Domestic & General Appliance Cover

Yan23

Dear All,

I'm new here and am after some advice. We have appliance cover for 3 kitchen appliances with D&G, for this we pay around £15 per month.

In Nov 2014 our over (which is under this cover) stopped working properly. It works but every now & then it takes an age to warm up i.e. over 1 hour to cook a pizza! so clearly something is not right.

I have been following this up with D&G since Nov and have written several e-mails and official complaints as this has not been resolved.

Their standard robotic response has been we will get back to you within 3 working days but it has now been over 10 weeks!

As I appear to be getting nowhere I am seriously considering taking them to small claims court as I feel I have a clear case.

I am uncertain however how to quantify my claim. Is this something someone else decides during the process? Or do I need to estimate this on the forms? Obviously I have been paying £15 per month whilst there has been no action but on top of this is our inconvenience when cooking meals with this intermittent problem and also my time trying to contact them and get action.

Should I even buy a new oven and claim for that?

Any thoughts would really be appreciated!

InsideInsurance

You need to get a report done by an independent engineer to identify the problem and the cost of repair.

Assuming the problem is covered by the terms of the contract your claim would then be for the lower of a repair or replacement.

Have you actually followed the complaints process as outlined in your warranty documentation? Most of these are written as service plans and not insurance so limit your ability to complain to the FOS

wealdroam

Welcome to the forums.

Click on this text just above your post and immediately under the thread title:

Small Claims Court Settle consumer disputes legally

There's lots of good advice in there.
For example, the first sentence in that article is:

The small claims court is the low-hassle way to take legal action for up to £10,000 against a firm or individual. But be confident you've got a case before you start...

In other words, have D&G actually done anything legally wrong? Is there a response time specified it their terms?

Think carefully before going down the court route.

Country_Cousin

So are you saying that they have not been to look at it yet to diagnose the fault?

Yan23

Country_Cousin wrote: »

So are you saying that they have not been to look at it yet to diagnose the fault?

They had a company contact me back in Nov'14. They asked for details such as model no. and we discussed the problem over the phone. They were planning to order parts before attending to repair.

After I chased this company they said that parts are no longer available and that they will be writing a report and sending to D&G.

So nobody has actually been to look at it yet!

Country_Cousin

Have you actually telephoned D&G or have you just been emailing?

Yan23

Country_Cousin wrote: »

Have you actually telephoned D&G or have you just been emailing?

I have tried phoning a few times but was left on hold for over 10mins each time so now just e-mail.

In reference to an earlier response regarding D&G timescales to respond. I cannot find anything in the T&C's but surely my consumer rights and all the other legislation talk about what is 'Reasonable' and I don't believe that being left with a faulty oven for over two months with no action from D&G is at all reasonable.

I intend to write one final letter to them and if i get no response then commence the small claims route.

Country_Cousin

If it were me I would call them. I have always had good service on the telephone from D&G and surely that is the best way of sorting out a repair, rather than emails back and forward, back and forward. Why keep wasting so much time with letters and emails. Just prepare that you may be on hold for a short while or plan to call during the day when the lines can be quieter. I would not be thinking about small claims if I had never actually spoken to a single soul.