Warning - do not use this company!
Yesterday was the Big Day. The day when my New Fridge was to be delivered. It all seemed so simple. Order a fridge, specify the day of delivery and await its arrival.
Of course, it didn't work like that.
The evening before I had the telephone call I had been expecting; the one where they arrange a delivery timeslot. It was soon apparent that "arrange" was an inappropriate word. "Dictate" would be more apt. Of course, the slot was 8am-midday. Precisely the time I was going to be at Jessica's Sports Day. I said I wouldn't be there so could I have a later one. Apparently this was impossible, because it was already loaded on the van. I suggested that maybe it could be unloaded and put onto another van that was leaving later, but this didn't fit in with the scripted way of doing things so was not an option. I soon ascertained that he was calling from a company called Wincanton who do the deliveries for Appliance Deals (who I had ordered the fridge from). Please make a note to never do business with these companies, for they are hopelessly incompetent and incredibly rude. Anyway, I said I might have to cancel the order, but I would try and get somebody over to babysit the house and that I would call back. I asked for the telephone number, which he gave me. It had too many digits. We then got into an argument with him insisting it was correct, and me insisting it wasn't. In the end I had to put the phone down because dealing with idiots of this magnitude is not good for my blood pressure.
We arranged for Ele's aunt to come over, and I called back on the number he gave me. Obviously, it didn't work. I figured out it had an extra zero in the middle, so I modified the number and tried again. Success! Except all I got was a pre-recorded "this office closes at 6pm" message. As I had received my call from them at 7pm, this was a blatant lie, presumably designed to thwart customers who may need to arrange deliveries. I rang Appliance Deals instead, explained I had found a fridge-sitter and that everything could go ahead. The man on the phone gave me assurances all would be fine.
Fast-forward to the following morning, which is now yesterday morning, and I am sitting on a chair in a cold field waiting for Jessica to do a race. My mobile rings, it is Appliance Deals calling about my cancelled order (if they thought the order was canceled why are they calling anyway?).
A large argument ensued with the moronic woman at the other end of the phone insisting I had cancelled the order, and me insisting I had not. She would have barely passed the Turing test because she just kept repeating the same thing over and over. She even accused me of lying about having taken a day off work because I wasn't at home! I got so fed up with her that I gave the phone to Ele. She had no luck, either and eventually demanded some kind of manager. She got another robotic woman who also seemed unable to comprehend that they may actually be at fault here, and just accused us over and over of canceling the order. Ele demanded that they deliver it today. They said this was not possible as it is in a warehouse in Greenford. Strange, as it wasn't possible to unload it from the van according to Wincanton. They were incredibly rude and said they were "going off to listen to the tapes of the recording". Ele terminated the call as she had had enough.
I had had enough too, so after Sports Day finished I drove to a smaller electrical store a few miles from our house. They had the fridge I wanted (albeit in white, rather than the nice "Satin Aluminium" colour, and at a slightly higher price), and were able to deliver it that day, after I explained today was the only day it could be done. They called the delivery driver to check he could come back and get it and everything. The service was well worth the extra money. So I called Appliance Deals, got the name of their Managing Director for the complaint letter he will be receiving, and told them to stick their fridge and give me back my money.
And at 17:30 my new fridge arrived. It is installed, gleaming and looking wonderful. Hurrah!
So the moral of the story is this: Do not EVER buy ANYTHING from www.appliancedeals.co.uk or from any company that uses Wincanton to do their deliveries. If they had said "You didn't cancel? Well, that must be our error, we'll do everything we can to sort this out and get it to you today" then I wouldn't have had a problem. But they refused to accept any fault, weren't prepared to lift a single idle finger to help, were rude, discourteous and accused us of lying. What happened to "the customer is always right?"
They will certainly not be getting any business from me, nor anyone I know. And hopefully from anyone that reads this, too.
Of course, it didn't work like that.
The evening before I had the telephone call I had been expecting; the one where they arrange a delivery timeslot. It was soon apparent that "arrange" was an inappropriate word. "Dictate" would be more apt. Of course, the slot was 8am-midday. Precisely the time I was going to be at Jessica's Sports Day. I said I wouldn't be there so could I have a later one. Apparently this was impossible, because it was already loaded on the van. I suggested that maybe it could be unloaded and put onto another van that was leaving later, but this didn't fit in with the scripted way of doing things so was not an option. I soon ascertained that he was calling from a company called Wincanton who do the deliveries for Appliance Deals (who I had ordered the fridge from). Please make a note to never do business with these companies, for they are hopelessly incompetent and incredibly rude. Anyway, I said I might have to cancel the order, but I would try and get somebody over to babysit the house and that I would call back. I asked for the telephone number, which he gave me. It had too many digits. We then got into an argument with him insisting it was correct, and me insisting it wasn't. In the end I had to put the phone down because dealing with idiots of this magnitude is not good for my blood pressure.
We arranged for Ele's aunt to come over, and I called back on the number he gave me. Obviously, it didn't work. I figured out it had an extra zero in the middle, so I modified the number and tried again. Success! Except all I got was a pre-recorded "this office closes at 6pm" message. As I had received my call from them at 7pm, this was a blatant lie, presumably designed to thwart customers who may need to arrange deliveries. I rang Appliance Deals instead, explained I had found a fridge-sitter and that everything could go ahead. The man on the phone gave me assurances all would be fine.
Fast-forward to the following morning, which is now yesterday morning, and I am sitting on a chair in a cold field waiting for Jessica to do a race. My mobile rings, it is Appliance Deals calling about my cancelled order (if they thought the order was canceled why are they calling anyway?).
A large argument ensued with the moronic woman at the other end of the phone insisting I had cancelled the order, and me insisting I had not. She would have barely passed the Turing test because she just kept repeating the same thing over and over. She even accused me of lying about having taken a day off work because I wasn't at home! I got so fed up with her that I gave the phone to Ele. She had no luck, either and eventually demanded some kind of manager. She got another robotic woman who also seemed unable to comprehend that they may actually be at fault here, and just accused us over and over of canceling the order. Ele demanded that they deliver it today. They said this was not possible as it is in a warehouse in Greenford. Strange, as it wasn't possible to unload it from the van according to Wincanton. They were incredibly rude and said they were "going off to listen to the tapes of the recording". Ele terminated the call as she had had enough.
I had had enough too, so after Sports Day finished I drove to a smaller electrical store a few miles from our house. They had the fridge I wanted (albeit in white, rather than the nice "Satin Aluminium" colour, and at a slightly higher price), and were able to deliver it that day, after I explained today was the only day it could be done. They called the delivery driver to check he could come back and get it and everything. The service was well worth the extra money. So I called Appliance Deals, got the name of their Managing Director for the complaint letter he will be receiving, and told them to stick their fridge and give me back my money.
And at 17:30 my new fridge arrived. It is installed, gleaming and looking wonderful. Hurrah!
So the moral of the story is this: Do not EVER buy ANYTHING from www.appliancedeals.co.uk or from any company that uses Wincanton to do their deliveries. If they had said "You didn't cancel? Well, that must be our error, we'll do everything we can to sort this out and get it to you today" then I wouldn't have had a problem. But they refused to accept any fault, weren't prepared to lift a single idle finger to help, were rude, discourteous and accused us of lying. What happened to "the customer is always right?"
They will certainly not be getting any business from me, nor anyone I know. And hopefully from anyone that reads this, too.
posted by Nej at
11:33 am
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