Currys/DSGi Coverplan/Whateverhappens - TV "lost" instead of re-delivered

Tezcatlipoca

[Short story: TV faulty. Engineer visits & confirms fault. 1 week later, TV picked up for repair. 2 weeks after that, TV then lost instead of re-delivered...]

Sorry for the long post, but... here goes:

I bought a Samsung LE26R73BDX HD Ready LCD TV from the "Currys" store in Cambridge’s Retail Park back in December 2006.

At the time of purchase, I gave in to the salesman and also purchased Currys' extended warranty scheme (monthly payment, instead of up-front), called "Coverplan" (it has since been rebranded as "Whateverhappens". I do not know if my cover is now under the "Whateverhappens" Terms, or still under the old "Coverplan" Terms).

A month ago, I thought I finally had justification for taking out the extended warranty, as my trusty Samsung developed a rather annoying fault

I first noticed it on Tuesday 1st September: a dark vertical line on the right hand side of the screen, running all the way from the top to the bottom. The line wasn't perfectly straight, and had a curve in it at the top. It appeared on all channels and inputs. How noticeable the line was depended on what was being watched, on the colour, the brightness, etc. On some things, you had to look for it. On other things, you could not help but see it and be distracted by it.

I phoned the Currys' "Coverplan" ("Whateverhappens") phone line (an 0844 number!) on Thursday 3rd September, and explained the problem to the woman who eventually answered.

She told me they aim to resolve things within 21 days, and that if the TV could not be repaired (or was beyond economical repair) then I would be issued with Currys vouchers to purchase a replacement of equivalent specification. She booked an engineer visit for Monday 7th September, and from what I recall she said that if the engineer confirmed that the TV was faulty, he or she would then take it back to the service centre.

So I used a day out of my little remaining annual leave to take the 7th off work.

Monday 7th came, and the engineer phoned me in the morning, to say he'd be here "between 12:00 and 15:00".

So I waited… he finally phoned back shortly after 2pm, and said he’d parked at the Grafton and needed directions.

"The Grafton? Erm, that’s a bit far to be carrying my TV back to your van," I said to him.

"Oh no, I'm not taking the TV. I’m just coming to give it a look," replied the engineer.

He turned up a while later, after I acted as a human SatNav and gave him turn by turn directions over the phone.

The engineer checked the TV out, and agreed that there was a fault. He phoned his supervisor, who told him that they wouldn’t have the parts for that sort of fault on a TV of that age.

He then phoned to arrange the "Uplift" of the TV, and was told by a different person that they would actually have parts for this TV.

"Uplift" was finally agreed for Monday 14th September, as any earlier date they offered was too short notice for me to take yet another day off work.

So, I used yet another day's annual leave, for the following Monday.

Monday 14th September came, and I phoned the 0844 number to find out if they could give me any kind of time window for the "Uplift".

"Between 11:30 and 15:30," I was told. Two guys from the Currys Home Delivery service turned up in the afternoon, gave me the paperwork, and took away my TV...

After giving Currys a week, I phoned the 0844 number on Monday 21st September. After navigating the menus, and waiting on hold, I finally got through to someone.

The man I spoke to said that my TV had been assigned an engineer that same day, and that it would be assessed later that day. He advised me to phone back on Wednesday 23rd. Why did it take a whole week before they even had a look at it?

So, anyway. I phoned back on Wednesday 23rd September. The man I spoke to looked up my details, and said that the system said… "No fault found". No fault found? NO FAULT FOUND?!

I explained that there definitely was a fault, and that their own call-out engineer had seen it and confirmed its existence. I also have photos & video of the fault, taken with my phone.

The man said that perhaps the system had not been updated, and that I should phone back again on Friday. He also said that the TV would still need "bench testing" & "soak testing" (?) anyway before being sent back.

So, I got home on Wednesday 23rd, feeling rather annoyed with Currys' service so far, only to find a letter from them sitting there waiting for me.

Opened it up… it alleged that my TV had actually been repaired already, and said that re-delivery had been scheduled for Tuesday 29th September (after they apparently failed to contact me to arrange a convenient date: Strange… No message on the landline, no message on my mobile. I did have one missed call on my mobile on Tuesday, but it was from a blocked number, and no voicemail was left, so if that was actually someone from Currys, they didn’t put much effort into contacting me).

"Further to your flat panel television being repaired in our workshop…" said the letter.

Why would the letter say one thing, & the call centre another? (especially as the letter would have been posted on Tuesday 22nd at the latest, a day before I phoned them again).

Hmm. Now, if I hadn’t talked to anyone on Currys’ expensive phoneline, that letter would have cheered me up, and made me feel impressed at what would appear to have been their speedy repair service.

