Faulty Washing Machine No Refund No Exchange

damtheman

Dear beloved readers

I am now in another one of those life dilemmas, ya know, the kind that drive you up the wall and you wonder why it cannot be resolved already? Well I got one of those, so please lend me your ear and humour me if you will, as any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Across the street from my workplace is a small independent second hand washing machine/fridge/dryer shop. I was in need of a washing machine since my recent house move, so I popped in and found a reasonable looking machine and asked for it to be delivered, for free - great stuff. I paid exactly £89 in cash and have a receipt. Each machine comes with 28 days guarantee.

The elder chap, who must run the shop, confirmed with me that they would be happy to deliver it around 4pm the same day. Even better, the OH was in so this should be nice and easy.

Along came 4pm and 5pm and then 5.30pm and the OH had confirmed no one had arrived. Fortunately the shop were still open at 5.40pm when I popped in to talk to the same old chap, I acknowledged on my way in that the machine had not moved from its spot since my earlier visit in the day. I questioned the old man about its delivery and he confirmed that it was taken for delivery but no one was home.

Lies of course, my OH is quite eagled eyed! Given the machine was still in the shop and had a label "sold" now, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that it may have been they messed up and were too afraid to admit. So being the British type that I am, I didn't make a confrontation.

The machine was eventually delivered Saturday morning, fine and dandy and we got it setup straight away. With the recent house move, we had quite a pile of washing crawling up the whole length of the wall. Silly me decided not to check everything and immediately hooked up and got a wash on. The machine !!!!ed its water intake all over the kitchen floor. A furious OH later and I'm under the machine to find out when wrong, a simple pipe clip had come lose allowing water to spill. This was a very awkward half hour's fix and after we were back in business.

The first two washes went well, we thought, until we slowly realised that the clothes were not as damp as expected, especially when we acknowledged the spin cycle wasn't very long. It reached the point that we could see that hardly any water was entering the drum. Water was running through the tray but nothing was washing the clothes, the drum more or less dry at the end of programs.

I approached the shop about it and they booked an "engineer" to come by in the evening to attend. But no one ever showed. Despite discussing this with the shop owner and excuses, this occurred on 3 different occasions where no one would arrive. In the end, someone came on the Saturday and had a look for over an hour. The chap finally removed a plastic ball from a pipe that I guess was intended to help circulate water around the system. With this now removed we attempted a few washes which we assumed were successful but clothes were not much more wetter than better but it did sound like more water was in the drum.

Onto the next problem and this time we think the heating element had stopped working, touching the glass during a cycle was stone cold. Moving from the cold tap to the hot tap we thought would fix this but there was no improvement in regards to the cleanliness of the clothes.

Now I never expect clothes to be perfect once out of the machine, but I certainly didn't expect to see no improvement whatsoever. As before the clothes were ever so lightly perfumed with our detergent and fabric softener but none more cleaner than when they went in, in the first place.

Raising the heating element issue with the shop returned issues, namely that it should be working because a new element was installed before it was on display. Anyway another appointment was made for someone to visit and repair the machine, it was yesterday in fact (Thursday), yesterday evening and given the reputation I wasn't being hopeful. And I had good reason to, no one arrived.

Obviously by this point after several failed washes and failed appointments, I was and am still, at the end of my tether so I put machine in the back of my car and dropped it at the shop, requesting an exchange or a refund.

The shop was adamant that a refund is impossible but an exchange could be done if it is proved that the machine is faulty, understandable of course but instead the shop owner laughed me out of the door when I raised the previous issues of the countless let downs, even implying that I had never spoken with him! Far from it! I expected at least some remorse that given all the issues that have come from this he may just give me the refund or an exchange but no, he refused to accept that it wasn't working and began pointing at the various filters and spots on the machine that need to be cleared regularly. Despite it being second hand there was no manual, but one was easily found online and I had successfully cleared the filters and traps and trays with no issues whatsoever, so that wasn't a valid argument but he was persistent.

I decided to leave the machine at the shop in hopes that he will test the machine himself (even though he just told me to go away and stop wasting his time) and see that I am not trying to swindle anything from him, I just want a working washing machine!

So now I am down £89 (yeah alright, its not very much but whatever) and no washing machine.

What do I do? Does the above make sense? Will I get a splurge of posts saying 'shut up he doesn't need to give you either a refund or exchange' or will I get the hope back to pursuing this via small claims court IF it even needs to get that far?

Your suggestions are as always very welcome indeed.

Thanks for reading.

somethingcorporate

When did you buy it?

damtheman

Within the 28 days guarantee, which is now slowly ticking away with this time wasting. so roughly 2 weeks ago.

damtheman

Would a less word summary of events help others to comment?

Its been over 10 hours since it happened now and I'm still frustrated and feel like I've been treated a mug.

I felt there was no suggestion of resolution and no apology for cancelled appointments and still think I'm in the wrong somehow!

Barneysmom

Go to the shop on Monday and say you are on your way to Trading Standards unless he gives you a refund immediately and be prepared to go.

Don't let him rob you and longer.

damtheman

I am prepared to do exactly that. I even have a friend in the local paper and while I won't let it get to my head or affect my next actions, I *think* its possible to do more damage than just TS.

TS too rash too soon? Question is, how long will I be waiting?

Barneysmom

No, it's not too soon, you gave him a chance when you took the machine back. He declared war then so fight back with your head held high and do your worst!

damtheman

Ha! I should have asked you to join me in the shop!! I needed that kind of encouragement or back up, I'm somewhat a wimp when it comes to confrontation!!

TS it is. I did read that regardless of fault, if proved broken I can legally get a refund. I will assume TS override his own internal policy.

somethingcorporate

Yep, given it is <2 weeks old you can outright reject for a full refund. Put this in writing as the window is short and the longer it drags on the smaller this window is going to get. Any longer than another 2 weeks then I would suggest you may have missed it.

Bradden

It's been a while since I did electrical retail but I beieve that all second hand electical goods must be supplied with a manual under H&S... might be worth adding that to your TS complaint.

damtheman

Interesting Bradden, I'll see about that.

I've given the shop a call today and he is testing the machine (he ensured the call didn't last long!) and I am to call at 4pm today to see if the machine is repairable (I am not really interested in it) or whether an exchange will be available.