We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Master"don't"care
Options
Jeffunhappy
Posts: 4 Newbie
Master “Don’t Care” I’d like to join in on the threads for this so called “Repair/Replacement Co based on the following experience.
In 1988 my wife purchased a Phillips 1250 CTV from Currys which has given us loyal, long term service without the need to call Mastercare (thank goodness). Sadly and much to our regret, our beloved and faithful TV has been consigned to the Grand Station above:A. Since the time of purchase my wife (sadly deluded) took out a Mastercare cover at £49 p.a. Yes, 20 yrs of diligently paying by direct debit!! Totalling a grand sum of £980 + Cost of TV = £1329.99. 20 yrs. Of untroubled viewing, safe in the knowledge that if something should occur, we would receive either repairs or a modern day equivalent Phillips TV (now I’m deluded, I worked all those years to provide the money):embarasse . “Then came the FATAL day Saturday 1st Nov 2008”.
The previous day ‘Old Faithful” gave a loud cracking noise and lost all its channels (currently because of the events about to unfold, I’ve lost all mine!!). Thinking this was an aerial fault (we live high up in the sticks and has happened before in high winds) we called a local company who arrived within 1.5 hrs to sort it out. Within 15 minutes he restored the channels and commented “What a good picture” BUT in his opinion the problem wasn’t aerial related but the TV which he considered dangerous and should not be left on at night in case it caught fire and to contact who we had Old Faithful insured with.:eek:
Come Monday 3rd Nov. (The office closes at 12:00hrs on Saturdays) we contacted Mastercare, after nearly falling asleep listening to the automated switchboard and getting through to wrong department (twice) we were informed that bookings for the following day were closed and first available date was Fri 7th Nov (all this time without TV, we couldn’t afford a second set due to all our Mastercare outlays on various appliances).
Came the day!! After 5 hours wait the “expert” arrived and commented “What a good picture” can’t see there being a fault (now the explanation from us) “At the moment yes, but we have been told etc.etc.” Resulting in poor “Old Faithful” sadly leaving us never to be seen or watched again. Asking the “Telly Man” have you a set to leave resulted in the reply that “The girl hadn’t booked one, because everybody has more than one set and in any case there aren’t any” ( So now I have discovered I am “TV Impoverished” not being able to afford another TV because of all the outlay on other Mastercare plans we have, for several other electrical items . Has Mr. Brown or Mr. Darling any benefits to offer to such as us?
Away went “O. F.” and we were left with advice “Call up in a couple of days”
Thurs 13th Again endured the auto switchboard “adventure” to be told a tube and other parts had been ordered on Tuesday but Philips have not replied to their e-mail and would send another (I’m phoning! Why can’t they?) and advised to call again so I did the following day. Surprised to be told the parts were no longer available and our case has been passed to another dept. to send us out vouchers to replace O.F. On asking for the value of these we are told “We can’t access that because of The Data Protection Act.
Monday 17th came but no vouchers. Tuesday 18th eagerly awaited the postman – sadly deflated endured the Switchboard again and asked the question how much and given same answer. Then I tried a different tact by asking how we could obtain this info & given a different number. Surprise, surprise!!! Same switchboard, same experience but eventually spoke to someone who promised to call back the following day and HEY! THEY DID to tell us they will fast track the vouchers to us, eagerly I asked “What is the value? To be told “Data Pro” yes, yes, yes we know.