But, the thing is, seeing as someone told me that it had been deemed that there was "No fault found", I had to wonder whether they’d actually done anything at all with it! My current assumption is that the engineer at the "workshop" somehow failed to notice the fault, marked it up as "No fault found", and just flagged it for re-delivery, generating a standard "your TV has been repaired and will be returned" letter.

[OK, maybe I’m wrong, maybe they somehow managed to fix my nearly three year old TV really quickly, without needing to order parts for a TV that is no longer actually actually made, and it's actually just their communication (both internal and with customers) that sucks.]

Anyway. I phoned the Currys / DSGi support line again on Thursday 24th, to find out just what was going on.

They told me that it was still down as "no fault found", and that a return had been actioned (explaining the letter… well, apart from the part of the letter saying "Further to your flat panel television being repaired in our workshop").

I then phoned their delivery centre (another expensive 0844 number), and asked for the delivery date to be changed from Tuesday 29th September to Monday 28th September (I had taken that day off work due to it being my birthday. I also wanted it back ASAP as I expected it was still faulty & I wanted to get it sorted).

The person I spoke to on Thursday 24th confirmed the change to the re-delivery date. He confirmed that it was now set for Monday 28th September.

So, on Monday 28th September, I got up early (well, early for a day off), as I had to wait around for the delivery people…

I phoned the delivery centre on Monday morning and spoke to someone to find out my four hour delivery window.

I was specifically told "Between 8 and 12".

And so I waited, and waited, and waited…

It hit 12 noon, with no sign whatsoever of the delivery people, and so I phoned up the delivery centre again…

I gave my details again, to a different person than before, explained the situation again, and he told me he’d transfer me to someone else and I got put on hold again…

Finally, someone else answered, and they told me… the TV had not even been sent to the delivery centre, let alone actually been sent out for delivery, and was still at the service centre.

What?!

So why was I given a delivery window of between 8 and 12?

"Sorry sir, I don’t know. You should phone the service centre."

So, I phoned the service centre (0844), explained it all again, got put on hold again… the guy came back, and told me he didn't know what was going on. He said he would phone around to investigate, and would call me back.

I waited a while, and he phoned me back… They still didn't know what was going on, and had escalated the issue, but it appeared that for the moment that they had actually LOST MY TV. It hadn’t gone out for delivery, nor was it at the delivery centre, but the people at the service centre couldn't find it there either, no sign in the workshop, but no record of it having gone out.

He said that it could take a couple of days at least to find the TV, and that I'd then have to have another delivery scheduled.

I asked would I be able to just use the "21 day rule" I had previously been told about, & claim vouchers, given that it was 21 days since the engineer's visit and actually 25 days since I first reported the fault. He said yes, if I wanted to.

He said I would receive a call back later on Monday afternoon, or possibly Tuesday, by someone from the escalation / resolution team.

I waited a while but got impatient & phoned the call centre again, choosing "complaints". Gave the story again, and was told I'd get a call back within an hour.

Around an hour later on Monday afternoon, I had a callback from someone in the "Medic(s?) Team" (some sort of escalation/resolution team or something). I took his name plus he gave me a geographical phone number I could use to contact them.

He sounded quite helpful & apologetic, although he didn't actually seem to have been fully briefed on the situation, so I had to explain it all again.

As mentioned, various people on the phone, since I first reported the fault, had told me of a "21 day rule", where if the problem has not been resolved by 21 days since the original fault report, you can request that the item is written off & then be issued with vouchers to the value of a replacement of "equivalent specification".

As it was now 25 days since I first phoned (and 21 days since the engineer confirmed the fault, & 14 days since the TV was taken away to be repaired), I asked the guy from the "Medics Team" to initiate a claim for me under the "21 day rule", as I was fed up & did not want to have to wait for however long it would take for them to find & return my TV (necessitating yet more time off work, plus I expect it to still be faulty).

He agreed to this, & I gave him my email address (which he said should speed up issuing the vouchers, as once the claim was processed they could just be emailed instead of posted). He said it can take 10-14 days (IIRC), but should hopefully be faster.

He told me he would still chase up what happened to the TV, & would call me back again on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, he called me back as promised, and explained that they had still not tracked down my missing TV. He said the system now seemed to show that it was set for re-delivery on Tuesday 29th (the original re-delivery date they scheduled before I phoned to change it to Monday 28th), but that they still couldn't find it. He said I may come home on Tuesday to find a note saying there'd been a missed delivery. [There wasn't however: no delivery was attempted on Tues, nor on Weds, nor today].

I asked him again if the 21 day thing had been requested, and he assured me that it had been. He said it's now in the hands of the insurance side of Coverplan / Whateverhappens. They have to accept the claim, write-off the TV, and issue me with vouchers.

So now I'm waiting for my vouchers to turn up...

