Hello About 3 months ago the hinges on my oven door became faulty and it opened by accident and hit the kitchen floor damaging the outer glass window in my oven door.

The glass shattered similar to the way a car windscreen would but remained intact within the door.

I continued using the oven with no problem for a further couple of months (with the shattered glass still intact) until I ordered a new oven from Appliances Direct. On my online order I opted for the service to remove my old oven and paid a further £15 for this.

Prior to the delivery I removed my old oven and placed it in my hall. The glass was still intact but I covered it with newspaper and taped over it just as a precaution. On the day of delivery/removal I was working so my 20yr old daughter was there to let them in. They delivered the new oven then took the old oven out to the van to remove it but dropped it thus shattering the glass in the door. They then returned the old oven back to my house, apologised and refused to take it. My daughter called me immediately so I rang Appliances Direct to see what was happening.

They said it had been a failed collection due to customer error and broken glass being present. I complained that because they hadn't removed the old oven then I wanted a full refund of £15 or I gave them the option of returning and taking the oven away on a different day.

They refused both of these, I asked to be transferred to speak to the manager and they refused this also, eventually they offered to refund half of the cost as a good will gesture but I told them I'm not happy with this as I've lost out £7.50 plus I've still got the hassle of getting the old oven removed.

Anyway I'm at a standstill now and they are refusing anything else but on principle I'm not prepared to let it go. Has anyone got any advice as to the way forward please, I did threaten them with the ombudsman etc but it's had no impact.

I posted this 5 days ago but have not yet had a reply even though there has been just under 200 views. Have I posted it in the right section or would I be better off posting it elsewhere on the site.......................or am I missing something altogether. Can someone advise please, regards.

How have you been dealing with the company - by phone - email or letter ?

It is probably best that you deal direct with their Head/Registered office. Send a formal complaint there in the first instance and ensure your letter is headed Formal Complaint.

You will need to give them at least 14 days to deal with your complaint properly, after which time you then have the choice of either the Ombudsman or the issuing of a small claim through the County Court.

Please do not simply "threaten" either one. If you say you will do something, then you need to follow through.

You might want to have a read of the CAG Complaints guide

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?439552-Guidance-note-Dealing-with-Customer-Service-Departments-or-making-telephone-contracts&highlight=Dealing+with+Customer+Service

Meanwhile, I will bring your thread to the attention of the site team.

Thanks for your reply, yes I intend following it through, things like this that I regard as not being fair annoy me!! I initially spoke to them over the phone and they refused to accept that I had a valid point but offered half the collection money that I'd paid as a kind gesture. I asked to be put on to someone more senior but was refused so I ended the conversation. I then went down the email route and asked for a final letter from them so I could pursue it with the ombudsman. I got a reply initially but then further emails were ignored. I left it for a few days and asked about the £15 that they still owed me, I then received an email stating that £7.50 had been refunded. I've since emailed to say it should be £15 but I've not had a reply. I'll try and find their head office details and do what you advised thanks.

Hi OP,

I was just wondering if you ever got a final resolution on this, and what happened? I just had a similar thing with Appliances Direct as they sent me a damaged sink and then refused to refund my card, refused to pay the return shipping back, and also wanted to charge me a 25% restocking fee. I filed a formal complaint with Trading Standards and even called back to tell them so and their response was "Ok, we will await your letter by post and respond by post" - as if they are seasoned veterans with getting complaints!!! They are absolutely the most vile, disgusting "business" ever and I can't believe they would let me carry onto court for the sake of £130. Whatever happened to goodwill and good customer service? I simply asked for a replacement or a full refund to my card - I wasn't trying to get more out of them than I paid (though they should have compensated for all the hassle!). The only other option AD provided me was to refund me 50% of the sink, which obviously I wouldn't be able to use a damaged sink, even at half price!!

Thankfully, my purchase was protected by Google, which Google does for free for certain stores. I raised the complaint with Google as well and was assigned a case manager who contacted AD for me. AD gave them the same terrible response. LUCKILY, Google was very generous to tell me that if AD was offering me 50% of the cost back, that Google themselves would refund me the other 50% - and I'd keep the sink to dispose of at my leisure. This was a golden boon from Google as that saved me the return shipping and 10% restocking fee. I'm really impressed with Google, but I'm still going to file a formal complaint and make it well known on all of their social media and review sites how disgusting and amoral AD is.

Oh, and the icing on the cake - I openly heard in the background one of the AD sales team members make fun of an Indian guy for his accent, and they have NO accomodations for disabled people when I explained multiple times I have a leg injury and can't physically return the sink myself. So on top of all that they are both racist and discriminatory to disabled / injured people.

Good thing I read this.

I was about to save a tenner by purchasing a dishwasher from AD, but now I think I will go to AO.com.

From your story they really seem to be experts in complaints handling.