Thursday 20th GUESS WHAT!!! The vouchers arrived.:T Safe in the knowledge that I would soon be the proud owner of another Philips TV as good as O.F. I eagerly opened the envelope to find vouchers to the value of £249.99. Having initially invested £1399.99 I decided to endure the switchboard adventure to complain. BEWARE HERE!! I was eventually put through to the most aggressive, Bolshie, indifferent “Customer Care Person” who informed me in very strong terms “We have been compensated in accordance with their spec for spec conditions which was a ‘far better’ TV than ours and that a Brand was not a spec and to go to the store to inspect the LOGIK televisions, which was what we have been specified against” On stating that in my opinion, Logik was Currys own brand and inferior to a Philips, I was again strongly informed “GO TO THE STORE and check them out, Logik is not an own brand but a large manufacturer (Poor girl wasn’t aware that I had already been to the store to look for a replacement). ADVICE – If you should have to call, ask for the name of the “Carer” If you should have the misfortune to encounter BROOKE – tread carefully!! (This has only been a small pr!cis of mine and BROOKE’S conversation)
Friday 21st – Feeling like Indiana Jones I decided to once more endure the switchboard asking for a supervisor wishing to make two complaints i) The first about the “Caring Person” and ii) Again to complain about the derisory amount and at the same time put my point over about the specification. The lady I spoke with was very helpful and gave us the advise to visit the store and ask for the manager who can call Master(don’t)care to ask for a discretionary uplift in the value, we did so and met with a very pleasant lady who understood our point of view. She couldn’t call Mastercare because their switchboard is closed and would call me – we await the outcome which will be told to us on Monday 24th Nov. So now we face another weekend without TV (Can anybody spare one?)
Interesting point: - On visiting the store we wandered around looking at TVs first without enquiring for the manager. During this perusal we asked several of the assistants “What is the comparison between a Logik and a Philips TV?” Responses varied from Shrugs to eyes lifted heavenwards and one remark “It’s like the difference between a Skoda and a Ferrari, hastening to add that we do sell a lot so they must be good.
Question: Can anybody advise me if the Sales of Goods Act covers this sort of agreement or is there an equivalent Sales of Service Act??
Moral If, on purchasing electrical equipment you take out Mastercare cover thou wilt be deemed as a “Fool and his Money if you think you will receive like for like replacement if you find you have an “Old Faithful” like new had
& Advice: Don’t take out this type of cover. Your appliance is covered under Sale of Goods Act if it was not up to the quality and life you expected. Put aside the annual sum you have been asked to pay towards a new one should something happen. My wife and I have now cancelled all our Direct Debits for Mastercare, perhaps eventually we will be able to afford two sets – watch this space!
In 1988 my wife purchased a Phillips 1250 CTV from Currys which has given us loyal, long term service without the need to call Mastercare (thank goodness). Sadly and much to our regret, our beloved and faithful TV has been consigned to the Grand Station above:A. Since the time of purchase my wife (sadly deluded) took out a Mastercare cover at £49 p.a. Yes, 20 yrs of diligently paying by direct debit!! Totalling a grand sum of £980 + Cost of TV = £1329.99. 20 yrs. Of untroubled viewing, safe in the knowledge that if something should occur, we would receive either repairs or a modern day equivalent Phillips TV (now I’m deluded, I worked all those years to provide the money):embarasse . “Then came the FATAL day Saturday 1st Nov 2008”.
The previous day ‘Old Faithful” gave a loud cracking noise and lost all its channels (currently because of the events about to unfold, I’ve lost all mine!!). Thinking this was an aerial fault (we live high up in the sticks and has happened before in high winds) we called a local company who arrived within 1.5 hrs to sort it out. Within 15 minutes he restored the channels and commented “What a good picture” BUT in his opinion the problem wasn’t aerial related but the TV which he considered dangerous and should not be left on at night in case it caught fire and to contact who we had Old Faithful insured with.:eek:
Come Monday 3rd Nov. (The office closes at 12:00hrs on Saturdays) we contacted Mastercare, after nearly falling asleep listening to the automated switchboard and getting through to wrong department (twice) we were informed that bookings for the following day were closed and first available date was Fri 7th Nov (all this time without TV, we couldn’t afford a second set due to all our Mastercare outlays on various appliances).
Came the day!! After 5 hours wait the “expert” arrived and commented “What a good picture” can’t see there being a fault (now the explanation from us) “At the moment yes, but we have been told etc.etc.” Resulting in poor “Old Faithful” sadly leaving us never to be seen or watched again. Asking the “Telly Man” have you a set to leave resulted in the reply that “The girl hadn’t booked one, because everybody has more than one set and in any case there aren’t any” ( So now I have discovered I am “TV Impoverished” not being able to afford another TV because of all the outlay on other Mastercare plans we have, for several other electrical items . Has Mr. Brown or Mr. Darling any benefits to offer to such as us?
