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I once had a treadmill......

Hello,

Please bear with this long winded tale, as I do require some advice at the end of it.

In May of this year my home treadmill stopped working, the motor blew and destroyed the control panel.

It is an ICON Pro-Form. I e-mailed ICON with pictures of the damage and asked if they would be able to advise of what parts I require. They came back with some suggestions but also said, and I quote, If you wish to have an engineer out to look at the machine please give a call to our partners Independent Service Ltd at 0843 487 8080 . They should be able so send out an engineer that will give an 100% diagnostic of the fault .'

I took their recommendation and in June contacted Independant Service Ltd. They informed me that a one off cost of £144 will be taken and this will cover an assessment by an engineer plus as many visits as needed by the engineer to repair it (labour). I would then pay for the parts. Although steep in price, I decided to go ahead with this and paid the amount.

Independant Service then contracted the work out to a local firm, East Lancashire Domestic Appliance Repair (ELDAR) who did send out an engineer in June to assess the parts required and confirmed they would get back in touch with me with a quote for the parts.

I had to make repeated calls to Independant Services as ELDAR did not get back in touch with me. Finally in August they did, a fitting date was arranged, then, on the day of the fitting, they claimed that in fact all the parts had not all been sent! Another fitting date arranged and upon arrival the engineer stated a new part was broken so he couldn't repair the treadmill that day. Two weeks later, still heard nothing. Today I managed to speak to ELDAR who stated they have all the new parts and all are working BUT, and here's the problem, they said Independant Services have now gone bust! As such, they will not be paid for the work, as they only get paid some of the £144 when the job is complete. They then stated that they will require a £60 labour charge before they will come and fit the parts.

So, finally, here is the advice I need.

1) Are ICON, the manufacturer and recommender of Independant Services, in anyway liable for the £144 I have now lost? They claim to be a partner and did advise me to contact them. They are a massive treadmill retailer so possibly have some culpability? I would never have used Independant Services if not for the direct recommendation by Icon.

2) If Independant Services have gone bust (on hold for ages on phone. No human answers, just a recorded 'please hold' message) how would I go about reclaiming the £144?

3) Now the crux, ELDAR state they only get paid when a job is complete. However I paid the £144 in June. Three and half months on the treadmill still isn't fixed. ELDAR are responsible for this as their engineer attended in June and thus they took ownership of the repair from this date. It is their poor service which has resulted in it taking so long to fix. If ELDAR had repaired the treadmill within a typical acceptable time (a month or even two) the job would have been complete and they would have received payment prior to today when Independant Services went bust. I feel anger towards them for the time taken for the repair, and begrudge paying them an extra £60 to fix the treadmill when I feel they are responsible for not repairing it within an adequate time frame!

I hope this makes sense, thanks for reading, any help or advice greatly received.

Comments

  • wealdroam
    wealdroam Posts: 19,181 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    It seems to me that you agreed a contract with Independent Services (IS) fix your treadmill.
    You paid IS to do this.

    If IS have now 'gone bust', then that, on the face of it, is not the fault of ELDAR.

    If you now want to deal directly with ELDAR, then you will need to pay them some money.

    How did you pay IS?
    Hopefully by credit card.
    If so, the credit card company are equally responsible for performance of the contract.

    I believe you could force the CC co to either refund you the money you have paid to IS, or to pay ELDAR to complete the contract. I am not sure which is appropriate.

    Might be worth reading MSE's Section 75 Refunds article if you paid by credit card.

    If you paid by debit card, maybe a read of MSE's article on Debit Card Chargeback might help, but there is a time limit on this.
  • vyle
    vyle Posts: 2,379 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I once had a gerbil.

    I once had a hamster, until Freddie Starr came to visit.
  • This thread could run and run....
    "You were only supposed to blow the bl**dy doors off!!"
  • pcyuljr
    pcyuljr Posts: 115 Forumite
    Bumped for any further advice....
  • wealdroam
    wealdroam Posts: 19,181 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    pcyuljr wrote: »
    Bumped for any further advice....
    OK, let's take it slowly...

    How did you pay Independent Services?
  • pcyuljr
    pcyuljr Posts: 115 Forumite
    Hi Wealdroam,

    Thanks for you previous advice, I have taken it on board and have sent a chargeback letter to Santander. I paid by debit card.

    However, I still feel ICON may be on the hook somehow.

    Imagine you buy a TV from Sony and it breaks. You then contact Sony and they recommend their repair partner to fix it. You thank them for their advice, pay the money and then the repair company goes bust. Are Sony not responsible at all?

    If not, I guess I'm going to have to suck it up, as I don't hold up much hope for the chargeback. I can't provide much evidence as all communication was by phone...
  • wealdroam
    wealdroam Posts: 19,181 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Well all I can say is that I hope the chargeback works.
    I would imagine it will, especially if you can provide proof that IS have 'gone bust'.

    I am not sure that ICON have any legal responsibility in this.

    In your Sony scerario, then no I do not think Sony have any responsibility.
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