Here goes my story,

I ordered a fridge from Curry's to be delivered on a Saturday. Because their website had a problem on that day, I ordered over the phone to check delivery schedules (this is not affecting the rest of the story but is noted in case relevant).

The truck arrived at the allocated time, I had also scheduled to have my old fridge taken away. It was a fully functioning fridge for the record, but small and wanted to save the trouble of disposal.

The fridge was packaged and unpacked in front of me, all looking good and in perfect condition externally. They moved it inside my kitchen and I was told to wait for two hours before running for the oil to settle from transit. As soon as they were gone, I took notice of the motor at the rear. The positioning of the motor appeared wrong and a closer look revealed the motor had been misplaced from its base. The base had two long steel pins were the motor was originally sitting upon. At the same time I found a round rubber piece, which I understand to be a vibration absorber, lying around. The other one was missing. Also noted a 2 inch crack on the plastic back of the fridge, behind the motor, indicating the motor had come off it's position and hit the back of the fridge.

All this a clear indication of impact, either by a fall on transit or carriage. I immediately called their customer support to speak to a very polite lady, who informed me they could offer a 10% discount for the damage and further replace the appliance if a fault was presented within 28 days. And beyond that period I would be dealing with the manufacturer warranty. Or, process the appliance for a return and replacement, but with absolutely no guarantee of having a new fridge on the same or the next day. They also said that if I plugged the appliance on the mains and operated it, then it would mean acceptance of the appliance.

My response was that I paid for a new fridge and I could not speculate whether the motor would be working properly, leaking, present a fault due course, make noise or fail due to prior damage and/or imbalanced operation, as it was obviously not in place according to the manufacturer's design. So, the sort answer was "no, I will not take a risk, I'd rather have a new one as per description and please make it quick".

At the same time, it was even more frustrating to be told that I cannot use it while having my old -perfectly working- fridge removed and nearly £200 worth of shopping to keep cool (fresh meat and fish included), I would have to waste all my food. After all, I was getting a new fridge and was planning to store my shopping in there. Plus I could not possibly test it due to the settling time involved. I basically told them they would either have to return my old fridge back as it was minutes away or take responsibility for my shopping. But there is more...

They asked me to read them the serial number of the appliance in order to process the return, which is located in the fridge compartment. I removed the protection tape from the door and still couldn't open the door! Here comes the fun part, I managed to open the door slightly, risking to break something only to realise that two of the glass shelves inside the fridge had lodged into the door (yes believe it or not) revealing the insulation foam inside the door.

At that point the conversation turned to "fully damaged appliance"! They accepted the fridge was damaged and would be replaced, but they could not process the return over the weekend because the department responsible was closed. I said that the shopping needed to be stored or someone with a managerial position would have to take responsibility for this amount of food going to waste.

They eventually said that I could use the appliance to store food but had to make sure it doesn't look like it had been "used". What on earth is that supposed to mean, it's like telling someone to use a saucepan and then try to put it back in the box and return it as new. It was a really frustrating situation, I wasn't even sure if the fridge was working after all. They promised to deal with it asap and call first thing on Monday, so we left it at that as I was fuming.

The damage is clearly due to a fall in transit, I have never seen a glass shelf slicing through the plastic of the door, it could only happen from inertia and a very hard braking...bang. I managed to run the fridge (even the light was gone) as no alternatives were coming to mind, otherwise had to spend all weekend without a fridge.

The problem is that the entire situation has been a great inconvenience and just having a new appliance will not cut it. I will have to take time off work to resolve this asap, which means losing income and I also don't know how they will handle the situation when it gets picked up. AFAIK all the communication was being recorded.

Needless to add that I have taken a thorough set of photos from all the damages.

Hi Lt,

Good that you have taken photos of the damaged fridge.

It may be an idea to put your case for wasted time and loss of food in writing, unless the store manager agrees to a refund/discount that you're happy with.

Brief details in a letter to Head Office would be best.

You can't rely on phone discussions as these may not be readily available to you.