Away went “O. F.” and we were left with advice “Call up in a couple of days”
Thurs 13th Again endured the auto switchboard “adventure” to be told a tube and other parts had been ordered on Tuesday but Philips have not replied to their e-mail and would send another (I’m phoning! Why can’t they?) and advised to call again so I did the following day. Surprised to be told the parts were no longer available and our case has been passed to another dept. to send us out vouchers to replace O.F. On asking for the value of these we are told “We can’t access that because of The Data Protection Act.
Monday 17th came but no vouchers. Tuesday 18th eagerly awaited the postman – sadly deflated endured the Switchboard again and asked the question how much and given same answer. Then I tried a different tact by asking how we could obtain this info & given a different number. Surprise, surprise!!! Same switchboard, same experience but eventually spoke to someone who promised to call back the following day and HEY! THEY DID to tell us they will fast track the vouchers to us, eagerly I asked “What is the value? To be told “Data Pro” yes, yes, yes we know.
Thursday 20th GUESS WHAT!!! The vouchers arrived.:T Safe in the knowledge that I would soon be the proud owner of another Philips TV as good as O.F. I eagerly opened the envelope to find vouchers to the value of £249.99. Having initially invested £1399.99 I decided to endure the switchboard adventure to complain. BEWARE HERE!! I was eventually put through to the most aggressive, Bolshie, indifferent “Customer Care Person” who informed me in very strong terms “We have been compensated in accordance with their spec for spec conditions which was a ‘far better’ TV than ours and that a Brand was not a spec and to go to the store to inspect the LOGIK televisions, which was what we have been specified against” On stating that in my opinion, Logik was Currys own brand and inferior to a Philips, I was again strongly informed “GO TO THE STORE and check them out, Logik is not an own brand but a large manufacturer (Poor girl wasn’t aware that I had already been to the store to look for a replacement). ADVICE – If you should have to call, ask for the name of the “Carer” If you should have the misfortune to encounter BROOKE – tread carefully!! (This has only been a small pr!cis of mine and BROOKE’S conversation)
Friday 21st – Feeling like Indiana Jones I decided to once more endure the switchboard asking for a supervisor wishing to make two complaints i) The first about the “Caring Person” and ii) Again to complain about the derisory amount and at the same time put my point over about the specification. The lady I spoke with was very helpful and gave us the advise to visit the store and ask for the manager who can call Master(don’t)care to ask for a discretionary uplift in the value, we did so and met with a very pleasant lady who understood our point of view. She couldn’t call Mastercare because their switchboard is closed and would call me – we await the outcome which will be told to us on Monday 24th Nov. So now we face another weekend without TV (Can anybody spare one?)
Interesting point: - On visiting the store we wandered around looking at TVs first without enquiring for the manager. During this perusal we asked several of the assistants “What is the comparison between a Logik and a Philips TV?” Responses varied from Shrugs to eyes lifted heavenwards and one remark “It’s like the difference between a Skoda and a Ferrari, hastening to add that we do sell a lot so they must be good.
Question: Can anybody advise me if the Sales of Goods Act covers this sort of agreement or is there an equivalent Sales of Service Act??
Moral If, on purchasing electrical equipment you take out Mastercare cover thou wilt be deemed as a “Fool and his Money if you think you will receive like for like replacement if you find you have an “Old Faithful” like new had
& Advice: Don’t take out this type of cover. Your appliance is covered under Sale of Goods Act if it was not up to the quality and life you expected. Put aside the annual sum you have been asked to pay towards a new one should something happen. My wife and I have now cancelled all our Direct Debits for Mastercare, perhaps eventually we will be able to afford two sets – watch this space!
