Help - signed up to insurance cover for fridge freezer, lots of hidden costs

wm3010

Our fridge freezer broke down last November. It was only 18 months old. We phoned the manufacturer, Indesit, who would only come to repair it if we paid up-front. My husband chose the lifetime cover option, more expensive but on the basis we would be covered for any further repairs and they would replace if needed. The lady on the phone told him that there would be no further costs regardless of what work was needed.

The fridge freezer was repaired in November, they had to replace the condenser. The same fault re-occurred last week and again the condenser was replaced. 4 days later, the same thing happened again. When the repair man came out last week, we were told that it could only be replaced when they had tried repairing twice so we knew that this time it was to be replaced. The man came back to day, confirmed it needed to be replaced and said the company would call about this. When they called my husband they confirmed they would order a new fridge freezer, however said they would not install it for us. They also want to charge delivery costs and something for taking away the old fridge freezer. That we have to cover delivery costs is explained in the policy (which we stupidly hadn't thought to check, kicking myself now) but the implication even from the policy is that they will do the installation.

I am really annoyed that I accepted this stuff at face value based on what my husband had been told on the phone. Do we have any comeback on these charges (given phone misrepresentation)? Can we push for installation? Has anyone had any success with this sort of thing?

Given the fridge freezer is still less than 2 years old do you think there would be any chance of compensation under the Sale of Goods Act?

InsideInsurance

What installation is required for a Fridge?

To the matter of the warranty, it would be useful to know if it legally is considered insurance or not. Most warranties are but a few companies (eg DSG) go to great lengths to ensure that they arent.

Ultimately raise a complaint with the company stating you were told nothing would be payable and yet you are now being asked to pay. They hopefully will record calls and so be able to listen to exactly what was said. The problem, having listened to some warranty companies sales techniques, is they can be slightly vague/ verging on misdirection and so it could be they said "never pay for a repair" but of cause you arent having a repair, you're having a replacement.


The SoGA against the retailer is something totally separate. They would be entitled to decide if to repair, replace or refund as the mechanism to deal with the matter. As it is not the retailer that has done the previous repair attempts I am not sure you have the right to refuse that option at this point.

If they do decide to do a refund they are entitled to reduce it for the use you have already had out of the item. Given it is 18 months old it could be a notable discount

nomoneytoday

Why not install it yourself, and ask the council to remove the old one - thus removing the charge?

shaun_from_Africa

What installation is required for a Fridge?

If it's a built in fridge/freezer, the installation can sometimes be quite an involved job.
The positioning of these can be very tricky and time consuming, especially if there are cupboard doors that need attaching to the appliance.

I've done this a couple of times myself and wouldn't find it too difficult now, but the first time I did the job it took far longer than I anticipated.

giraffe69

If their chosen solution is to replace the item then charging for either delivery or taking the old one away is not acceptable and I would complain vigorously in advance to prevent any such charge.

I agree with other comments made. When the fridge is delivered and put in place what is there other than plugging it in?

wm3010

Thanks for the replies. It is indeed an integrated appliance, so I suspect we are going to have spend a fair bit of time trying to install it although I am hopeful that because it is the same model it should fit properly into the existing door fixings etc. It annoys me that we are having to waste time and effort on this when the whole point of the policy, as we understood it, was basically that the repair company dealt with all of this.

We had no choice but to pay for delivery (£35) plus removal of the old appliance (£15). It would have cost £25 to get the Council to uplift the old one so we wouldn't have saved anything there.

We tried to get them to waive at least part of this charge over the phone and asked them to review the recording of the original call but of course they just said we could raise a complaint, but they wouldn't be ordering the new fridge freezer until the complaint was resolved.

The policy cost £170, plus the £50 we are paying for delivery/removal means we could have just bought a new fridge freezer in the first place and avoided having to take the 4 days off work that we have needed between myself and my husband. Lesson learned I think but I am still really angry about the whole thing - we at least can afford the extra payment but plenty of people wouldn't be able to.

Lomast

If you can fit it in your car you can take the old one to your local ammenity tip without it costing you anything

wm3010

Thanks Lomast but not really an option I'm afraid, it won't fit in the car. Think we are stuck paying