Hi Lt,

 

Good that you have taken photos of the damaged fridge.

 

It may be an idea to put your case for wasted time and loss of food in writing, unless the store manager agrees to a refund/discount that you're happy with.

 

Brief details in a letter to Head Office would be best.

 

You can't rely on phone discussions as these may not be readily available to you.

 

Thank you, I agree phone conversations tend to "disappear" when the party recording is at fault...

What about the fact that I have had to use the fridge (as instructed eventually by customer support) to at least contain the damage to my food?

Should I mention this in my letter at all or leave it to their end to decide how to handle?

Hi LT,

Their suggestion that plugging in the fridge amounted to "acceptance" is rubbish. If it's keeping food cool why they sort a replacement, that will save them the cost of replacing your food, which you could reasonably claim.

I assume today you'll be in touch with Cust'r Svs and/or the local store.

Let us know how you get on and we can take it from there.

Hi LT,

 

Their suggestion that plugging in the fridge amounted to "acceptance" is rubbish. If it's keeping food cool why they sort a replacement, that will save them the cost of replacing your food, which you could reasonably claim.

 

I assume today you'll be in touch with Cust'r Svs and/or the local store.

 

Let us know how you get on and we can take it from there.

 

They rang me this morning to arrange for a replacement delivery, but I will have to take half day off work as they can only allocate four hour slots.

There was no point to take this further over the phone with the employee, so I have decided to send them a formal letter of complaint.

I am not sure whether something can be claimed for part of the food or income loss, perhaps I should send a letter and see what they say first.

Did you lose food due to this or did you use the new fridge temporarily.

If you have to lose work pay to cover a new 4 hour delivery window, I would write to HO asking for compensation for this and for stress and inconvenience.

I will definitely be claiming for loss of income, as I am a contractor and will not receive pay for this.

Thank you for your advice!

£200 of food?

That fridge must be as big as my front room then.

Seriously, unless you were storing a load of finest scotch fillet steak, you couldn't get £200 of food in 4 fridges.

But going back to Currys, just get your replacement from them and buy from ao in future, they are brilliant.

Agreed.

If you keep your claim for compo reasonable, they are more likely to settle. If you go over-the-top, they are likely to refuse outright or demand receipts as evidence.

This assumes you actually lost food, which may not necessarily be the case.

£200 of food?

 

That fridge must be as big as my front room then.

 

Seriously, unless you were storing a load of finest scotch fillet steak, you couldn't get £200 of food in 4 fridges.

 

But going back to Currys, just get your replacement from them and buy from ao in future, they are brilliant.

That was a give or take figure, it may have been less. The above value includes £45 of meat from the butcher and £30 for fresh fish. Then dairy products, deli and other items worth around £50 in total. This does not come from a single week's shopping, it is a fridge after all. But I am not claiming the entire amount, just the items I had to dispose of as I could not open the fridge door.

Sorry to say but I disagree, a replacement does not settle things after all that hustle and loss of income.

Agreed.

 

If you keep your claim for compo reasonable, they are more likely to settle. If you go over-the-top, they are likely to refuse outright or demand receipts as evidence.

 

This assumes you actually lost food, which may not necessarily be the case.

 

Agreed, but I had to throw away several things as the fridge could not be used, just the freezer. Receipts are available with date and time from that date and before if asked. But the important part is the loss of income for time to be taken off to resolve the delivery...

I received the new fridge and things have been fine since.

Two more things I noticed, when the delivery guys collected the old 'damaged' fridge the door came off just from picking it up (although it looked perfectly fine on the outside). The next thing was the new motor, which had a whole lot of additional support around it, so there was quite a lot more missing from the damaged one.

The biggest disappointment with Currys is that while they have received my tracked letter a week ago they have yet to respond...

Keep on at them.

But stay realistic in what you hope to get from them.

The response from Curry's is completely unacceptable, they set the compensation to an absolute zero without even me having discussed an amount of compensation. The letter almost reads generic and sets a new low for the british service standard. Letter inserted below...