0
Comments
-
are you serious a 20year old telly ? the amount you will have paid mastercare for the insurance over them 20 years you could have bought a 50" plasma/lcd today.
sale of good acts says last reasonable length of time 20years is an excellent length of time for a tv, i say take the £250 and put some money towards it and get anotherSealed pot challenger # 10
1v100 £15/3000 -
It's not for the TV I am looking at Sales of Goods act, it is for the expectations of what I have received from Mastercare by way of replacing. Their "Insurance/Protection has not lived up to what we expected0
-
Ahhh but did it live up to what their contract said they would do. I bet, sadly, that it does.If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything0
-
Up to now it would appear not when they state spec for spec and offer a Logik against a Philips. Let's see what tomorrow brings
Jeffunhappy0 -
Oh I'm not defending their approach. I think you've been screwed big time and I hope you sort something out. But they've probably thought about what they're doing here to you and probably lots of others too very carefully. Is the manufacturer's badge really part of the "spec" of a product, outside of a few premium brands?If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything0
-
Well we've had the phone call & yes you've guessed it ZILCH. We have since discovered that a £249.00 Logik televison is Entry Level. So I shall now try to contact Philips and ask how they feel about their product being thus compared.
Looks like it's legal advice time having also found out that Mastercare will not inform anyone the value of the vouchers they are sending over the phone, obviously now we know why. It would be interesting to see how many people that use this site can verify this.
Must say the asst. manager at Currys was very, very helpful, courteous and sympathetic. So out of all this it is a big THANK YOU to her. But alas we have no O.F. or "Son of O.F." Needless to say of course that Currys or any part of their group (which I think encompasses Comet, Dixons and maybe PC World have nw lost a forever time customer. Loyalty counts as nothing to them0 -
Eww, logik.
How big is your old tv/the tv you're now looking for?
£249 would go nicely towards a pretty old (by 'new tech standards') but decent 20" sony tv. Any bigger and you're looking at about 300+.
The thing is, you can't compare a CRT to modern TVs. Most entry level TVs are LCD rather than CRT and largely have HD resolutions whereas older TVs were CRT and SD resolution.
HD LCD tvs work in a completely different way, deal with colours differently, have to upscalde SD, deal with motion differently....it's just completely different. It's like comparing a car to a scooter. Just because they both have wheels doesn't mean they're comparable in any way.
Come to think of it, I bet when they did the spec check, they just looked at your CRT, with no intergrated freeview tuner and a SD resolution, then pulled up the cheapest HD tv they could find, regardless of quality and decided it's better because it's HD and thought they were doing you a favour.0 -
Eww, logik.
How big is your old tv/the tv you're now looking for?
.
stuff snipped.£249 would go nicely towards a pretty old (by 'new tech standards') but decent 20" sony tv. Any bigger and you're looking at about 300+.
Come to think of it, I bet when they did the spec check, they just looked at your CRT, with no intergrated freeview tuner and a SD resolution, then pulled up the cheapest HD tv they could find, regardless of quality and decided it's better because it's HD and thought they were doing you a favour.
That's possible actually.
Jeff, I suspect you might end up taking this on the chin as one of life's lessons and moving on. I can see why you might not be impressed with that but what else is there to say.
All I can suggest is that if you don't mind buying online, you can get nice replacements at a reasonable price like this one from svp, a company I use for computer stuff quite happily.If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything0 -
What size was you original TV ?
You cant really expect over a grand back as that would be unfair .
Looking online at Currys there are many branded TV's for £250 available0 -
We had a very similar problem with mastercare and a tv a few years ago. the only difference was that we had only had the tv 3 months and they would only give us vouchers of 35% of the inital cost of the tv and less the full five year cost of the mastercare policy.
also our policy clearly stated that we would get a replacment set if taken for repair, which we did not get and we only had that tv as we only lived in a little 2 bed flat at the time so no need.
long arguement (7months), and most proberbly spent a fortune on telephone calls to a premium rate line but we got all the money in the end.
One negitive point with your posting. the tv was 10 years old, there is a little bit of small print in the mastercare plan regarding the age of the tv and the portionant amount you recive if they are unable to repair. You may wish to bare that in mind when you take it further/seek legal advice. also, an electrical product lasting 10 years is pretty good these days!
the lesson i learnt from what happened with me is i have paid my home insurance an extra £20 a year to cover my electrical goods for breakdown and repair.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 351.1K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.2K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.6K Spending & Discounts
- 244.1K Work, Benefits & Business
- 599.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177K Life & Family
- 257.5K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards