wife spend another 30
minutes trying to get through to the store, when she did, the
store manager told her that all Ariston instructions are universal
and are for every machine. This is not the case.
My wife spent another unspecified amount of time trying to get
someone to call her back, and from the three of four times she
called in the duration of the day, not one person called her back.
I called the store from work the next day and got to speak to
a manager there and I was told that they did not have the instructions
for the machine we bought and they were trying to locate some
from anouther store – fair enough (although there was no
apology about all the messing about and the wrong information
and instructions and the lack of washers for the machine).
Problem 4 – We were told that there were
no instructions for this machine in the UK, Ariston no longer
make the machine and they would have to get the instructions from
abroud and have them translated, I was told that this was going
to take 3 weeks. We had already had this machine for 2 weeks and
have not been able to use it.
I said this was just not acceptable, and the person I spoke to
did not really give a dam to be honest, I was told that that was
it and they would contact me when they had been translated.
Not taking that for an answer I phone your office (Head Office),
I explained the situation and was told that all we needed to do,
was go back to the store (Saturday) and tell the customer services
department that it had been agreed by the head office customer
services department, for them to supply us with the next machine
up from the one we had at no extra cost.
We did this (wife now 1 day before her due date), we spoke to
a really nice and helpful chap, although he did not work in the
customer services department he did actually help us.
All was agreed and the he just had to clear it with the store
Manager (Greg).
Problem 5 – Greg the manager was having
none of it. He told us that he was not responsible to the head
office, he was the store manager and what he said was the law
in that store!
At this point I was about to explode, we had paid cash for a machine
3 weeks ago and was not able to use it, no appologies have ever
been made, my wife had made 4 trips to the store (7 miles away
from home) and she is about to give birth, we were promised the
earth but nothing ever turned up, I have never, never been so
insulted before in my life never!
After a 15 minute shouting row in the store (on a Saturday, the
busiest day of the week for a retailer I guess), Greg just insisted
that regardless of what the head office had promised, was not
his problem, he was the boss and what he said went.
I mentioned that just 15 minutes before Greg turned up, the actual
helpful sales guy had agreed to what your department had promised,
so Greg spoke to this guy and had a blazing row in the Customer
Services Department, about how this was not his decision and now
he was going to have to fulfil what he had promised.
We were promised a new machine for delivery on the following Wednesday.
Problem 6 – We had paid a plumber to come and install
the machine, I am now a plumber so I refused to un-install the
machine, Greg told me that he was then not willing to change the
machines over. Back to square 1.
Following a further 30 minutes of heated debate between Greg and
my wife (9 month pregnant), in the store, at the customer services
desk, on the busiest day of the week, my wife finally agreed for
the machine to be uninstalled by herself or me, just so we could
move on. We left the store.
Wednesday came, no machine, Friday came, no machine, the wife
called the store and we were told that there would be no delivery
of these machines until the following week, Greg must have known
this and just fobbed us off to get us out of the store. ~
Yesterday, I cracked! I phoned the store and said the reason we
wanted a dishwasher was due to impending birth of new baby, I
asked what machines were in stock and asked for them to just get
me the next one up and I will physically drive the machine I have
had sitting unused in my kitchen for the last month and swap it.
This was agreed by a relatively helpful member of staff (Sean),
I uninstalled the machine and put it (on my own) into the back
of my car and drove back to the store.
I was told I would have to pay the difference from the unused
machine (£199) I was returning to the new machine (£267.87).
Problem 7 – We had to pay the difference.
I paid this difference, we swapped machines and we made our get
away.
Firstly, this situation is the kind of thing you hear about on
BBC’s Watchdog, I am absolutely and utterly disgusted with
the way we (your customer), have been treated by Curry’s
employees.
I am disgusted with the general disregard of my wife’s condition
by Curry’s employees. I am astounded by the lack of information
available from your in-store staff and the miss-information given.
I would like to hear your thoughts with regards to this situation
and the basis of your reply/compensation offer, will determine
my next call to action.
Yours sincerely, Chris & Vicky Buckley
Link to Other Dixon Group Company
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