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reallymadwoman

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reallymadwoman last won the day on August 15 2018

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  1. Wicked supplied the kitchen and arranged installation.. The problems are the quality of the worktop and ovens and how long it’s taken.
  2. The background in brief. Bought a fitted kitchen from Wickes (deposit paid by credit card, balance on a finance agreement) in August. Bulk of order was delivered October for installation to start at the beginning of November, expected to take 6 weeks to complete due to additional building works. Order included a made to measure worktop supplied by a sub-contractor. Issue 1 - the subcontractors failed to turn up for 2 templating appointments so the worktop was not actually fitted until the end of January, meaning we had been without a kitchen for 3 months, including no sink and no hob. We had a temporary kitchen set up in the dining room with a hotplate and the microwave and were using the cloakroom for a (tiny) sink and water. Issue 2 - the worktop price included an amount for 'drainer grooves' to go with the fancy undermount sink. There are certainly grooves there but they don't drain as they're too shallow and there's no slope on them, as a result anything left on the 'drainer' was sitting in a puddle and the constant puddle was leaving limescale deposits on the worktop within 2 weeks even though we were mopping it up regularly. Since you can't use harsh cleaners on the worktop, those deposits are getting harder and harder to remove and will become permanent. We wanted the undermount sink and drainer grooves to avoid having anything cluttering the worktop and to give us a little extra work space, but to avoid cups and glasses sitting in a puddle instead of draining we've had to put a trivet over the grooves so we might just as well have had a standard sink and drainer at a fraction of the price. Issue 3 - we contacted Wickes on 17th February to advise that the double oven had stopped heating up. They eventually sent an engineer, lovely chatty chap, freely admitted he'd only been 'doing ovens' for 4 weeks. His only solution was to replace one of the heating elements, though he couldn't as the one he'd brought was the wrong size. Having checked the existing element as not being faulty he then spent 20 minutes on the phone to a colleague asking for advice after which he disconnected all the electrics and took the ovens out of the housing, stared at the innards for a while then put it back. In the process of reconnecting the electrics he blew the main trip switch. He then turned the top oven on and it appeared to be working correctly, though he had no idea why or how the fault had gone (I can guess - handbook says the first thing to do in the event of a fault is switch off at the mains and wait 10 minutes ...). At no point did he even switch the bottom oven on even though we'd made it clear the fault was with both ovens. 4 days later the top oven started playing up again, and a couple of days after that the bottom oven followed suit. We contacted Wickes again immediately, they acknowledged the email and said they were dealing with it (on 10th March) but have ignored every communication since. Their Twitter team say they have tried to escalate this repeatedly but if they have, they're being ignored too. 2 weeks ago I wrote to Wickes, the credit card company and the finance company saying we weren't prepared to put up with this any longer and giving them until tomorrow to contact us or we will have to take further action, e.g. replace the ovens ourselves so we can at least cook properly for the first time in 5 months and send them the bill plus charge storage for the faulty oven until they take it away. We've also formally rejected the worktop as not fit for purpose and made a claim for expenses in having to buy take aways etc. No response from any of them. We feel totally let down by Wickes, not because of the issues with the worktop and ovens but because of their dreadful communication skills. The designer and installer did their jobs without fault (I've recommended both to friends and relatives) but their customer services team have let them down too. The delays in the kitchen have also delayed renovations in the rest of the house (being done by the same builder, he's that good) because the dining room was being used as a temporary kitchen so there was no space to store stuff out of other rooms so they could work in there. Originally the master suite should have been finished by the end of January, we're now in April and they're hoping to get first fix electrics and plastering done this week. Overall the builder thinks the delay is now about 10 weeks because they've had to go and do other jobs whilst waiting to be able to do more work here - I imagine it's been a bit of a nightmare for them with having to reschedule contractors all the time. I plan to purchase new ovens by the end of the week but have to first find one that will fit as our model is no longer available and the replacement is smaller (and has a slightly lower spec, no telescopic runners, smaller oven only has room for a single shelf whereas ours has two). I'm not sure what to do if I can't find a 'like for like' replacement - if we have to mess with the oven housing I can see this turning from an annoyance to a wide screen epic. It also feels wrong to be having to escalate what should have been resolved weeks ago - I'll give them a few more days because I'd forgotten we had a bank holiday weekend in the way, but the next step will have to be a letter before claim. It all just makes me feel very tired.
