WARRANTY MATTERS

I once bought an electric oven from Currys in Watford. PC World was in another vast selling unit in the shopping park on the other side of the ‘˜park’. I recall once a PC world assistant aggressively asserting at me that I knew not what I was talking about and that the wire I needed was THIS one. (It wasn’t.) And that electric oven at Currys had issues but nothing like the issues I had had with trying to get anything other than lofty disdain from them when I called. Then PC World collapsed into one unit with Currys. I felt deep schadenfreude.
A chum of mine bought a posh TV from them. I said not to, but she did anyway and yes, got a lumpy delay with lies involved as well, for her money before she ever got her set. Now do be advised, the places that sell you goods at knock down prices, then often offer you a seriously expensive insurance policy to cover that unit. These are always the main actual profit centre of these businesses and are always administered by an outside operation, who’s main profit centre is thus NOT spending money on warranty fulfilment. Avoid these like a disease or look for an independent insurance policy that covers many items from a specialist and read it carefully. For apart from anything else, insurance policies are ridden with the vileness of the term, ‘LOSS ADJUSTER’, which this journalist has always taken to mean ‘PROFESSIONAL THIEF’. Hell bent on finding a printed word or two in .00005 point, that means they can tell you to fly a kite rather than get paid out. They are often the nastiest part and most traumatic of the aftermath of crime, too.
I get tagged on Facebook and it looks like a lad is being told to write to the ruddy CEO of Currys about his TV, which cooked itself so hot, that the screen cracked. No apology about how it might have done a mini fucking Grenfell in their DAMN LIVING ROOM? No.
Here was the issue: ‘Yes so my wife was watching the TV and it blacked out as she couldn’t turn it back on with the remote she went over to it. It was do hot she was so concerned she turned the power off in the house and called me. I was home in 5 minutes and I thought the TV was going to catch fire. We unplugged it and opened the windows. The next morning we plugged it in, it came back on with a white dot in the screen. When I looked closer, the screen had fractured at this point.
The service since has been so terrible. I would be ashamed if I was Currys. You do your own appeals and don’t even have a policy if I want to appeal after the claims department refuse it twice!!
Even the Know How operator apologised for how bad you are. They have now told me that’s that as far as Currys are concerned but if I want to give you £600 you will fix it for me!! I will not give them another penny.
Thier position is that as it’s cracked I could have done the damage myself, however, if that was the case why would I not claim on my household insurance?? I now have a two year old £1500 tv that’s ruined. The store is a joke, the call centre can do nothing and your 5 year warranty is not worth a dime!!
Trading standards even have a standard letter, they have so many complaints about your 5 year warranty!!!
I will be writing to head office but as you have such terrible customer service I know it’s a lost cause!
Will be talking to trading standards on Tuesday to see where I go next! As a company you should be ashamed.’
I chipped it, I couldn’t help it! I said ‘Hello Currys PC World. Do Google me. I have a 100,000 strong audience of strong influencers about tech, on a site called Talk Audio & Stuff and a heritage that makes me wish to defend the abused and assist the lied to. My mama had an OBE, was strong on anti-corporate bullying and I have to look her ghost in the eye. I am kinda driven. But I am afraid that I am not entirely unbiased, as I too have experienced the local branch and ‘corporate structures’ of your company. It may well be that the big ticket warranty policy is the only way you make a profit on goods, as they are always absurdly overpriced – and my chum is a consultant white goods loss adjuster for Legal , Domestic & General, on a fat fee, so I have an inkling of what ‘loss adjustment’ really means and the actual failure rates of all kinds of kit. The thing is, in this day of exploding new TV tech, being seen as a vendor of bad warranty obligation is about as damaging as it can get. I of course have not seen the set, but if the duck quacks, it ain’t a frog and sadly, you ARE working in a grimly tough environment, there. John Lewis and COSTCO both absolutely slaughter you for price and aftercare. You sell cod warranties, sold by weasels, of nearly always a total lack of point. SO…. (original poster), do get in touch.. I think I have at least got this week’s editorial….
I can’t help it, the whole bloody corporate mendacity gets my goat and it DOES kill companies. Just a bit of customer service would be worthy.
Adam Rayner OnLine Editor