Firstly they make an assumption that I had bought food to store in a new fridge while completely ignoring the fact that my old fridge was removed by the very same company, thus I would be transferring food eventually between the units. Also, having a small child I cannot obviously live without any food prior to delivery and for 10 hours after delivery of a new fridge. Furthermore, I had to keep a damaged fridge for 3-4 days, ridiculous!

At the same time they rejected the returning of my old fridge which was in transit minutes away from my home when I contacted them. It does not take 10 hours to prepare a fridge for use (a completely unsupported statement), with the manufacturer's manual setting the waiting time to 2 hours, of which all the preparation of the unit can be done. Whilst the fridge can drop its internal temperature significantly quickly once in operation, as I used it myself and know that very well. Food does not perish in two or three hours, it certainly does in 4 days though !!

However, it is completely unacceptable that I have to suffer income loss because they could not resolve this matter immediately, resulting in having to take time off due to the urgency of the situation.

edit p.s : Letter before action with manufacturer's manual, receipts and income loss in the prepare...

It's not surprising that they've taken this stance initially.

Many folk would be put off by this and decide to let the matter drop.

If you want to take the matter further, how do you want to proceed.

 

If you want to take the matter further, how do you want to proceed.

 

How would you recommend to move forward?

The response is below any standard for any retailer I have interacted with, they are in fact not even bothering to offer some form of compensation for the inconvenience. I would consider taking the case to a consumer body but from their response, they leave no alternative but to show I am quite a bit more serious than they thought and serve an LBA with evidence?

I can't help casting my mind back to the last time I replaced my own fridge (not from Currys).

I thought it sensible in the week before delivery to "run down" and use up the biggest part of the contents of the fridge as I could manage.

It seemed the best course of action so as to make the swap-over as smooth as possible.

When the day came the fridge was almost empty (except for a few essentials)

which meant that when the new one was delivered and the old one taken away there was almost nothing to transfer.

I had run down my freezer at the same time, and for the couple of hours that I couldn't use my new fridge

I stored the contents in the freezer just temporarily.

They hadn't really started to freeze by the time I removed them and put them back in the fridge.

I wouldn't have dreamed of putting myself in the situation of not knowing what to do with £200 worth of food.

It may be different if a fridge broke down suddenly and a new one was ordered on that basis,

but you say your old fridge was working perfectly.

Taking all this into account I come to the conclusion that the OP is either an idiot or a compensation seeking [removed]

Easy Tiger !!

LTKY is entitled to seek reasonable compensation when the appliance was clearly delivered in a badly damaged state.

Hi LTKY,

I would reply to them saying that you are only seeking reasonable compensation for quantifiable losses.

Set these out and tell them you want them to reconsider their stance, failing which you will take court action to claim your losses for lost food and wages.

Hi LTKY,

 

I would reply to them saying that you are only seeking reasonable compensation for quantifiable losses.

 

Set these out and tell them you want them to reconsider their stance, failing which you will take court action to claim your losses for lost food and wages.

 

Thank you!

I wouldn't waste a second replying to the "useful troll" above, whose attitude is exactly the free pass Currys need to get away with letters like above.

It appears that Currys are not taking the case seriously.

Following their reply, I posted another recorded letter enclosing,

1. employer's HR letter confirming date of unpaid time off and income lost,

2. detailed receipt of foods dated/timed before delivery - in fact claiming a smaller amount as I want to focus on lost income

3. photos of the damaged fridge

The amount is between 100-200, which is more than reasonable and quantifiable. I allowed seven days for a satisfactory response, already overdue. If there was intention to cooperate it would be clear by now, from the small claims point of view I have made reasonable effort to resolve.

I will submit a case for the above and request release of the conversation with the customer services if possible...

To add insult to the injury, Currys decided to contact me directly and offer as a "gesture of goodwill" the amount of....£20!!

