Advice please regarding complaining re Freezing fridge!

chrissypops

Being a conciencious sort of person, fair and also an ex customer service adviser, I tend to look at both customer and company point of view but at this present time Im a little agitated with Hoover appliances! :mad: ( its a long one! )

Id brought a frost free fridge freezer a few years ago and everything was great, until 3 weeks ago when it just started freezing up.I hunted out the receipt and service booklet and behold, a free 5 years parts cover, GREAT! So I called them.

After a small discussion regarding what was wrong with the appliance, the adviser said they could get an engineer out to me in 4 days time on a wednesday and the call out charge was... 109.00! Ok.. I picked myself up off the floor and although Im aware i could just get a second hand fridge for half that price, I booked the engineer.

Wednesday came and engineer turned up ( bear in mind it has been hot and I can refridgerate anything) he had a look and told me that the sensor had gone and they need to order another one. .. this would take A WEEK! :eek:

Normally, Im pretty patient with stuff, but with the importance of a fridge, Im waining a bit. I have 2 children and a partner, all depending on pack up normally, but had to swop my children onto dinners at school ( thats almost 20.00 ) plus what my partner would spend getting lunch out.

I had a call the day before the engineer was due to call, telling me that the part(s) havent come in so I didnt me to wait in for the engineer on the wednesday ( thanks but I still have no fridge! ) and they would call me on the thursday when their next delivery was in. Thursday came.. and went, and no call.

Feeling rather peed at this point, I called Hoover only to be told by the adviser that 2 of the 3 parts have come in and they were waiting for the 3 part. Well. In my usual polite, "Ive been in your position "voice, calmly explained to the adviser that this service wasnt good enough, I will be without a fridge for 3 weeks and Im throwing milk out and various fresh stuff most evenings due to the fact I dont want to give food poisioning anyone ( it was still boiling weather at this point). This and the cost of eating school dinners, eating out at lunchtimes was more than my pocket could take and I wanted to speak to a Manager.

Surprisingly there wasnt one available and I could have a call back. True to their word, I had a call back a few hours later from one of the Managers. She had looked into what had been going on and advised me that...

The 3rd part of the order was some sort of sealing tape and the engineer had this tape already!

She couldnt get anyone out over the weekend but she would dutibly call me on monday to book the engineer in

I told her that I wasnt very happy at all and what on earth am I paying 109.00 for when I could just get a second hand fridge for half the price and she promptly told me she could do nothing and I had to complain in writing! No email address to head office just snail mail. Great!

I understand that they need to order components and it does take time but i really feel that I have been flobbed off with loads of rubbish. With the extra cost of dinners, food and the call out charge over the last few wks I could of brought myself a brand new one!

The call out charge is payable on the return of the engineer but I want to ask if they will waiver the call out charge for the inconvienience of it all, but I dont know if Im being unreasonable or not?

Any thoughts anyone and sorry its sooo long winded!

Chrissy

tbw

I have every sympathy with you but, to be honest, I doubt you will get the whole call out charge waived. You deserve something though - mainly because they messed you about over the parts that were (supposedly!) not in stock. A basic item like tape that is carried on the vans as an excuse for the delay is daft. If it was me, I would certainly write a stiff letter and ask for a reduction of £75 off the call out charge - and be prepared for them to argue me down to £50.