Some worries which remain though:

1) Fear that when I chase it up, they fob me off by telling me that the claim was never initiated.

2) Fear that when I chase it up, they fob me off by telling me that it's actually supposed to be 28 days / 6 weeks / 8 weeks / x months instead of 21 days.

[Yes, I'm a rather negative person, but given what has happened so far, I have zero faith in anyone at DSGi sorting this out properly or doing what was promised. And I have read so many horror stories online about Currys / DSGi... ].

My apologies for the long & rambling post

Has anyone else had experience getting issued with vouchers by Currys / DSGi's Coverplan / Whateverhappens? How long does it tend to take? Do they actually bother to contact you beforehand to say whether the claim has been accepted or not, or do you just have to hope & pray?

Esqui

If you were under Coverplan rather than Whateverhappens, it's a 6 week max repair...but as they're putting in the write-off claim after 21 days, I suspect that won't be a problem.

Once it's done, you'll get a letter or email containing your claim number. You just need to take that along to a store when you choose your replacement and they will print vouchers out there .

Tezcatlipoca

Thanks, Esqui

Do you think it's worth me chasing it up next week if I haven't heard anything, or should I just wait?

EDIT: Oh, & regarding the 6 weeks for Coverplan - is that from the date the fault is first reported (like how the 21 day thing is 21 days from reporting), or is it 6 weeks from when the TV is first taken away for repair?

Anihilator

I suggest your a bit more patient.

Calling 10 times when the deadlines havent passed will just cause confusion,

Esqui

The 6 weeks and 21 days both start from the date of the first engineer visit (or, for smaller things that go via store, from the date it was booked into the store)

Tezcatlipoca

Anihilator wrote: »

I suggest your a bit more patient.

Calling 10 times when the deadlines havent passed will just cause confusion,

I know, but it's hard being patient when it's now been 30 days since I first phoned them about the fault, 26 days since the engineer visit, 19 days since the TV was "Uplifted" to the service centre, and 5 days since it was somehow "lost" instead of re-delivered.

If their communication was not so bad, it wouldn't be such an issue, as I'd know what was happening.

I will give them more time though before I get onto them again.

Esqui wrote: »

The 6 weeks and 21 days both start from the date of the first engineer visit (or, for smaller things that go via store, from the date it was booked into the store)

Cheers for that.

Do you know how long do write-off claims normally take to go through, & how long it normally takes to then receive vouchers? If the claim doesn't go through for some reason or is delayed, do they tell the customer or leave them wondering? Do you think it'd be a problem that I signed up to Coverplan & not Whateverhappens?

Thanks

DCFC79

Maybe why it took a week for the t to be looked at is they have other jobs to do as well as your tv,

soak testing is where they will test if ro say 3/4/5 hours or possibly longer

DCFC79

Tezcatlipoca wrote: »

Do you think it'd be a problem that I signed up to Coverplan & not Whateverhappens?

Thanks

this bit isnt your fault,

Esqui

Tezcatlipoca wrote: »

Do you know how long do write-off claims normally take to go through, & how long it normally takes to then receive vouchers? If the claim doesn't go through for some reason or is delayed, do they tell the customer or leave them wondering? Do you think it'd be a problem that I signed up to Coverplan & not Whateverhappens?

Thanks

Write-off claims normally take a couple of days, and then however long it takes to get the letter out to you. Maybe it's on its way?

If the claim is not successful, they should inform you - though I've never heard of a case whereby a repair has taken longer than 21 days and the claim not gone through...unless in the meantime the product has reappeared.

If you want to PM me your coverplan number, I can try and take a look for you tomorrow (if, of course, you feel happy to do that).

derrick

Tezcatlipoca wrote: »

I phoned the Currys' "Coverplan("Whateverhappens") phone line (an 0844 number!)

Use this one; 0500 304304 (free from a landline), works fine, just tried it.

Plenty more available on the saynoto0870 site, just put currys into the search box.

Tezcatlipoca

Esqui wrote: »

Write-off claims normally take a couple of days, and then however long it takes to get the letter out to you. Maybe it's on its way?

If the claim is not successful, they should inform you - though I've never heard of a case whereby a repair has taken longer than 21 days and the claim not gone through...unless in the meantime the product has reappeared.

If you want to PM me your coverplan number, I can try and take a look for you tomorrow (if, of course, you feel happy to do that).

Cheers. I'll try & be patient and wait a bit longer (it's not even been a week yet since the claim was put in, assuming the guy from the Medics Team did it Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning), but I may take you up on that offer later.

derrick wrote: »

Use this one; 0500 304304 (free from a landline), works fine, just tried it.

Plenty more available on the saynoto0870 site, just put currys into the search box.

Thanks. I'll give that a go next time.