We bought various Siemens kitchen appliances from a local supplier called Champs which were delivered in December 2007 prior to installation. On unwrapping, the induction hob was proved to be cracked so a replacement was called for. The 2 ovens were installed.
10 days after this, the microwave combination oven went kaput.This was on December 16th.
I rang Champs immediately who said that they would arrange for an engineer to come out, but whatever happened they would ensure that this oven was working for me for Christmas - we were catering for 12 people. We had been living in the chaos of house renovation since April 2006 and it was important for us To Do Christmas.
The engineer duly arrived on Thursday 20th, located the fault, produced a spare part, which was faulty. They would be unable to provide a new spare part before Christmas. I offered to drive wherever I had to collect the wretched thing from whatever factory, but of course this was not an option.
I rang Champs.
They rummaged around and then said chirpily that they could get me a replacement oven. My relief was immense.
"28th December do you?" they said.
Relief short lived.
I pointed out that Christmas fell before then.
Eventually they were pleased to offer a compromise whereby to secure an oven, I would get an upgrade. This included features I didn't care about (like a grill, which I didn't want, the other oven had a grill) but that was fine until they bashed on their calculator and said it would cost us a further =A3158. Apparently this was a bargain. I pointed out that I had spent about =A33,500 with them (fridge, camera, hoover, hob, ovens). Still, they had me over a barrel and knew it.
I gritted my teeth and bore the pain. These things happen, I resolved to forget about it.
But then a few weeks ago, I placed a pepper pot to the left of the hob, and just caught the very edge of the glass. The hob broke. The pepper pot (small, glass) needless to say was fine, just dandy. The hob needed replacing for safety sake and aesthetics. But apparently despite the item clearly not being Fit For Purpose if its integrity was so very fragile, this was not covered under their guarantees. I said that clearly there was a weakness if the first one arrived cracked and then this went after a couple of months after nothing more brutal than the marginally erroneous placing of a pepper pot. Induction hobs require heavier pans than normal hobs and so one would assume that if they were braced for the task of taking Le Creuset, for example, then a little pepper pot would be child's play.
I was told it would be about =A3300.
That the engineer's first half hour would cost =A367.50.
I went into hysterical free fall prompted not only by the prospect of penury by hob but by the aggressive attitude of the soi-disant area manager.
Our bill is =A3191.98 which, although less than orignally mooted, we have still had to pay and which I don't feel we should have had to pay.
Do we have a case agains either Champs or Siemens, and if so which one?
Thanks
Edward