Warning about Fires Galore.

stevieMillward

I was about to order, and am so happy I googled them before continuing. I gave them the benefit of doubt and decided to email them to ask who and where they were and this is what they sent me!!!!!!!!!!

DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM!!!!!!!

this was sent without the astrix in!

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From: John Hughes <john@firesgalore.co.uk>
To:
Sent: Fri, 2 July, 2010 9:04:54
Subject: Re: Contact Form From Web Site

What a busy body you are Steve Millward...some would even say w*nker !!!!!! !

Regards

Firesgalore

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Original Message

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From: <>
To: <sales@firesgalore.co.uk>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 8:30 PM
Subject: Contact Form From Web Site


> Your Email Address:
>
> Comments: I was going to do business with you but doubt has been put in my mind by one of your competitors. You do NOT display a registered address on your website which is ILLEGAL. I will be reporting your site to the OFT and my local trading standards dept.
>
> Steve Millward
>

PeteS_3

Thank you to everyone who has posted warnings about firesgalore

My sister was about to order a gas fire from them and luckily I found this web site. I have since contacted the gas fire manufacturer on her behalf to check if they are still dealing with Fires Galore and was told categorically NO!!

I can't believe a company can continue to trade illegally with no contact details after going into administration - surely the company would have know they were in difficulties and unlikely to send out goods despite taking customers money?? The reply email from Fires Galore above proves what kind of company they must be!

Hope everyone who has lost money through using Fires Galore will get it back.

mikkykitten

mum has now had her refund from HSBC bank in full. so case closed for her. Im glad people are googling and finding these comments on this fraudulent company. Hope every one reports them to a fraud team and also have a say at their website hosts..if you can find out who they are..they have changed AGAIN

spire1

Dear esplodger
dont you believe the people on here who have lost money from firesgalore ? Ive a list of the people that lost money
that reads like a phone book that walshtaylor sent me.i personally lost £439 to this company which im told i will be very lucky to get anything back.the beef ive got with them is they took my money and then had the cheek to start up again and carry on trading.im glad you got your stuff from them but very lucky i think.a leppard never changes its spots.
Regards spire

JulianTomlinson

I recently purchased a fire from fires-2-go.co.uk, paid quite a substantial amount of money for this fire with the assumption i was paying for a quality fire and customer service!
It has now been 6 WEEKS since I paid for this fire and I have heard NOTHING!! I can't get through on the phone and i've tried to log onto their website only to find "Down For Maintenance".
I can't believe these people have had the nerve to take my money in trust that I would be recieving a fire in return only to b*gger off and leave me with nothing!!!

BargainGalore

Contact your card company if you paid by credit card or visa card

gpbrown83

Hi Guys,

My girlfriend and I have recently purchased a fire from this company, and I'm starting to wish that I had Googled them first!

We ordered it on the 30th of July. The only receipt we got was some generic Sage Pay receipt, and there has been no further communication from the company since.

Luckily, I paid on my Visa card, with the intention of paying it off once the fire had been received - which sounds like a prudent course of action based on the earliers posts of this thread.

I Googled the company name this lunch time, and stumbled across this thread. Since then I have tried to contact them on the phone, but only had an answer machine.

I do remember ringing them about 4 weeks ago and speaking to them about the particular fire that we have bought, which I guess made me invest a little more faith than I should have done in this company.

I'm a little bit worried now that nothing is going to arrive, and that I'm going to have to go down the road of trying to get refunded by Visa.

How do people like this enable themselves to take card payments from people! It's ridiculous!

Should I receive the fire, or learn anything new I'll post back to this thread - but my expectations have been reduced somewhat after reading this thread!

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Update: I've actually spoken with someone this afternoon at Fires Galore, and they assure me that I will receive a fire in the next two weeks! This was followed up with an e-mail to confirm! Watch this space!

