I had to chuckle at the Facebook 'memory' that popped up today: a screenshot of the fridge freezer I was thinking of buying, that I'd posted to see what people thought of the colour. It struck me as funny (well, I've had one of those weeks!) that exactly two years down the line, the fridge part has stopped working. The retailer - not giving anything away but it's probably also in a town near you - says I need an engineer's report. If a manufacturer's fault is found, I'll get 'some' money back on a pro rata basis (though probably not enough to cover what's gone off in the fridge this week).

Another memory that surfaced today was how 'in the old days' people used to give the TV a hard bash when it stopped working. Why? Because the 'manufacturer/engineer' customer services rep told me to unplug the appliance for a couple of hours to see if that got it working again. Apparently, no-one knows how this works; only that it sometimes does!

Naturally I was concerned, since if I have to do this now, there's clearly a problem with the appliance & even if it did the trick (which it didn't), the fridge would likely fail again in a couple of months or even less. In my view, this isn't acceptable; nor is a fridge freezer that breaks within two years.

I asked if I'd have to pay for the engineer's visit. The response was: "I believe the visit would be free however if any work needed doing they would more than likely charge as you have had the item longer than 12 months. When they call you later they should be able to advise further."🙂

I expressed concern about the "I believe" and the rep checked for me, eventually coming back to say he'd been wrong. I'd need to get someone out either way though, to prove that the appliance hadn't failed because of wear and tear. What on earth do they think I might have been doing - holding parties in it?

I think it's appalling that a large 'fixed' appliance like this, might be considered by the retailer to be fit for purpose if it fails after just 12 months - the length of a normal warranty.

You're in the industry and no doubt you own a fridge freezer. Tell me, do you think two years' life expectancy for something costing more than £400 reasonable? I certainly don't!

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Yours,

Jan Hobbs