Claim? What claim?
Around the end of July, the washing machine had a strop - it's under an extended warranty so we had to get an engineer out to have strict words with it. After he'd given it a good talking to, he put it back under the worktop but in doing so, he managed to damage the floor. He hadn't used his sliders because the floor was level but part of the underside of the machine had caught on the lino in a few places and ripped it. Basically the machine was putting its foot down about get shoved back out of the way. Anyway, he emailed a damage report off to the company's customer care department and said they'd get in touch about fixing it.
Fast-forward to the end of August. There's no word from the customer care department about the damaged floor so I rang them. Their phone system only appears to have a few lines because the first couple of times I called, once I'd gone through the 'Press 1 to have a clueless person take all your details again' rigmarole, it sounded as engaged and then cut me off. Once I eventually got through to a real human being, I was told that all the details would be passed onto a manager and someone would be in touch soon.
Fast-forward again to mid-September, the 15th to be precise. Still having heard nothing I rang the customer care department again. This time the person I spoke to said that there was no record of any damage claim on the account! He rang the engineer to confirm whether there had been any damage or not, who apparently said something along the lines of, "If there was any damage, I would have sent in a claim form." Well, obviously. This time I was told that the claim was being escalated and that someone would call me back before 6pm the following day.
A week later... still no contact! I know, I was surprised too. And another phone call to the customer care department. Once I'd explained the situation, I was told that there was indeed a damage claim on the account and it had been passed through to the Claim Team which meant that there was nothing the customer care department could do with it now. I was then informed that there were various legal things the Claims Team had to sort out, as well as getting quotes and when all that was done, they would be in touch. I couldn't be given any timeline for it, because they were incredibly busy, I just had to wait.
How ridiculous is this entire thing? As I said to the woman on the phone, from my side of it, I've not been contacted by anyone at all so it looks like nothing is happening. I mean, surely some kind of letter saying that they're aware of the situation and this is the process that will happen wouldn't be too much to ask for. As for getting a quote, a quote for what exactly? Did the engineer tell them exactly the kind of floor covering we have? Was he able to accurately work out the dimensions of the kitchen at a glance so he knew the exact square footage of floor? How can they get a quote without any of that information? And how long should I wait before I get in touch with some sort of official body to complain about this crappy service?
Fast-forward to the end of August. There's no word from the customer care department about the damaged floor so I rang them. Their phone system only appears to have a few lines because the first couple of times I called, once I'd gone through the 'Press 1 to have a clueless person take all your details again' rigmarole, it sounded as engaged and then cut me off. Once I eventually got through to a real human being, I was told that all the details would be passed onto a manager and someone would be in touch soon.
Fast-forward again to mid-September, the 15th to be precise. Still having heard nothing I rang the customer care department again. This time the person I spoke to said that there was no record of any damage claim on the account! He rang the engineer to confirm whether there had been any damage or not, who apparently said something along the lines of, "If there was any damage, I would have sent in a claim form." Well, obviously. This time I was told that the claim was being escalated and that someone would call me back before 6pm the following day.
A week later... still no contact! I know, I was surprised too. And another phone call to the customer care department. Once I'd explained the situation, I was told that there was indeed a damage claim on the account and it had been passed through to the Claim Team which meant that there was nothing the customer care department could do with it now. I was then informed that there were various legal things the Claims Team had to sort out, as well as getting quotes and when all that was done, they would be in touch. I couldn't be given any timeline for it, because they were incredibly busy, I just had to wait.
How ridiculous is this entire thing? As I said to the woman on the phone, from my side of it, I've not been contacted by anyone at all so it looks like nothing is happening. I mean, surely some kind of letter saying that they're aware of the situation and this is the process that will happen wouldn't be too much to ask for. As for getting a quote, a quote for what exactly? Did the engineer tell them exactly the kind of floor covering we have? Was he able to accurately work out the dimensions of the kitchen at a glance so he knew the exact square footage of floor? How can they get a quote without any of that information? And how long should I wait before I get in touch with some sort of official body to complain about this crappy service?