I've been feeling another Victor Meldrew moment creeping up on me for a while now. I suspect this was brought on by our recent trips to Media Markt with a broken DVD player.
For those who don't know, Media Markt is a European chain which sells all sorts of electro-domestic items, DVDs, CDs, computers and accessories, etc. The DVD player in question has stopped working while still under guarantee, so we took it back and were told they had to send it off to repair it, and that it would take between two weeks and a month to get it back. Six weeks later we were still waiting for a call to tell us it was ready to collect. Several phone calls to the store went unanswered so we went back one morning to complain only for it to be revealed that said DVD player had been returned a few days earlier. It transpired that they'd changed it for another repaired one as ours couldn't be fixed.
We returned home, tried the player and, lo and behold, it wouldn't respond to the remote. Ugh. Back we went to Media Markt, where they revealed that, although it was the same brand, and looked exactly the same as the original player, it was in fact a slightly different model from the first one. So we asked for a different remote, which seemed to be the most logical thing to do. Oh no, we were told, this was not at all possible - the player and remote had to go back to be fixed again. I enquired why they hadn't taken the remote the first time, or why knowing they were sending back a different model had we not been informed that the remote wouldn't work, but the girl at customer service couldn't tell me. So I asked for a complaint form (una hoja de reclamacion - for anybody needing one. Legally, all shops have to have them and hand them out when asked for). Only when I did this did she promise that if it wasn't back within 20 days, we could have a new player. I was quite pleased at this, the threat of a complaint form worked a treat and I shall be trying it again in the future if needs be.
Yesterday made it 21 days. We drove wearily, yet ready for a verbal battle, to our current second-least favourite store (keep reading for our number-one-of-all-time least favourite). It turned out that the player had only recently arrived in Barcelona to be fixed (why it had to be sent so far away I have no idea) so they, without us having to utter a single complaint (this time), offered us a new one. We had to pay the slight difference in price, but we got a brand-spanking new DVD player with a year guarantee (good news, because the old one was about to run out). Success, of a sort, although we had to earn it. Fnac, on the other hand has excellent customer service and I'd recommend anyone to buy there rather than Media Markt. We've taken two broken DVD players back there, one almost two years old, and they've replaced them both, without fuss, at the same time and with a further two-year guarantee. Now that is how you should treat your customers.
The worst culprit for appalling customer service we've come across so far in Spain is, by a mile, Ikea. The mere mention of the name now makes Matt froth at the mouth and utter expletives and I shall explain why:
When Ikea first opened in Asturias in June 2005, we got very excited at the prospect of cheap, yet stylish furniture for our new house and went and spent over €1,400 Euros there. One of the items were purchased was a €20 'universal' wooden toilet seat. Just over three months later it broke at a joint, so we returned to Ikea, receipt in hand, to ask for a replacement. We were not expecting the reply we got, which was a simple, yet emphatic, "no".
Most Ikea products, it turns out, including every single item on our €1,400 + receipt, only have a three month guarantee and they refused to change the toilet seat as there was, according to them, no design fault. We pointed out that neither of us are very heavy people and that we'd expect a product that apparently had no fault to last for more than three months when all we'd been doing was using it for the express purpose for which it was designed. Were we expected to return to the store every ninety days to buy a new one? But still no, they stood their ground and we stomped out of the store determined for revenge, although not before Matt had strutted round the store, seat in hand, proclaiming to anyone who would listen "calidad terrible, tres meses de guarantia" (terrible quality, three-month guarantee).
The same week we wrote polite letters to Ikea head office in Spain and to their headquarters in Amsterdam and included one of their adverts with a picture of an elephant standing on a chair that stated that they test all their products to destruction in order to ensure they're long-lasting - Matt artistically added a speech bubble with a question mark coming out of the elephant's mouth. We also visited our local consumer-society office and they promised to take matters into hand, First however, we were told we had to return to Ikea to get an official complaint form which we duly did, filled it in, had it signed at Ikea, signed it ourselves and took it back to the consumer society office and were told they'd sort things out for us. Incidentally, we also found out that the law that Ikea quotes on the top of its receipts (in Spain) stating that all items can be returned, in their original packing, up to three months later, is the very same law that states that all new products must have a two year guarantee, (although after six months the onus is on the consumer to prove that the item broke because of a fault in the product at purchase). This point of the law, of course, was not mentioned on the receipt.