  3. I have once again had to spend most of a morning trying to resolve this with Currys. All the customer service phone numbers still just have a recorded message which cuts off half way through and when I contacted Live Chat I was initially number 25 in the queue. I spent the 43 minutes I was waiting for an agent to become available typing the first draft of my complaint. LiveChat at Currys really is useless - unless your query merits a standard response they can do nothing, there's no supervisor or manager who might be able to do something and you have to wonder how many customers at a time they are dealing with as it takes so long for them to type anything. Outcome of over an hour waiting and 'chatting' - they've rebooked the collection for next Tuesday. Assuming they actually turned up and collected the machine, that would be 4 half days wasted waiting around for them plus all the hours I've spent online trying to resolve this. Also, we'd already delayed delivery of the replacement once and weren't willing to do it again on such short notice so I contacted KnowHow through Twitter again and told them if the machine wasn't collected by 6pm yesterday they could chose between refunding the cost of hiring a van to take it to their store or it being dumped in the bin store from where their driver could collect at his leisure as it's not locked. KnowHow have not responded so husband and son disconnected the faulty dishwasher and carefully transported it to the bin store, where it is under cover. Son took many many photos to show it was there and undamaged when left. Currys know what will happen if they object now and try to refuse my refund ......
  4. So, developments. 1. Currys agree to remove the faulty machine today. First they tell me it will be in the morning, ten minutes later another text says afternoon. 30 minutes of trying later I get confirmation that it is afternoon, between 1 and 5.30. 2. At 5.15 Currys message to say the driver has run out of hours so they'll have to rebook for next week. You really couldn't make this up. Anyone would think they wanted me to issue another claim for all this wasted time/loss of earnings.
  5. Once upon a time I had an issue with Currys and the purchase of a washing machine Hadn't realised it was 6 years ago! Anyway, back to the point. Much against my better judgement and only because they were the only ones who could deliver (allegedly) before Xmas, I bought a dishwasher from them. Amazingly it arrived on time the first time, and was installed. I wasn't present and it never occurred to my deputy to get them to turn it on so of course when I did there was a fault. 3 hours on the phone with the manufacturer's technical team failed to resolve it so we reluctantly accepted it would have to be returned. If you've ever had to return a large item to Currys you'll know they still do the 'contact the manufacturer for authority' thing even though they must know how wrong that is. I argued with them, they backed down and agreed to collect. Driver turned up on time, took one look and refused to take it because it hadn't been disconnected. Nowhere in the paperwork does it say the machine must be disconnected prior to collection and it never occurred to me that it would need to be since it's being returned as faulty and Curry's installed it. Back to Live Chat. They can do nothing until the driver returns to depot and updates the system, which will be after 6 this evening, so they gave me 3 different phone numbers for customer services/know how. Every one of them gets a recorded message then cuts off. Currently chatting with Team KnowHow on Twitter, and I hope they can resolve it because the replacement (from a different retailer, whom I really should have used in the first place) is arriving on Monday and there isn't space to store faulty dishwashers pending collection, not to mention the fact that I'm over £500 down until it's back at their warehouse and I get my refund. Basically writing this to encourage early action on the part of Currys as they'll see that I will follow through right to Court if necessary if they mess me about any more.
  6. And it gets worse. Having 'misplaced' my P60 for the second year in a row, they gave me all the relevant numbers on headed paper as an alternative, only the numbers were completely wrong. Luckily I spotted the error - I know they didn't pay me that much! - but if I hadn't I'd have been entering incorrect information on my tax return. I'm not sure how HMRC would have viewed that, but I'm really glad I won't be finding out. Well, not this year anyway.
  7. It seems I was right to be concerned. They’ve ‘misplaced’ it for the second year in a row. Sigh.
  8. Over the last 6 months we have received multiple letters addressed to a person we've never heard of, all of which have been returned marked 'Not known at this address'. The person may have lived here in the past as we only moved in last November, but they're definitely not the person we bought from and the vehicle isn't the one parked on the driveway in the estate agent's photos. When returning correspondence seemingly had no effect I 'accidentally' opened one or two which were obviously from debt collectors/private parking companies and contacted the companies direct. I also wrote to DVLA as the private parking companies were getting this address from them. Is there anything else we can do as the flood continues - I know the return addresses so well by now that I don't even have to open the envelopes any more. We are worried that sooner or later we're going to have someone on the doorstep.
