Sue took matters into her hands

SOMETIMES, you have to take matters into your own hands. But when you do, and it turns out you’re right, you shouldn’t be punished.

That’s what seemed to be happening to Sue W, of Durham, when her washer-dryer started making a whining noise.

It was out of warranty, but Sue signed up for a service contract and an engineer duly visited. He diagnosed a partially-blocked pipe.

After he left, Sue tried a wash. It still wasn’t a happy machine, however. It made distressed noises and kept adding time to its countdown clock.

Sue arranged for another engineer visit, but this would take a week.

Unable to use her washing machine, and at her wits’ end, Sue had a look at the connections and, against the “don’t touch it” advice from the call centre, turned the valve on the cold fill pipe.

That was the problem – the engineer simply hadn’t turned the water back on!

Sue decided to go ahead with the arranged visit as it’s best to get a professional opinion. The second engineer confirmed the problem had been exactly as Sue had seen.

She had, however, taken an unpaid half-day off work for this visit and reckoned Bosch should recompense her for lost wages as it was their engineer’s mistake.

Bosch didn’t think this was a good idea. Raw Deal did, however, and persuaded Bosch to reconsider.

Sue said: “I’m very grateful for your input, Raw Deal. Bosch weren’t budging until you intervened.”