Just after Xmas we received two letters, one from Amsterdam stating that they couldn't deal with the complaint and were passing it onto Spanish head office (we're still waiting for a reply to either letter that they received) and a letter from the Consumer Society in Pola de Siero (the area where Ikea is located) saying that our complaint had been passed on to them and that please could we go there within two weeks of their sending the letter to restate our complaint if we wanted them to carry on dealing with it. Also, we should now take the toilet seat back to Ikea for testing. We were fuming. As it was Xmas the letter had arrived over two weeks after it was sent, there was no contact number for the office and we had no idea where it was in Pola de Siero. We were also highly annoyed about having to take the seat for testing when it had been less than six months old when it broke. This was why, in a very large fit of pique, Matt took up the seat in his hands, raised it above his head and dropped it on our kitchen floor, where it promptly broke into several pieces which we burnt on our living room fire - at least it was good for something. Needless to say we've not been back to Ikea since and have no intention of doing so ever again.
Therefore, I would like to instate 'customer service in large, arrogant stores' onto my 'bad things about Spain' list. Ikea customers be warned.
To end on a happier note, we've never had any problems with retuning items to smaller, independent shops. We've always found them to be very helpful and have concluded that it's worth spending a few extra Euros in them for better quality and much better customer service.
For those who don't know, Media Markt is a European chain which sells all sorts of electro-domestic items, DVDs, CDs, computers and accessories, etc. The DVD player in question has stopped working while still under guarantee, so we took it back and were told they had to send it off to repair it, and that it would take between two weeks and a month to get it back. Six weeks later we were still waiting for a call to tell us it was ready to collect. Several phone calls to the store went unanswered so we went back one morning to complain only for it to be revealed that said DVD player had been returned a few days earlier. It transpired that they'd changed it for another repaired one as ours couldn't be fixed.
We returned home, tried the player and, lo and behold, it wouldn't respond to the remote. Ugh. Back we went to Media Markt, where they revealed that, although it was the same brand, and looked exactly the same as the original player, it was in fact a slightly different model from the first one. So we asked for a different remote, which seemed to be the most logical thing to do. Oh no, we were told, this was not at all possible - the player and remote had to go back to be fixed again. I enquired why they hadn't taken the remote the first time, or why knowing they were sending back a different model had we not been informed that the remote wouldn't work, but the girl at customer service couldn't tell me. So I asked for a complaint form (una hoja de reclamacion - for anybody needing one. Legally, all shops have to have them and hand them out when asked for). Only when I did this did she promise that if it wasn't back within 20 days, we could have a new player. I was quite pleased at this, the threat of a complaint form worked a treat and I shall be trying it again in the future if needs be.
Yesterday made it 21 days. We drove wearily, yet ready for a verbal battle, to our current second-least favourite store (keep reading for our number-one-of-all-time least favourite). It turned out that the player had only recently arrived in Barcelona to be fixed (why it had to be sent so far away I have no idea) so they, without us having to utter a single complaint (this time), offered us a new one. We had to pay the slight difference in price, but we got a brand-spanking new DVD player with a year guarantee (good news, because the old one was about to run out). Success, of a sort, although we had to earn it. Fnac, on the other hand has excellent customer service and I'd recommend anyone to buy there rather than Media Markt. We've taken two broken DVD players back there, one almost two years old, and they've replaced them both, without fuss, at the same time and with a further two-year guarantee. Now that is how you should treat your customers.
