On Friday, among other things (and far more important things at that) that happened, I was also privy to service at complete opposite ends of the scale. For me 'n' the wife's wedding night, after everyone else had buggered off home we stayed in the Dragon Hotel in the centre of Swansea and in general it was an excellent experience. The staff were very helpful, nothing was too much trouble, the room was nice, clean and everything that was required and I acquired quite nice shower gel etc from the room (ahem). They did ID me (29 and lets face it pretty damn weather beaten) and Brandy (28, yes... petite, but still doesn't look young) at the bar, which I suppose is a compliment, or an annoyance!
The taxi that took us to the service was from Yellow Cabs and was fabulous, and to show service gets repeat custom, thanks to that 1 good journey, we booked 3 of them to get from the registry office to TGIs for the grub. If she'd been crap or shitty, the bookings would have gone elsewhere! If you're ever in Jackland for any reason and need a taxi, I heartily recommend Yellow Cabs.
On the other end of the scale was Cash Generator Merthyr Tydfil. Yes I know Cash Generator is probably the pikiest 'shop' around, designed to sell broken second hand stuff to chavs, morons and skint people (which I know now technically would include me) at a huge mark up than the 45p they paid Bob for his 32" flatscreen TV. I knew all this but they had a copy of Kinect Sports I wanted and they were like a tenner cheaper than anywhere else I could find.
I got the disk home and due to my newfound fandom of all things Call of Duty I didn't play it from purchase date (2/7) to the pre wedding Thursday (8/7). I stuck it in and, chug chug, nothing... hmmm try again, same, check disk and believe me this thing has had a hard life, more scratches than a Merthyr girl bitch fight and more burn than a bald bloke with fair skin on his holidays.
So, receipt in hand I marched in the following day, prior to departure for Swansea obviously, and asked for my cash back. The none-too-quick shop assistant looked at it, admitted it was proverbially shagged to buggery and phoned her manager (who was a full 12 yards away, so the call was necessary) and declined the refund as 'media' items must be returned within 48 hours. I pointed out that firstly I wasn't made aware of this and 2 I'm pretty sure that encroaches on an odd consumer right. She essentially said, "Tough"
I asked to speak to the hidden distant manager who trundled across, being sure to bring something with her, to give herself focus on apart from me, who essentially repeated "Tough" and confirmed they feel that their self created company rules take precedence over consumer rights. She said all this without ever staying still to address me or indeed looking me in the eye. Shocker. I asked who owns the franchise, they declined to tell me. (Didn't take a genius to find out it was Dave Elwood, I love the quote, "Cash Generator has allowed me to purchase a yacht and sail around the world in my spare time – a hobby not many business men are privileged to do.") yeah - allowed by exploiting whoever you can!
Riled by this, but holding in the language as little Gracie was with me, I left and called Consumer Direct who pretty much said their actions were shady and I should complain to the store. So back I rang complete with advice on the 1979 Sale of Goods Act (as amended) ringing in my ears, and was once again told, "Tough" and worst of all the advice that Cash Generator feel their goods do not need to be of satisfactory quality as they are 2nd hand. Manager Sarah's words not mine!
I actually wanted to play the damn thing so I took it to gamestation a few days later and had a disk repair done. Once again top notch service received, the guy behind the counter actually seemed to know about Cash Generator from other customers and didn't think it was legit either. This spurred me on.
So in line with the Consumer Direct advice, I complained in writing saying:
From: yeah - I'm going to leave my email address here... d'uh
Sent: 11 July 2011 12:14
Subject: Customer Complaint
Dear Sir/Madam,
Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended)
On 02/07/11, I bought a second hand XBOX 360 game - Kinect Sports from your Merthyr Tydfil franchise for £25.00 which is not of satisfactory quality.
The problems are:
· The disk damaged beyond possible use, both scratches and disk burn was present. This rendered the disk unusable.
I attempted to return this faulty item on 09/07/11 (after first attempting to use it on 08/07/11) complete with original proof of purchase, but this was rejected, despite the staff present agreeing the item was faulty, as your company own rules dictate you may only return ‘media’ products within 48 hours.
The Sale of Goods Act 1979 makes it an implied term of the contract that goods be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality, which this item was not. It also states you need to give reasonable time to allow such returns, which I believe 48 hours is not. Also, at the point of purchase this extreme limitation was not mentioned to me and I was unaware of this until I attempted to return the item, otherwise I clearly would have tested the item much sooner.
I have since had the disk repaired (10/07/11) at my own cost and am seeking a return of this outlay, plus reasonable costs for this inconvenience.
Please respond to my complaint within 7 days from receipt of this email.
Yours faithfully
Andrew Driscoll
It's not even I care about the pitiful amount it cost me to fix, but through being sarcastic, rude and the like to me in the shop, they made it into a big issue, and one I've decided to follow up. Plus you never know, maybe I'll save some kid from blowing his birthday money in there and being bent over in the same way. Since last week I've heard horror stories of TVs blowing up and them washing their hands of it, defective products being happily sold.
It's not on.
Lol...
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