Appliances Direct - appalling admin

hugheskevi

I purchased a fridge freezer on 30th July for delivery on 16th August from Appliances Direct. The transaction was routine, and everything was paid for and arranged. Then this happened:

• On 31st July (Sunday) I received a message saying they Appliances Direct had changed the delivery date to Monday 1st August
• I contacted Appliances Direct contact centre immediately after receiving the message who changed the delivery date back to 16th August. A confirmation email of this was sent.
• Later in the day I received messages that it would be delivered the next day (1st). The contact centre was now closed, but I sent a message through the order portal and received an email response saying they would cancel the courier.
• On the morning of 1st August I got messages saying it would be delivered today. I called the contact centre who again said they would change delivery date to 16th.
• Several hours later I received a call from a courier saying he was on his way.
• I've just spoken to Appliances Direct for the fourth time, reiterating this is to be delivered on the 16th, not the 1st.

At no point have I ever asked for this to be delivered on the 1st. Engagement with Appliances Direct has been a total shambles, they don't seem to have any idea what they are doing. Quite how they managed to mess up a routine order so badly is beyond me, and I have no idea why their systems decided to move the delivery date from 16th August to 1st August within 8 hours of the order being placed.

pulliptears

Oh I wrote this myself last year.
In my case a dishwasher, that I'd chosen to be delivered in November which they completely ignored and tried to deliver in October instead.  Rather than changing the date as promised, they cancelled it, and then it went out of stock.
Fortunately I didn't order another as I suddenly had a text saying they were delivering it again, still not on the date I requested.  I asked for a refund, they delivered it anyway.

I would NEVER use them again.  They do it a lot apparently, let you select a date and then deliver it when they fancy anyway.

hugheskevi

pulliptears said:

Oh I wrote this myself last year.
In my case a dishwasher, that I'd chosen to be delivered in November which they completely ignored and tried to deliver in October instead.  Rather than changing the date as promised, they cancelled it, and then it went out of stock.
Fortunately I didn't order another as I suddenly had a text saying they were delivering it again, still not on the date I requested.  I asked for a refund, they delivered it anyway.

I would NEVER use them again.  They do it a lot apparently, let you select a date and then deliver it when they fancy anyway.

Hehe, I have literally just got an email from them saying it is now out of stock

I agree with never using them again!

pulliptears

hugheskevi said:

pulliptears said:

Oh I wrote this myself last year.
In my case a dishwasher, that I'd chosen to be delivered in November which they completely ignored and tried to deliver in October instead.  Rather than changing the date as promised, they cancelled it, and then it went out of stock.
Fortunately I didn't order another as I suddenly had a text saying they were delivering it again, still not on the date I requested.  I asked for a refund, they delivered it anyway.

I would NEVER use them again.  They do it a lot apparently, let you select a date and then deliver it when they fancy anyway.

Hehe, I have literally just got an email from them saying it is now out of stock

I agree with never using them again!

I can pretty much guarantee you'll get another dispatch email next so dont immediately reorder.  It was an utter farce.  I'll see if I can find my thread with the timelines  

pulliptears

Here you go:

Just a small warning over Appliances Direct.
I've used this company a few times with no problems, but this time was farcical.

Beginning of October, Friday evening.  Order Dishwasher for a kitchen refit.  Chose an order date of the 8th November from their delivery calendar as I A, know this is when I will be in and B, I don't want a large appliance in the way until needed.

Two days later receive a dispatch notification.  Immediately contact AD and say "No, this doesn't suit" and am told to refuse delivery when the driver calls, then call their CS who will arrange a redelivery on the date chosen.
Monday morning, driver calls, I explain and he tells me this happens a lot.  Dishwasher is taken away.  I call AD who now say "Oh yes, it's now Out of Stock, we can't redeliver".  I question how it can be when the item I have already paid for is on their lorry but get no sensible explanation.  I ask them to refund immediately.  I'm told this will be within the week.

A week and a half later no refund.  I'm about to call when I get yet another dispatch email.  I call them again, getting little sense but they tell me to contact their delivery company and rearrange with them.  I do.  They apologise and put the delivery in for the 11th November as originally requested in the first place.
Monday morning, unsurprisingly I get a phone call, "we're an hour away".   By this point I didn't fancy my chances of a refund or rearranging it again so made several calls to relatives to get someone to the house to accept it.  I've then spent 3 weeks with an appliance blocking a room and causing a little more annoyance in a refit thats already turned the home upside down.

There are many reasons people chose a delivery date.  Some may want appliances for a new home they will complete on, or a tenancy that begins on a certain date.  It may be something as simple as they aren't bloody in.  So if you do order from Appliances Direct just bear in mind that you can tell them when you want your item, but ultimately they will deliver it when they want to anyway.