Fred wouldn’t be hoodwinked

FRED and Helen Simpson, of Nether Dallachy, Morayshire, bought an oven, hob and cooker hood from Riverside Kitchens, in nearby Elgin.

They discussed their requirements in detail. One of the most important was the need for the hood to have its extraction outlet out of the back, as the sloping roof in their kitchen wouldn’t work well with an extractor flue out the top.

But, when their joiner came to fit the hood, he discovered it would require it to be vented out of the top. This wasn’t what had been asked for.

Fred phoned Riverside Kitchens who said that if the hood was still in its original packing they’d take it back, but he would be charged £90 for “re-stocking”.

Fred was very surprised at this, as he had been sold goods that didn’t meet the specifications he’d given.

However, to get the job done the joiner contacted the supplier direct and got a cooker hood with the correct extraction flue. But what about the useless hood? A Riverside delivery van came to pick it up on May 18. But after that, Fred got in touch with Riverside several times to chase up his refund, but it didn’t seem to move very fast.

Eventually, after a lot of phone calls, they agreed to reduce the “re-stocking” fee to £45.

This was good news for Fred, but his refund didn’t appear.

He wrote to Raw Deal. We asked Riverside what was happening?

Fred wrote to us again, with better news. He said: “Glad to say that Riverside Kitchens got in touch 10 days after we first wrote to Raw Deal. They have refunded our money.

“Having chased this ourselves since May, your team sorted things out so fast. Many, many thanks, you do a superb job for people like us.”

No problem, Fred.