Warning John Lewis Liverpool One

kat21

I took possession of an indesit fridge freezer on Saturday paying extra because of the good reputation of John Lewis! I was in for a shock!!! I promptly rang the store on Sunday to report that my brand new fridge freezer would not freeze products, John Lewis Liverpool said that they would ring me back on Monday, Monday came and they did ring but how shocked I was when they said I had to ring an 08 number to get a repair man out (it might be something and nothing love) I pointed out that I had paid for a new functional fridge freezer, not one that was about to be repair!)
would you accept faulty goods straight away only to be told to ring the manufacturer up and get them out?
disgusting is all I can say, and yes, I have contacted the consumer Direct and wrote a recorded delivery letter, but how sad that such a company with a once good reputation should stoop so low as to suggest a repair
of a brand new product.
katrina

more_money_for_me

Yes I would be more than a bit cheesed off as well! However may be worth checking that this isn't an individual who works for John Lewis doing the wrong thing rather than company policy. I guess you will have written to their directors? Would imagine that their take on customer service might well be something different.

MX5huggy

Calm down, as they said it may be a big problem or a small one. If they fix it in one visit then all is well.

rosalie-lavender

I had a tumble dryer delivered where the belt snapped within a couple of hours of useage. The same thing happened, a repair man called and fixed the fault. Tbh it was a lot less hassle than having it taken away and a new one brought to me.

The difference with a freezer though, is the food going off while it is waiting for repair but the thing is there might be a wait for a new one anyway.

Gothicfairy

Bought on Saturday and not working on Sunday > Did you let it settle ? I have always been told to leave new fridge/ freezers at least 12 hours but really 24 before even turning them on to allow the gas to settle.
I personally would not pay more because of the store but would pay more because of the manufacture, you do not mention what the 08 number is ? Was it 0800 or 0845 etc ? there are ways to find the local number for the company on the net.
To be honest I would not be offended as it sounds like someone was trying to offer the fastest option. Get the people that built the thing to look at the thing, makes sense to me.

kat21

Nice to hear that you would all accept faulty products, what an easy lot you are to please.

Yes, the instructions said to leave the product for the gas to settle, this was done as according to the instructions.

The 08 number was a premium rate number (more so on Virgin Media)
I get free calls to 01 and 02 numbers
ringing the 088 something number got me through to ten options which drilled down and then they said your number would be used for marketing purposes.

Trading standards fully agree with the action that I have taken against the company concerned. The product as mentioned was indesit, I have all indesit products and havent had any problems with them. They do one of the very few hot and cold fill washing machines (hot fill saves on heating the water element up)

needless to say John Lewis will not be getting my custom any more I personally wouldnt tell any customer to ring the manufacturer to get a product repair that they have just bought!
but then, I know my rights
katrina

Ivory_Tinkler

kat21 wrote: »

needless to say John Lewis will not be getting my custom any more I personally wouldnt tell any customer to ring the manufacturer to get a product repair that they have just bought!
but then, I know my rights
katrina

I wouldn't have thought that John Lewis have their own repair engineers for all the appliances they sell which would explain why they asked you to ring the manufacturer. I suppose they could have rung on your behalf but then there would have been a load of faffing around while they negotiated a suitable time for the engineer to call. I had a similar issue with a week old tumble dryer and to be honest, I wasn't that bothered who I rang to get the repair just as long as it got fixed (which it did the very next day). I understand that there must be frustration with this being frozen food but even if they brought you a new freezer and swapped it for your faulty one, that food would still be spoiled.

As you say, you know your rights, and you are correct that your contract is with John Lewis but I suspect in this case, you have been asked to contact the manufacturer for ease and speed of repair and if it can't be repaired, then I'm sure John Lewis will refund/replace.

Nilrem

Whilst getting the retailer to take it straight back is an option, for a lot of faults on large items (especially large items that may not be kept in stock at the store, or dispatched direct from a central warehouse, often owned by the manufacturer), it can be much faster to get an engineer out to see what the problems is (it might be something extremely simple, and fast to fix), rather than arranging for a van to come out with a replacement (that may or may not be available straight away).

Personally I wouldn't be overly happy that a new fridge/freezer didn't work, but I'd also give them a chance for an engineer to look at it if that was the suggested course of action, especially if the other option was possibly to wait for a date when the unit could be collected and another dropped off.

Chances are given it's new, it's going to be something like a connection not pushed in, or worked loose in transit.

IIRC the suggestion to call out the manufacturers engineer is fairly common with a lot of thse things, because whilst the contract is with the shop, the manufacturer can often get it fixed much faster than going through the shop (especially, if as I say it's a large item, which will be hard to return for replacement, assuming the store even carries them in stock on site).

Gothicfairy

As has been said before, I can't see that they would have people that are able or insured to fix new products made by certain manufacturers. I should imagine that they refer most problems to the manufacture.
That is not really that hard to see or understand, likewise giving you a number to call...If they called for you they would then have to come back to you to get an appointment sorted out and I can see how hard that might be.
As for the number, did you ask for a local rate one ? did you search for one first thing I do is look online but I have not seen a manufacture with a premium rate number but I do agree if one did have such a number I would complain to them if there was a need.

I don't think anyone here would accept faulty goods and that is no what anyone is suggesting you do. All I think people are saying is that it all seems a bit much so soon.

But as you say, you know your rights so you really don't need anyone here anyway.

smk77

Gothicfairy wrote: »

Get the people that built the thing to look at the thing, makes sense to me.

Doesn't make sense to me..They probably live in China.

liverpoolste

Hi,

Sorry to hear about that - I can understand exactly why your blood is boiling... :mad:

I like you would insist on a brand new replacement as you bought it in good faith to do it's function for a satisfactory amount of time NOT TO need repairing, thus making it feel like a 2nd hand appliance - a day after delivery!

Trading Standards in Liverpool are great though and do advise us well

I would as you've already mentioned seek a replacement AND recompense for spoiled food stuffs AND even a discretionary gift voucher for the sheer frustration/inconvenience of the whole episode.

Write to the department manager, store manager and head office.....

Good luck :cool:

Stephen