Caterpillar On My Cooker

[revolution1]

Hi All, not sure if this is the sort of thing that will interest people, but I will share it anyway.

Around 8 or 9 years ago, when living with an ex-partner, our washing machine and cooker gave up the ghost in the same week. As we were not particularly sound financially, we were unable to purchase new items outright. Therefore we decided to buy through a supposedly reputable catalogue company, and spread the cost over x amount of weeks.

We ordered a package deal of cooker, washing m/c and fridge.

A week or so later, said items were delivered, and I set about un-packing them. First I opened the fridge, stood it upright and watched joyously as it waved about in the wind. One of the feet was missing, but I thought it wasnt too big a deal, as i could easily buy another foot from a local shop. I also seem to recall that one of the shelves was missing, but hey, at least the kids could now have fresh food again instead of tinned stuff etc.

Next I opened the washing m/c which, if i remember rightly, was fully intact. Great! No more going down one of our parents houses every few days to do a wash.

Then, I opened the "brand new" cooker. At first I thought the dirty brown marks down the side of the white case was rust. How happy I was when it slowly dawned on me that it was in fact where fat/grease had run down the side. Daft to assume it would be rust - I didn't find rust till I looked at the hobs.

Well, rust and grease aint too bad, what's it like inside? The oven shelf was missing, oh, and more rust and grease. But then I noticed (and I don't know how I had missed it before) on one of the hobs, was a small caterpillar. It had actually been half crushed/stuck to the hob, and in its dying throes, was trying to crawl away. Perhaps it thought I was going to cook it.

Well, as you can expect, my then-girlfriend, was a little upset by all this.

But the catalogue company were good as gold about it all. After 3 or 4 days, they graciously turned up to retrieve their junk (Albert Steptoe wouldn't have wanted it). Admittedly, when I first phoned them, the delivery van was still outside, but that particular team only did drop-offs, and not collections.

The Citizens Advice Bereau advised me to contact Trading Standards. When the catalogue company found out about this, they sent me a cheque for £10, as a "gesture of good-will." As another gesture of good-will, when i returned the cheque, I did not tell them in which orrifice to file it.

However, as we had never even received an apology for the condition of goods, I was by now like a dog with a rag, I was not prepared to let it go.

Eventually, after several calls to rude and abusive "help-desk" staff, and still not getting an apology, they phoned one day to inform us that they wished to compensate us to the tune of, I believe, £400. I decided to accept this, in lieu of an actual apology(some people just can't say the word sorry.)

However a week or two later, when said cheque had not arrived, I phoned again. Again, I was greeted by an offensive help-desk woman, who told me that the company had now changed its mind, and was going to renege on its offer.

It was at this point, to save my partner from any further upset, I decided to let the matter go. In hindsight, I have always felt stupid for letting myself be steam-rollered by a large company. After all, I only ever wanted somebody to say sorry.

Over the years since, I have sometimes thought about going to a consumer affairs group, such as Watchdog etc. But what would that acchieve? I have not kept any letters, and have no proof of phone calls. It would simply be my word against that of huge nation-wide company.

 

Or at least, it would be, if I hadn't video'd the condition of the junk in question.

 

I believe the purpose of sites such as this, is to help the "small-man" stand up against the bullying of large companies. And while I accept I will never get my apology from this particular company, I am fully prepared to publicly and nationally shame them for their procedures and tactics.

I am, at present, trying to find the video (my best-mate recorded it, and I think, still has it.) And if it is possible to do so, I will upload it to this site, if there is enough interest in it. If it is not possible to upload it here, I will start another site, and post the link.

Also, while I dont know if it is appropriate to do so at the moment, i will post the name of the company, as soon as I have the video available.

 

So I ask you all for feedback please. Is this something you would be interested in hearing more about? Interested in seeing the video? Should I still approach a group like Watchdog, or even my local paper etc?

If this is not the kind of thing anyone is interested in, then thank you all for being patient, letting me rant, and finally getting this off my chest.

 

Mart.

(Don't let the Bar-Stewards grind you down!)

[Bookworm]

Well, best thing is, you DID get it off your chest! ;-)

 

Unfortunately, apart from the cathartic aspect, I doubt there would be much point in doing anything else about it. The Statute of Limitations runs out at 6 years for all, which means that sadly, this case is statute barred.

 

I'm sorry to say as well that from a media point of view, a story that old is not going to be that intersting either... If it's not fresh and nothing that can be solved, let's face it, that's not going to grab their attention, is it.

 

As for naming and shaming, well, again, it's a non-starter, IMO. All the company has to say is (if they accept your version at all, video or not, let's face it) "well, maybe we got something wrong 8, 9 yrs ago, but it was a one-off / we have improved things / changed ownership / whatever", and there's nothing much you can say to disprove it one way or another.

 

So truthfully, in this instance, and only because of the amount of time lapsed since that appalling incident, I think you'd be wasting your time and energy on this one. Sorry.