Yesterday I received the following email from Currys:
Thank you for your email dated 29th January 2024.
Following your appeal, further investigation was carried out, and our delivery centre has today confirmed that your washing machine was indeed delivered to the incorrect address as you have stated.
I have therefore authorised a full refund of your order as you have requested, which you should see returned to your original payment method within 3 to 5 working days.&
Regarding the individual at the address where your order was incorrectly delivered to, and the removal of the existing unit from that property, I regret we are unable to enter into any correspondence with yourself on their behalf as they would be considered a third party. Nor would the Goods Not Received Team discuss the issue with a third party directly, and we would urge them to contact our Customer Service Team on 0344 561 1234 to discuss any claim they may have in relation to this.
I trust this resolution meets your own requirements and please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.
So, I should be getting a refund in the very near future ... but no offer of compensation for the upset they have caused, the time I have wasted writing countless emails and tweets, the cost of posting a 'Signed For' letter of appeal, and the overall bad service I have received. All I get is a rather grudging apology of the sort that sounds good but actually means very little.
I now intend to take a breather before asking for some compensation ... but ask, I surely will be!
Once the money has actually been returned to me, I fully intend to buy a new washing machine, but you can rest assured that it won't be from Currys!
BOB,
ReplyDeleteGlad at least they acknowledge their fault and your soon to have a Refund. Yes, it would have been nice if everything started normally with the delivery- just rotten luck. Hope you can order a new Washing Machine soon from a reliable supplier. We just purchased a new Refrigerator- it is a Westinghouse and it is a beaut- our old Refrigerator which was also a Westinghouse lasted us 23 years- great brand. Looking forward to your next update on your Model Railway. Cheers. KEV.
Kev Robertson (Kev),
DeleteWe are going to take great care when we order our new washing machine as I don’t want to have to go through this sort of fiasco again.
When I was a child, people expected white goods to last far longer than they do now. I hope that your new fridge lasts as long as your old one.
Work on the model railway continues, and although I won’t finish it by the end of January as I hoped, it should be finished within a fortnight.
All the best,
Bob
Sorry to read of your trials Bob - I don't understand why it takes them almost a week to return your money??
ReplyDeleteMaudlin Jack Tar,
DeleteThe last few weeks have been stressful, but now the end is in sight. As to why it takes so long to repay me when payment was almost instant … well, that’s something that I don’t understand either.
All the best,
Bob
Contact your local paper - they will LOVE this story, and the fallout should prompt Currys to comp you.
ReplyDeleteTim Stanton,
DeleteI did try to interest local media, but none of them showed much interest … which somewhat surprised me.
All the best,
Bob
I don't buy anything from Curry's. Reason? As I posted on my blog at the time:
ReplyDelete'When you are getting something delivered and installed and have it written into the delivery details that it has to be after a certain time you don't expect it to be delivered an hour early. THERE IS NO-ONE IN THEN!!! Any one with half a brain should know that!
Actually, there was someone in - I was having some work done so there was a workman in. He phoned me and I spoke to them but they couldn't wait until I got there - no, had to be a new delivery/installation date.
So 3 phone calls, one hour wasted (mainly on hold) and it's cancelled. I've wasted enough time with them. And they'll have to take their chances on collection. I may be in, I may not. As they said to me, paying £20 for time to suite delivery service is not a guarantee that they will deliver then. As I pointed out, yes it is if I make it a condition of the sale - contracts go both ways.
And get this - they can't arrange the actual refund unless I go back to the store... another wasted hour.
Guess which store has just had it's last order from me?'
Rob Young,
DeleteIn the words of the immortal Terry-Thomas, they are an absolute shower!
You problems with a delivery from Currys are completely down to them not doing what they were contracted to do, but like so many big organisations, they seem to think that contracts are a one-way street … in their favour.
(Years ago I ran an agency that did some work for a big organisation, and it stated clearly on the contract they signed that payment for the work was due thirty days after the work was completed. They did not pay up within that time period, and when I sent them an invoice for the original payment plus interest, they told me that they only paid ninety days after completion. I pointed out that they had signed a contract and the contract was enforceable in law. They paid up … but told me never to bid for another contract with them again.
Less than six months later, they begged me to do some work for them because another contractor had let them down. I quoted a much larger sum than I normally would have for the work, expecting to have my bid rejected: it wasn’t … and I got paid within a week!)
I will never buy from Currys again, and will encourage other to go elsewhere when they want to buy white good, TVs, computers etc.