The worst culprit for appalling customer service we've come across so far in Spain is, by a mile, Ikea. The mere mention of the name now makes Matt froth at the mouth and utter expletives and I shall explain why:
When Ikea first opened in Asturias in June 2005, we got very excited at the prospect of cheap, yet stylish furniture for our new house and went and spent over €1,400 Euros there. One of the items were purchased was a €20 'universal' wooden toilet seat. Just over three months later it broke at a joint, so we returned to Ikea, receipt in hand, to ask for a replacement. We were not expecting the reply we got, which was a simple, yet emphatic, "no".
Most Ikea products, it turns out, including every single item on our €1,400 + receipt, only have a three month guarantee and they refused to change the toilet seat as there was, according to them, no design fault. We pointed out that neither of us are very heavy people and that we'd expect a product that apparently had no fault to last for more than three months when all we'd been doing was using it for the express purpose for which it was designed. Were we expected to return to the store every ninety days to buy a new one? But still no, they stood their ground and we stomped out of the store determined for revenge, although not before Matt had strutted round the store, seat in hand, proclaiming to anyone who would listen "calidad terrible, tres meses de guarantia" (terrible quality, three-month guarantee).
The same week we wrote polite letters to Ikea head office in Spain and to their headquarters in Amsterdam and included one of their adverts with a picture of an elephant standing on a chair that stated that they test all their products to destruction in order to ensure they're long-lasting - Matt artistically added a speech bubble with a question mark coming out of the elephant's mouth. We also visited our local consumer-society office and they promised to take matters into hand, First however, we were told we had to return to Ikea to get an official complaint form which we duly did, filled it in, had it signed at Ikea, signed it ourselves and took it back to the consumer society office and were told they'd sort things out for us. Incidentally, we also found out that the law that Ikea quotes on the top of its receipts (in Spain) stating that all items can be returned, in their original packing, up to three months later, is the very same law that states that all new products must have a two year guarantee, (although after six months the onus is on the consumer to prove that the item broke because of a fault in the product at purchase). This point of the law, of course, was not mentioned on the receipt.
Just after Xmas we received two letters, one from Amsterdam stating that they couldn't deal with the complaint and were passing it onto Spanish head office (we're still waiting for a reply to either letter that they received) and a letter from the Consumer Society in Pola de Siero (the area where Ikea is located) saying that our complaint had been passed on to them and that please could we go there within two weeks of their sending the letter to restate our complaint if we wanted them to carry on dealing with it. Also, we should now take the toilet seat back to Ikea for testing. We were fuming. As it was Xmas the letter had arrived over two weeks after it was sent, there was no contact number for the office and we had no idea where it was in Pola de Siero. We were also highly annoyed about having to take the seat for testing when it had been less than six months old when it broke. This was why, in a very large fit of pique, Matt took up the seat in his hands, raised it above his head and dropped it on our kitchen floor, where it promptly broke into several pieces which we burnt on our living room fire - at least it was good for something. Needless to say we've not been back to Ikea since and have no intention of doing so ever again.
Therefore, I would like to instate 'customer service in large, arrogant stores' onto my 'bad things about Spain' list. Ikea customers be warned.
To end on a happier note, we've never had any problems with retuning items to smaller, independent shops. We've always found them to be very helpful and have concluded that it's worth spending a few extra Euros in them for better quality and much better customer service.
3 comments:
Hehehe.... I enjoyed reading that post Rachel.
I totally agree with purchasing from smaller stores where they care about customers and the level of care they give. All stores should be like this. But then, I know what it is like to have a customer return something over a tiny matter (like, an air bubble in a loaf of bread!)
You and Matt sound like Lyndon and I. We would be very excited if Ikea came to Cairns, but we know they won't. But after your 'toilet-seat' matter I wouldn't be buying a 'toilet-seat' from them. Haha.
Thanks for your banner thing. Blogger never used to have the button to include a photo in your banner - it must be fairly new. Thanks for the advice though!!
Youre beginning to sound like a TOG...
(www.togs.org)
Just noticed the banner thing. Thanks! Have just given Tortoiseshell blog a facelift. Come over and have a look!
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