Argos Dishwasher Installation Problem

ClaraSais

I bought a Bush dishwasher in October from Argos and paid additional charges for delivery and installation. The first two times when delivery was attempted, I was told that the installation engineers had left their tools behind and couldn’t install the dishwasher. On the third attempt, it took them 5 minutes to do the installation and then promptly left. The dishwasher worked for about two weeks and then stopped working. I complained to Argos and they reluctantly refunded me the installation charge.  I called on the 10th December to enquire about someone coming to fix the machine ad it was still not working. I hadn’t heard anything so called today - tried to get through to Argos but couldn’t due to their faulty number recognition telephone system after speaking to technical support. Phoned technical support again whom had advised me to try Argos first and call them back if I didn’t get any luck getting through. The technical support team called Argos customer services whom eventually told me that because I had a refund on installation they expect me to source and pay for an independent engineer to fix the problem and have basically closed the case. Where do I stand in terms of consumer rights and the law please? Thanks in advance. 

Woodstok2000

It's hard to say without knowing what the issue with the dishwasher is...everything points to Argos, but I think until you have a definitive answer to that, they'll just keep pointing back to the installation refund.  With hindsight you may have been better not taking a refund for the install and just insisting they come and fix it.  There could be a few issues:

1) Bad installation - hopefully an easy fix for a competent installer
2) Broken dishwasher - would need a claim for a replacement or fix from Argos
3) Dishwasher damaged during install - again comes back to Argos.

Can you get someone out to reinstall it?  If they can get it working then you're good, if it's really broken you'll need to go back to Argos.

Grumpy_chap

ClaraSais said:

I bought a Bush dishwasher in October from Argos and paid additional charges for delivery and installation. The first two times when delivery was attempted, I was told that the installation engineers had left their tools behind and couldn’t install the dishwasher. On the third attempt, it took them 5 minutes to do the installation and then promptly left. The dishwasher worked for about two weeks and then stopped working. I complained to Argos and they reluctantly refunded me the installation charge.  I called on the 10th December to enquire about someone coming to fix the machine ad it was still not working. I hadn’t heard anything so called today - tried to get through to Argos but couldn’t due to their faulty number recognition telephone system after speaking to technical support. Phoned technical support again whom had advised me to try Argos first and call them back if I didn’t get any luck getting through. The technical support team called Argos customer services whom eventually told me that because I had a refund on installation they expect me to source and pay for an independent engineer to fix the problem and have basically closed the case. Where do I stand in terms of consumer rights and the law please? Thanks in advance. 

How has the dishwasher stopped working?
Does it do anything at all?

ClaraSais

@Grumpy_chapHi - the dishwasher comes up with an E1 code and now doesn’t work at all

MattMattMattUK

ClaraSais said:

@Grumpy_chapHi - the dishwasher comes up with an E1 code and now doesn’t work at all

Low input water pressure, likely a kinked hose or the small stop tap on the pipe has been knocked. Have you checked the water input and hose. 

ClaraSais

I’ve just gently pulled out the dishwasher and it’s been shoved in so much that the inlet pipe has been completely squashed. Therefore it seems no care was taken during installation. 

Woodstok2000

ClaraSais said:

I’ve just gently pulled out the dishwasher and it’s been shoved in so much that the inlet pipe has been completely squashed. Therefore it seems no care was taken during installation. 

Typical argos to be honest. Hopefully it's a relatively easy fix - good luck!

born_again

ClaraSais said:

I’ve just gently pulled out the dishwasher and it’s been shoved in so much that the inlet pipe has been completely squashed. Therefore it seems no care was taken during installation. 

It worked for 2 weeks. So must have been OK. Anyone pushed it back further before it stopped working?

Grumpy_chap

ClaraSais said:

I’ve just gently pulled out the dishwasher and it’s been shoved in so much that the inlet pipe has been completely squashed. Therefore it seems no care was taken during installation. 

That's not necessarily the case.  Items such as dishwasher can move with vibration during the use cycle and also might have pushed back by someone leaning on the appliance, pushing the door shut firmly etc.  Also, the hose can move position so may have been carefully placed in the hollow along the top (usually) and then fallen down to a place where it can be squashed more easily.  

ButterCheese

It's possible that the water feed pipe was kinked when installed, but being a new "kink" it was still able to pass enough water through.  Over time (2 weeks) due to having constant pressure on it, it's fully kinked and will no longer let any/enough water through. 

Yes it is something to take up with the Argos installation but as you've already been refunded, I would not bother.  You also don't know if their "fix", even if they do it with no charge, will be a competent one.

If I were you I'd try to do it myself, call a friend who's handy with such things, or get a handyman out.  It may even require a plumber but it's going to be an hours bill max, with probably no parts needed (maybe a new hose for £6.50).  But you need to know if that cures the issue, because if it doesn't then you need to return the dishwasher as faulty.  Or let them attempt to repair.

n.b It's probably better to buy and fit a new hose anyway, as previously kinked ones do not iron out very well and tend to kink easier in the same place they did before.  You can I think get longer than standard hoses from Screwfix or Toolstation which might make things easier to route differently.  But if it's a straight run then you're better off with the standard 2.5M hose

Aylesbury_Duck

Keep an eye on the hose for a while.  Years ago I had a recurring problem with paint bubbling around my kitchen window.  After a lot of investigating it turned out that the inlet hose on the washing machine had a tiny split where it had previously been kinked, and was very slowly spraying an aerosol of water onto the back wall.  The moisture wicked up the wall behind the tiles and bubbled the paint further up.