Thawsome! We help customer get a refund for a faulty freezer
Mrs A.B. writes: I ordered a new freezer from Currys, and on delivery day we took everything out of our old freezer, packed it into the bath and covered it. Currys’ fitters removed the old freezer and took it away, but then found they were short of screws for the door of the new freezer. Their depot advised them to pack all our food into the freezer, switch it on, and seal the door with tape. When they returned with a replacement freezer they said they could not remove the faulty freezer as it would leak in their van, so they sealed it again and next
THIS has been one of those nightmare experiences where you think nothing else could possibly go wrong – and then it does, and all for the want of a packet of screws. After the debacle of the door, Currys promised you a replacement, but it turned out to be a 177-litre model and not the 250-litre freezer you ordered.
In growing desperation, you accepted it, and this is when the fitters refused to take back the freezer with the faulty door. Instead, they resealed it, with all your food in it, and told you to turn it off and then empty it next morning. And that is when you found the tape had not been tight enough to hold down the temperature, so your food had thawed.
You called Currys and were offered three options. You could have a refund and they would remove the freezer. You could have a replacement freezer. Or you could accept vouchers to spend on more goods from Currys. You chose the refund, but then had to fight to get Currys to cover the cost of your lost food.
Eventually, Currys offered you £62.50. Apparently this figure was arrived at by calculating that every cubic foot of freezer space would hold food costing £10. You said to me: ‘I wonder whether management at Currys ever do any shopping to see exactly what £10 buys nowadays.’
After a bit of a struggle (‘people are working from home’), I managed to get Currys to look into what you told me. The company’s first response was to tell you that the freezer should have been left to stand for four hours before it was switched on, and that it would not reach the proper temperature until 12 hours later, so you should have expected a loss of food. But why did Currys’ fitters not know this?
Happily, common sense prevailed. A spokesman told me: ‘We are truly sorry about the upset and frustration caused to Mrs B when our installation team was unable to fit her new freezer, which resulted in her frozen food spoiling.’
As well as the £62.50 it offered, Currys has sent you a cheque for a further £137.50, making a more reasonable £200 in all.