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Belling Cooker and Home Appliance Services
Ian9266
Posts: 40 Forumite
Long story but here goes......
We bought a Belling double oven cooker from Harvey Norman's Newtownabbey on 22.1.11, sale price was £440. Got what we believed to be a good deal and £30 odd for an extra warranty. Anyway on Sunday 9th October the bottom oven failed. There was a funny noise and the mains switch at the wall didn't light up any more. As I thought the mains switch had failed my electrician came on Tuesday 11th. The cooker had blown the mains fuse which was replaced in seconds, however the bottom oven still wouldn't work. My wife rang Harvey Norman on Wed 12th and they contacted Home Appliance Services (HAS) who are based in Newry. Although given my wife's work number they rang the house and left a message about 3.30pm. By the time we got home from work they were closed so I rang first thing on Thursday morning. This is were the fun began. Belling don't have a dedicated service company here in NI like Hotpoint have. They sub contract out their appliance repairs to HAS, Electrolux are another company who use this repair agent. After speaking to a lady at their office, she thought the most likely cause was a blown cooker element. I was informed the earliest they could call was today 20th October, they don't do evening or weekend calls. They didn't seem to care that I would be without an oven for a week, their engineers are so busy, doesn't say much for Belling or Electrolux reliability. The engineer called at 9.40am and he too thought the element had blown, but surprise surprise he didn't even have an element with him to repair it, he would have to order it. I asked myself why did he even bother to call. Once he started taking the oven apart he discovered the element wasn't at fault, it was a cut-out switch. Yes you guessed it he didn't have that part with him either and it would probably take 5-10 days to get it!! What surprised me was that he didn't come in a transit van packed full of parts, it was one of those Citroen 5 seater Berlingo MPV things. I rang HAS to complain and was told they didn't carry in stock all the parts. I'm sure this is a common fault and they are supposed to be a service agent. She then gave me a number to ring in the ROI to try and find out how long it would take to get the part, she didn't even offer to do it. Started to see the red mist forming so I rang Belling Customer Service in England. Their website boasts of their excellent customer service and having invested over £3 million in upgrading it. Unlike the rest of the UK who have a dedicated service network we have to put up with HAS. The first girl I spoke to said it was my fault for the delay as I should have rung them first as the cooker was under warranty. Harvey Normans made the call on our behalf direct to HAS as they knew this is who Belling would have contacted anyway. Ended up speaking to one of the Managers, a nice chap called Paul who has promised to ring back after making a few calls. Thats nearly 2 hours ago. The moral of the story is that if you are buying any appliance ask who will service the thing if it breaks down and don't end up like me with no cooker for a couple of weeks.
We bought a Belling double oven cooker from Harvey Norman's Newtownabbey on 22.1.11, sale price was £440. Got what we believed to be a good deal and £30 odd for an extra warranty. Anyway on Sunday 9th October the bottom oven failed. There was a funny noise and the mains switch at the wall didn't light up any more. As I thought the mains switch had failed my electrician came on Tuesday 11th. The cooker had blown the mains fuse which was replaced in seconds, however the bottom oven still wouldn't work. My wife rang Harvey Norman on Wed 12th and they contacted Home Appliance Services (HAS) who are based in Newry. Although given my wife's work number they rang the house and left a message about 3.30pm. By the time we got home from work they were closed so I rang first thing on Thursday morning. This is were the fun began. Belling don't have a dedicated service company here in NI like Hotpoint have. They sub contract out their appliance repairs to HAS, Electrolux are another company who use this repair agent. After speaking to a lady at their office, she thought the most likely cause was a blown cooker element. I was informed the earliest they could call was today 20th October, they don't do evening or weekend calls. They didn't seem to care that I would be without an oven for a week, their engineers are so busy, doesn't say much for Belling or Electrolux reliability. The engineer called at 9.40am and he too thought the element had blown, but surprise surprise he didn't even have an element with him to repair it, he would have to order it. I asked myself why did he even bother to call. Once he started taking the oven apart he discovered the element wasn't at fault, it was a cut-out switch. Yes you guessed it he didn't have that part with him either and it would probably take 5-10 days to get it!! What surprised me was that he didn't come in a transit van packed full of parts, it was one of those Citroen 5 seater Berlingo MPV things. I rang HAS to complain and was told they didn't carry in stock all the parts. I'm sure this is a common fault and they are supposed to be a service agent. She then gave me a number to ring in the ROI to try and find out how long it would take to get the part, she didn't even offer to do it. Started to see the red mist forming so I rang Belling Customer Service in England. Their website boasts of their excellent customer service and having invested over £3 million in upgrading it. Unlike the rest of the UK who have a dedicated service network we have to put up with HAS. The first girl I spoke to said it was my fault for the delay as I should have rung them first as the cooker was under warranty. Harvey Normans made the call on our behalf direct to HAS as they knew this is who Belling would have contacted anyway. Ended up speaking to one of the Managers, a nice chap called Paul who has promised to ring back after making a few calls. Thats nearly 2 hours ago. The moral of the story is that if you are buying any appliance ask who will service the thing if it breaks down and don't end up like me with no cooker for a couple of weeks.
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Comments
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Nobody keeps stock of anything now-a-days.... It's dead money! I don't think it would matter who you bought it from... the days of the service enginner with a big van of spare parts is looooooooooooooooooooong gone!!
I know what you're getting at but was the top oven still not working in the mean time?0 -
It does work but i'm not happy to use it if there's an electrical fault present. The guy that came didn't have any spares with him at all, just his toolbox.0
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warmhands.coldheart wrote: »Nobody keeps stock of anything now-a-days.... It's dead money! I don't think it would matter who you bought it from... the days of the service enginner with a big van of spare parts is looooooooooooooooooooong gone!!
I know what you're getting at but was the top oven still not working in the mean time?
i had a lovely hotpoint man out the other day he had a van full of stuff and had my repair done in 20mins
thats the sort of thing that makes me take cover on all my appliances with them and buy mainly hotpoint
op sadly your going to have to wait thats quite awhile to have no cooker but this could have happened with any make/model depending on how common the part isDEC GC £463.67/£450
EF- £110/COLOR]/£10000 -
Harvey Norman get a Dublin company Dimpco to do a lot of their service work, they in turn send it to agents.
HAS in Newry are a good company they sorted out a Stoves problem for me. I suggest you speak to the Manager of HAS if you are getting no joy from Harvey Norman.0 -
When I seen your title I felt I had to come to read it as I have also dealt with Home Appliance Services. I have an Electrolux American fridge freezer and had one of their engineers out yesterday. I have to say that the services was of a high standard and cannot fault them. I can see your point but maybe the problem lies with Dimpco and not the service agent.
Hope you have managed to get the problem sorted.:)0
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