  9. Has anyone received this years P60 from DWP? I usually get mine before the end of April but nothing so far. I don’t want to hassle them over a relatively trivial thing if they’re just a bit behind but my post from DWP is a bit unreliable so I am mildly concerned.
  10. To update, in the end I didn't have to make a decision as both defendants objected to a paper hearing. I'm waiting for further contact from the Court as to what will happen next. I can't do a telephone hearing because of hearing problems so we may have to wait a very long time for this to be over and done with.
  11. Background - I filed a claim under the Equality Act regarding failure to make a reasonable adjustment and indirect discrimination, damages limited to £10,000. We've been through all the usual stages including a preliminary hearing and witness statements and bundles were filed and exchanged just over a month ago. Each of the 3 bundles (claimant and 2 defendants) runs to over 300 pages and the hearing, scheduled for next month, was expected to take 2 days. Yesterday I received an order from the Court saying they proposed to deal with the claim without a hearing using the papers. I have until the end of this week to agree or object/submit any further documents. If I agree I can't change my mind or complain later that it wasn't a fair way to deal with it - if I lost, the only recourse would be an appeal if there were grounds. Pros - I won't have to actually go to Court and argue my case against 2 barristers The case will be over - it's already taken more than a year and a huge amount of my time, with the current situation I can see it being another year before we get to an actual hearing I've been preparing a skeleton argument (that's actually a very well-padded if not downright obese argument, I was going to prune later) for the last month so it won't take too much more effort to get it to the Court by the end of the week, and it's likely to be far more coherent than me trying to remember it all in Court Cons - the defendants have been less than co-operative. One reason my bundle is so huge is that they point blank refused to even try to narrow the issues as ordered in the preliminary hearing even though it should have been relatively easy to agree most of the facts. I really wanted to ask at least some of the list of questions I'd prepared which aren't answered anywhere in their bundles I found it really difficult to put into writing how the treatment made me feel. If we get to the point of awarding damages I really think giving evidence in person would be far more effective I'm wary of filing and serving my skeleton argument possibly well in advance of when the defendants might serve/file theirs - I have no doubt that the Court will give them extra time if they ask If I do disagree with the order, what grounds would I give? Any advice or opinions? I know it's not something anyone will have come across before.
  12. Finally all settled, thanks to everyone who gave advice. The best single bit of advice I was given was not to apply for Letters of Administration but to deal with everything informally as there was so little in the estate and it was clearly insolvent. Most creditors have just written off the debts, it obviously wasn't worth their time to get 10p in the £, the only ones that didn't were Capital One, Vanquis and DWP. Had I done things formally, then I'd have had to supply endless bits of paper to DWP in particular to prove every penny. As it is, I included a line in the settlement letter stating that in view of the amounts involved I wasn't prepared to enter into any further correspondence or supply any documents, i.e. take it or leave it.
  13. Sod's law, the minute I finished drafting the complaint, they replied. Finally. They're still asking for nearly double what I think they're due but they've also said that if I don't apply for Letters of Administration (I won't) they can't enforce repayment and can only rely on my honesty to pay them. However, because they can't enforce they also can't accept a dispute over the amount .... I'm tempted to give them £50 and split the rest between the more co-operative creditors.
  14. Barclaycard have finally responded and they are writing off three separate accounts totalling more than £5K - I'm sure this is entirely from the goodness of their hearts and nothing to do with my 'prove it' letters. DWP, despite their initial insistence that they be repaid even before the funeral was held have now ignored me since 7th February. I've sent 3 reminders, the last via a tracked method so I know they got it. Until they respond I can do nothing to settle the Estate and I'm starting to get 'gentle reminders' from some of the other creditors plus I want this sorted and done with. I can't believe DWP would write off any balance, but it's surely not reasonable to just ignore me until they can be bothered to respond? Any suggestions?
  15. If it's a [problem], it appears to be a very clever one - no obvious spelling or grammar mistakes, addresses etc appear to be genuine, even the typeface appears to be the same as any other official French notice. I presume it was sent to your UK address implying DVLA have provided it to the French authorities. Like you, I had no idea they could do that. A thought - is it possible that they've got your address from a previous 'incident'? Making no admissions whatsoever, I know they copy every detail from your licence etc if you're stopped and if I were the French government, it would make sense to me to enter all those details in a database in case of repeat offences. Moving into conspiracy theory territory, the ferry company has your registration number and your address ..... I'm sure I would have heard if they were finally able to access DVLA data and I haven't.
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