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Update: The fire arrived today! I have to say, although the service did take a while (16 business days, as opposed to the quoted 7 - 10 business days) the fire arrived, and I am happy with it. As far as the service goes, I think it was pretty good: The price was the best on the Internet, I received an e-mail on Friday indicating that I would receive the fire on Monday between 08:30 and 16:00, I spoke with them on the telephone a couple of weeks back and the conversation was reassuring, and the fire arrived! Which is more than I was expecting two weeks ago!

clarehotstuff

I paid £652 for a fireplace with Fires Galore, very helpful at first once they had my money. Delivery expected 8th June, they smashed it before even delivered it. Replacement delivered 16th June. Due to a holiday and work to our house we didn't open crate till 24th July, when we discovered a huge crack to hearth. Would they help? No. Apparently it was our fault that we didn't inspect the "nailed up to the hilt" crate that held our fire place. I have since discovered from PROFESSIONAL delivery firms that it is the delivery drivers responsibility to inspect the goods on delivery, which Fires Galore delivery chaps DIDN'T DO, but when I spoke to Fires Galore they said the drivers aren't trained / insured to do so. I went to Consumer Direct and Visa Debit so that I could try and claim my money back but there is no a guarantee with going down this route, so I was stuck and investigated the option of having a limestone hearth made up for me which would cost £150 - £300, Fires Galore refused to contribute. I luckily found a very helpful man who works for House of Fires in Stretford, Manchester. He had a hearth more or less exactly the same and sold it to me for £45. Now THAT'S good service!! DO NOT order from Fires Galore, their aftersales care is horrific. The entire experience has left me very stressed and I am wanting people to be aware that this company is not customer focused, I am fortunate and have a solution, no thanks to Fires Galore. Spread the word to everyone you know, they're based in Wakefield. I have since spoke to Corrine (who has been helpful in all honesty) and it is her boss John who has said they would not help. Fortunately the gas fire itself comes with a warranty so I will not be dealing with Fires Galore again.

rustyboy21

Having looked at all the complaints about firesgalore on here and the upsetting times many of you have had, I would like to bring to everyones attention, what has happened with the above company. ( I own my own Fireplace business and have been in the business for 20 years and do not sell on the internet )

Firesgalore went into to liquidation in July, he also had a showroom himself. He immediately bought the firesgalore website back from the liquidators. Therefore the owner of firesgalore is the same one, who has left a lot of people out of pocket prior to liquidating his Co and started afresh.

He has the same staff, and I have heard a lot of complaints over customer service issues,

I had a customer in the other day who wanted a certain fire, which the manufacturer is only selling to Retail showrooms, as it is specialist, needs knowledgable people to sell it and specific in installation. They had been given a price by firesgalore at below the price I could buy it for, but said that it would take approx 2 months to get as the manufacturer was having problems. I rang the manufacturer up and could have it delivered next day to me, and fit it the following day, Firesgalore told the customer porkies!

On the grapeevine I have heard that he has lost most of his routes to purchasing product, as when he went bust he owed money to the manufacturers. He is now scratting around trying to buy from anyone he can deal with.

The problem people like yourself have though, is that due to him not buying direct, more and more manufacturers are now tracking were product is being sent to and if that is then sold onto a company like above, who then sell it onto you, it has past through 4 sets of people and will show it is not were the appliance has been registered by the manufacturer, which will cause problems if you have to contact the manufacturer. All manufacturers now ask for the serial no of the fire, as it will show if it is in warranty or not. It wil also show which retailer bought the appliance and whether they are a registered dealer. If not it could invalidate your warranty. They would also ask for the gas safe no of the engineer, this will be checked against the register and if not fitted by a registered installer it will be void from warranty.

You try going back to Firesgalore to sort it out! look at there response above to someone.

We all know the internet is a good source of information, but when it causes problems for you the general public, do you really need to save a few quid, when you can very easily go back to the shop you bought from to sort it out.

If you are adament that you want to buy off the internet, then make sure they have a good reputation, better if they have their own showroom you can visit if possible and make sure they deal direct with the manufacturer, for some assurance that if anything goes wrong then you have some means of recourse. Ring the manufacturer up before handing any money over, who will tell you if the are legit or not.

Just do your homework first !

PeteS_3

clarehotstuff wrote: »

I paid £652 for a fireplace with Fires Galore, very helpful at first once they had my money. Delivery expected 8th June, they smashed it before even delivered it. Replacement delivered 16th June. Due to a holiday and work to our house we didn't open crate till 24th July, when we discovered a huge crack to hearth. Would they help? No.

I'm sorry but whilst I do not agree with Fires Galore trading methods, it is ultimately a customers responsibility to inspect goods that they have delivered within a reasonable time. What happens if a year went by before you opened the crate? Would you still expect a full refund/replacement? This time I think Fires Galore were right to deny any replacement due to the length of time past as the fireplace could of been damaged in storage (whilst you were having other work carried out) or during installation.

Most online businesses stress that customers must check their delivery within a reasonable time (24-48 hours) as this is the time frame given by the couriers for them to honour any insurance claims.