Oven door repair - cooling off period?

tumbledowngirl

In a nutshell -


We needed our oven door repaired, so Googled to find a local repair company.
One that came up was a specific Hotpoint repairs company, that offered a fixed fee and claimed to stock all Hotpoint parts, and most problems could be repaired in the first visit.


We filled in an online form, with email and phone address and details of the problem.


Shortly afterwards, we got an email with a reference number on it, and a phone number to call.
My husband did this and was asked for details of the problem and model numbers of the oven etc. He was told the fixed fee was £79, and asked for his card details to secure the engineer's visit, arranged for the next day.


Shortly after this call, we received another call, informing us that the engineer was unable to come out the next day, and would come the day after.


The engineer turned up, minus any kind of parts to allow him to repair the door and simply told us that he would submit a list of parts required to the office and they would call us with a quote.


Shortly after he left, we received an email to say that £94.80 had been deducted from our card, following the engineer's visit.


A few hours later, we received a call from the company giving us the details of the parts costs - all of which were in excess of double the prices listed on Hotpoint's own site.


After some digging around, it appears that we have become involved with ServiceNet, who are essentially GoLocal reincarnated. From what I can gather, both GoLocal and ServiceNet are notorious in the industry for charging a fixed fee for labour, which includes the initial visit from the engineer, and then either telling you they can't fix your item, it's uneconomical to do so, or quoting vastly inflated prices for parts - which you then have to pay for before ordering, and they then don't show up to fit. Neither do they pay their engineers, who are simply local engineers they contract per job, it would seem.


We have several issues with our experience of them so far -
1/ we were never told that we had been passed over from what we were led to believe was a local Hotpoint specialist repair company to another company.
2/ The Service Group's website clearly states no call out fees.
3/ We were never given terms and conditions by email.


We've spoken to the CAB's consumer advice line, and been told that regardless of ServiceNet's t's and c's, we are entitled to a cooling of period of 14 days, during which we can cancel our contract and request a refund within 14 days.
I emailed the company today (there is only an email address listed in the details about how to complain), stating that we wished to cancel our contract to have the oven repaired, under the terms of the 2013 Act, and had a response from the company that says their terms and conditions are quite clear and we are not entitled to a refund.


When I argued this, they replied that a refund would only be due if they had not provided the service, and since the engineer had been out and they had provided a quote, we were not entitled to any refund.


I guess my question is - does their business practise of charging a labour fee upfront, to include the initial engineer's visit exclude us from any form of cooling off period?
Or does that cooling off period apply, no matter what the company's T's and C's?

unholyangel

If it was concluded entirely via distance means, you shouldve had a 14 day cooling off period. You can lose this right to cancel if you have expressly asked for the work to start before the 14 days is up BUT they're supposed to inform you of this via durable means.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/regulation/36/made

tumbledowngirl

unholyangel wrote: »

If it was concluded entirely via distance means, you shouldve had a 14 day cooling off period. You can lose this right to cancel if you have expressly asked for the work to start before the 14 days is up BUT they're supposed to inform you of this via durable means.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/regulation/36/made

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but does the fact that my husband signed the engineer's docket to say he'd been mean it's not entirely via distance means?


Until then, the initial enquiry was an online form, we then phoned the company to arrange the engineer's visit and our card details were taken over the phone.


Are they able to argue that, because the engineer has visited, we have had the service we paid for? (which seems to be what they are trying to argue)
In their email in response to my request for a refund, they say that the terms and conditions are given in a pre-recorded message at the start of their phone calls - is that enough/ (bearing in mind their written t's and c's run to several pages, and can't possibly be included in entirety in a phone message).

unholyangel

tumbledowngirl wrote: »

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but does the fact that my husband signed the engineer's docket to say he'd been mean it's not entirely via distance means?


Until then, the initial enquiry was an online form, we then phoned the company to arrange the engineer's visit and our card details were taken over the phone.


Are they able to argue that, because the engineer has visited, we have had the service we paid for? (which seems to be what they are trying to argue)
In their email in response to my request for a refund, they say that the terms and conditions are given in a pre-recorded message at the start of their phone calls - is that enough/ (bearing in mind their written t's and c's run to several pages, and can't possibly be included in entirety in a phone message).

Can you give me the website address where you filled in the form so I can have a look to double check a few things?

If you dont want to name them just yet, you can always pm it to me. Just wanted to check what it was you've actually signed up to and where they're based etc.

In short, the point a contract is concluded is when you become bound to pay and they become bound to supply the service.

And the above legislation I linked says this:

distance contract” means a contract concluded between a trader and a consumer under an organised distance sales or service-provision scheme without the simultaneous physical presence of the trader and the consumer, with the exclusive use of one or more means of distance communication up to and including the time at which the contract is concluded;

tumbledowngirl

The original website we used was hotpointrepairs.co.uk

If you submit the form, someone will try to call you and if you can't take the call, you will get an email from ServeNet.

unholyangel

They give their data controller registration number on their website. Which comes back to:

Data Controller: PRODUCTFEED UK LTD

Address:
10 LINK PLACE
UPPER HOLLINGDEAN ROAD
BRIGHTON
BN1 7GA

No registered company number that I could find though - which is against the law.

tumbledowngirl

unholyangel wrote: »

They give their data controller registration number on their website. Which comes back to:

Data Controller: PRODUCTFEED UK LTD

Address:
10 LINK PLACE
UPPER HOLLINGDEAN ROAD
BRIGHTON
BN1 7GA

No registered company number that I could find though - which is against the law.

No terms and conditions on the site either, I don't think.
But we've had no communication whatsoever from the hotpointrepairs site anyway -only from ServiceNet and The Service Group.
Should we go to Trading Standards or continue to push for a refund? They don't appear to be answering their phones suddenly.

bris

He visited the property and did the initial inspection so the service has started, there is no longer the right to cancel. You also agreed to the visit by giving them your card details so they have so far did as instructed.

unholyangel

bris wrote: »

He visited the property and did the initial inspection so the service has started, there is no longer the right to cancel. You also agreed to the visit by giving them your card details so they have so far did as instructed.

Actually... you only lose the right to cancel in certain circumstances.

Supply of service in cancellation period

36. (1) The trader must not begin the supply of a service before the end of the cancellation period provided for in regulation 30(1) unless the consumer—

(a)has made an express request, and

(b)in the case of an off-premises contract, has made the request on a durable medium.

(2) In the case of a service other than supply of water, gas, electricity or district heating, the consumer ceases to have the right to cancel a service contract under regulation 29(1) if the service has been fully performed, and performance of the service began—

(a)after a request by the consumer in accordance with paragraph (1), and

(b)with the acknowledgement that the consumer would lose that right once the contract had been fully performed by the trader.

tumbledowngirl

bris wrote: »

He visited the property and did the initial inspection so the service has started, there is no longer the right to cancel. You also agreed to the visit by giving them your card details so they have so far did as instructed.

From what I could understand on the Which? website, when ,for eg,you start gym membership, you have the right to a cooling off period but may have to pay for any use of the gym made during the 14 days.

Isn't that the same issue?

In addition, there's the issue of not being informed we'd been passed to a different company, not being given terms and conditions, a website that says no call out charges (suggesting that we've paid to have the oven correlated, which hasn't happened yet.) Also, the questionable ethics of paying a service charge and then being stung for extortionate parts costs.

tumbledowngirl

...and actually, the contract hasn't been fully performed by the trader - our oven door hasn't been fixed!