All the best,
Bob
Actually it even got better, as I said in a reply to a comment: 'They actually came today to FIT it. Pity I was out - in fact, I was taking the TV back to their store at the time as I didn't want it cluttering the place up.
DeleteThe official view was that the salesman shouldn't have agreed delivery in the last 2 hours of the delivery 'window' - though of course that would have meant no sale.'
Rob Young,
DeleteSome people will promise anything to secure a sale!
It’s ironic - and a bit funny - that they arrived to fit it when you were taking it back.
The older I get, the less the world makes sense.
All the best,
Bob
Well, at least you got your money back. Best of luck on your washing machine hunt and quest for compensation!
ReplyDeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteI’m still waiting for the money to actually appear in my account … and once it has, I will begin the quest for a new washing machine and some compensation.
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
ReplyDeleteI read of the saga of the washing machine - whatever happened to customer service?
Instead, set up a labyrinthine complaints process with as many dead-ends as possible "oh no, that has to go via our customer service department, not customer complaints." That way a percentage will give up and not pursue it. ....
Hold onto the money, that way it's in your account not the customer's, only repay after a further week.....
I pity the poor s*d who had them enter his house and take his washing machine; it's either ended up in landfill or a delivery driver's house (as long as you hand in any old scrap who would know?) If I were them I'd accuse them of theft and entering a house without permission (14 year olds not having capacity to consent as neither adults nor homeowners) and make as much fuss as possible....
Neil
Neil Patterson (Neil),
DeleteThe main activity of Customer Service at Currys seems to be to protect the company’s good name in the face of customer complaints. Furthermore, they won’t engage customers by telephone and insist on all communications being conducted by email or tweet.
I have no idea why, in an age where electronic bank transfer can take a matter of seconds, it takes days for a refund to be processed. Back in the days when I worked for a bank, cheques could be cleared in three (and if within the City of London, two or even one) days, Now we have electronic methods, it takes longer. So much for progress!
I haven’t spoken to Mr Singh since I got agreement for me to have a refund, but I hope that he is chasing Currys up for some form of restitution.
All the best,
Bob
Bob -
ReplyDeleteThat 30 days/ 90 days gig is pretty standard for private businesses. The idea is that you get your receivables as close to the 30 days as you can; and part with your payables as far away from the 30 days as you can, short of going past the 90 days. Withholding payment past 90 days is liable to attract the attention of someone's attorney.
You can see the point of having the receivables coming in faster than the payables going out. You can also see the implications - for the end user customer, but also for any new business venture, a supplier maybe, having to deal with this type of caper. And they wonder why more than half of new businesses fall over.
I am reminded of a friend of mine who had moved from NZ to the UK and in the early 1990s got a job evaluating and preparing for sale some USSR space-age software technology that the former Soviet states were flogging off. This was apparently pretty amazing stuff: with rather clunky hardware (British ICL if I recall correctly) the Russians were pretty sharp software writers.
But there were certain peculiarities that Andrew and his colleagues reckoned would require considerable modification before it could be saleable in the UK and West European software market. This was put to the company boss. 'Nope!' he says, 'We need to make a profit on this ASAP.' Not prepared to put in the extra investment.
Andrew's comment (this was early to mid 1990s): 'It's attitudes like this that will ensure that the UK economy will remain on the bones of its arse for a long time to come.'
Seems as though not a lot has changed.
Cheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
DeleteI can understand why companies would prefer to operate on a 30/90 basis, but the organisation my contract was with was a local government authority. They were more concerned with getting budgets committed and used by the end of a financial year, otherwise the unspent funds were clawed back.
A common causes of many small UK businesses failing are both related to cash flow. Late payment of invoices by bigger businesses up the chain and failing to put aside sufficient funds to pay taxes (e.g. VAT, National Insurance) often lead to small business finding themselves in difficulty even though they are otherwise financially viable.
I love the story you included in your comment, and I can quite believe how shortsighted some decision makers can be. A quick profit now (whilst I’m still working here) rather than a long-term sustained gain (by which time I’ll have moved on) seems to be all too common attitude.
All the best,
Bob
Glad it hear it is almost resolved. We have had good service from AO for a washing machine.
ReplyDeleteThe person who's machine was removed should get compensation AND point out to Currys that is is illegal for a delivery person to enter a house where the only occupant is under 18...
Mike Lewis,
DeleteFunnily enough, I’ve just seen a copy of Mr Singh’s email to Currys asking for a replacement washing machine and compensation. I hope that he is successful and they don’t mess him about as much as they did mr.
All the best,
Bob