I had to refrain from laughing or hanging up, difficult to understand the pointless call and the ridiculous offer. I told them there is no goodwill in this situation and whether they accept my losses or not is not up to their goodwill.

The conversation went on and on with the person on the other end trying to divert the argument, insisting they do not offer any compensation for loss of income or food. I on the other hand, putting things back in context (yet again) explaining that my losses were not part of a standard delivery routine, but a direct result of their handling of the case and negligence to deliver a damaged appliance.

They even argued they could not have known the appliance was damaged until after delivery and since it was replaced the case is closed. I think they almost attempted to blame the damage to the manufacturer's warehouse (lol?!). They even dared to say that the food claimed was little and should be put in ice. I then reminded them to go back and re-read my letter, which was honest and stated that I was missing a receipt for part of the food and would not claim over that part. I am now printing my credit card statement from the week's shopping to add into the claim, as they felt it was prudent to provoke further.

I had to end the call as I could not take the conversation seriously any more. I asked for a response in writing and rejected the "goodwill gesture" which was a joke. There was plenty of opportunities to put things right, the company lacks professionalism and seriousness. I truly believe it's time to put this through small claims now as they have rejected all attempts.

Currys would appear to absolutely refuse any claim, however reasonable and however badly they've performed.

In my case they failed to turn up twice, delivered a damaged appliance and refused to install as paid for or remove the old machine for an entirely spurious reason. All of this took 3 working days waiting around for deliveries plus the plumber's fee for actually installing. As a gesture of goodwill I was offered a £15 voucher as compensation, later increased to the plumber's charge.

Their legal department won't speak to you or answer any letters unless you issue a claim, then they will defend to the hilt, go to mediation and basically offer less once the court fee is taken into account and do everything possible to discourage you. My hearing is just over a month away.

I think they must have had so many threats of legal action that they no longer take anyone seriously unless they actually start proceedings, and then they're so frightened of setting a precedent for compensating people for their appalling service that they drag it out as much as possible in the hope that you'll give up.

My advice is that if you have the stamina, give them a reasonable time to respond in writing and then issue a letter before action and follow through.

 

My advice is that if you have the stamina, give them a reasonable time to respond in writing and then issue a letter before action and follow through.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

It has been over a month and I allowed enough time for them to come back with something reasonable. The last letter was not titled a LBA as such but included a time clause before action. As they have now acknowledged it and continue to respond on the same basis, I can't see any point in continuing the meaningless letter exchanging.

They are probably hopping for people to give up, but they have this so wrong with this customer. I will follow through, day after day, month after month until I get my compensation. The reputation cost to them if far greater than a few minutes of my time, as I have all the facts on paper and ready to roll out. I am sick of retailers who are just in for the profit and fail to provide standard customer compensation when the proverbial hits the fan...

And here is the latest rubbish response they've sent, just to attest to the fact that this company gives no serious consideration to the customer's case. Presented with no comments.

"Thank you for your letter dated May 2015. Please accept my apologies for the delay in this response.

As discussed in our telephone conversation, I understand the inconvenience that you have experienced because the appliance was damaged and had to be exchanged and apologise for this. If any product was damaged or faulty when it was received, we would exchange this or provide a refund. We do not compensate for food loss, as food should not be purchased until the appliance has been delivered and has reached the desired temperature. Loss of earnings is also not compensated, as we deliver 7 days a week so it should not be necessary to take time off work as re-deliveries can be made if needed on a day when the customer does not have work commitments.

I would like to offer you a £20.00 BACS payment as a gesture of goodwill. It is noted though you have stated that you do not want to accept this, but if you change your mind please let us know. Your letter has been logged under case reference (redacted).

The Management team at the delivery depot will carry out a further internal review. Any training issues or disciplinary matters will be taken into account during this process. As this is will be undertaken internally, you will not be given any feedback. You have my assurances though that we will always take positive action to ensure that our customers receive the best possible service going forward.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. The feedback that has been supplied helps us ensure that the high standards we expect our customers to experience are constantly monitored and improved. "