Stove's Customer Services - Truly Awful!!

[Brian_374234561]

Hi everyone, I want to share my terrible experience of Stove's in case any of you are unfortunate enough to have a fault on one of their cookers in your caravan.

Last year, I noticed rust on the cooker lid on my brand-new caravan. Swift said I had to contact Stoves direct, so I did and after arguing that it should be covered under warranty, they sent an engineer to look at the lid and they agreed "as a goodwill gesture" to replace it. So, visit number 1 was at the storage facility 10 miles from my home. I had to be there to let him in the caravan, the engineer was excellent, but sadly the quality of the replacement lid wasn't, as it didnt fit properly, so no cooker lid and more importantly, no cooker as it cant work without the lid.

I booked another service call for the 2nd replacement lid to be fitted at the storage site - the customer service advisor booked it at my home and they wouldnt send the engineer to the storage when they realised their mistake. So I had to cancel the job and re-book in yet again for another day!

Repeat the above a few more times, I've lost count now and the will to live....

Guess what, engineer (same nice bloke) turns up (at home, they got it right this time) and the next lid doesnt fit properly. He is getting annoyed now with his own company and is embarrassed. He agrees to get 2 lids made using my old rusty lid as a template - crazy or what.

In the meantime, the wonderful customer services people book another job for me. This time, as this is getting so ridiculous I demand that they pick the caravan keys up from my home and drive to the storage facility themselves to fit it, to save me another trip to the storage site.

Eventually it gets sorted, 6 MONTHS LATER AND AT LEAST 100 MILES of driving back and forth to the storage site. I get an empty promise in February of compensation and nothing received, despite I have it in writing from them they would compensate me. Guess what, still no cheque and now they're ignoring my emails.

I hope you never experience this and just live with the rust/problem - I wish I had now. The customer service is appalling and unprofessional. They should never ignore a customer. What makes me laugh more, is on their website, apparently they have won awards for excellent customer service, based on my experience I find that hard to believe.

Incidentally, this afternoon, my wife and I are off to buy a new range-style cooker for our new house. It wont be a Stoves cooker !! £1200 they have lost out on there as I dont want to experience that kind of poor service, should it go wrong.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Brian,

I am sorry to read of your tale of woe, but sadly you may have lessened your chances of getting the problem resolved, because without exception the warranty on a new product is the responsibility of the seller. You did not purchase the caravan or (the cooker) from Stoves, your contract will be with either a caravan dealer or possibly a finance house if you used HP.

This is a classic case that normally falls under the Sale of Goods Act, and that requires the seller to supply good fit for purpose. In this case the finish on the cooker is not fit for purpose, and the SELLER must remedy the situation. However as you have already been misdirected and gone to the manufacture, your rights under the act may be diminished.

Your seller should be doing all the running around, not you. The seller may subcontract the repair back to the manufacturer, but the seller is still ultimately responsible to you.

I strongly suggest that you seek professional legal advice to unravel your circumstances. It may be that a solicitors letter may be all it needs to oil the wheels.

As Stoves have apparently been unable to supply a suitable part to return the produt to a working condition, I think you may have a case to press for a complete replcement cooker, but your claim is against the seller not with the manufacturer.

 

[paul_374410560]

this is a problem with the cookers on the edge of the fixing metal plate the edge is not stove enamelled as good as the top and the rust gets underneath, i have used stoves in the past and they have been very good saying that the engineers are good the office does let them down a bit,

 

[paul_374410560]

if its brand new it is your dealers responsibility to sort it out, but if your van is not at their premises they cant arrange an engineer to come out,

is the van under 12 months old

 

[ProfJohnL]

if its brand new it is your dealers responsibility to sort it out, but if your van is not at their premises they cant arrange an engineer to come out,

is the van under 12 months old

Hello Paul,

The sale of goods Act does not limit a sellers responsibility to a'new' caravan or indeed to only 12months. Technically it is unlimited, but the act empowers the courts to apply good sense and the level of liability of the seller does diminish with time. Typically this discounts the liability over about 6 years unless the goods have shorter working life (e.g. brake pads and tyres etc)

If you caravan is say three years old, then the sellers liability is reduced and may be only half the value of the

new product.

If the caravan is less than 6 month old, then the seller will find it almost impossible to refute a claim under SoGA.

 

[Brian_374234561]

Thanks everyone for your comments. Perhaps I should have insisted the dealer resolved this when I first noticed it. I forgot to mention that during the ridiculous saga with Stoves, they did actually send an engineer to look at the caravan when it was in for it's service at Michael Jordan Caravans, but because Stove's put the dealer's contact name down as the owner of the caravan, they couldn't work out which caravan to inspect, DESPITE the fact MJ caravans had it on their job sheet that someone from Stove's was going to turn up during the week they had the 'van. Anyway, lesson learnt. To cheer myself up, I'm going to send this link to Stove's along with the receipt for my new non-Stove's cooker that I purchased at the weekend !

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Brian,

As I previously posted and others have also done so, your complaint is actually against your seller not Stoves.

Stoves are not obliged to do anything for you directly, and they are not under any obligation to refund your costs.

It is your dealer who has failed to supply suitable goods and they are the ones who failed to remedy the problem. You should direct you claim for refund and costs to your seller.

I don't think for a minute that any reputable dealer deliberately sells faulty goods, but it is only when they are held to account for failing to check the goods they do sell, that they will put the necessary pressure on their suppliers to improve quality etc.

It is a normal risk for a retailer and that is why they put such large mark-ups on retail product, to cover the costs of the ones that do fail. Force them to face their responsibilities and they in turn will bring pressure to bear on their supplies all the way back to the manufacturers.

Going straight to the manufactures stops the retailers from feeling their customer grief. hit them where it hurts to get their attention - the profit margin.