- Report: #44747
Complaint Review: Currys Dixons Mastercare - Sheffield Other
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Currys Dixons Mastercare
PO Box 1686 Sheffield, S2 5YB Other, United Kingdom
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Currys Dixons Mastercare failure to provide the service stated in the extended warranty service agreement false promises Sheffield United Kingdom
I have over the last few years bought a number of items from Currys and Dixons and taken out their Mastercare Coverplans. These service agreements refer in several places to expert helplines and fixing simple problems over the phone, eg
1. "When things go wrong, simply phone one of our customer helplines where you can get immediate advice and help to repair many products".
2. "We provide a range of expert helplines where good advice is only a phone call away."
3. "If we are unable to fix the problem over the phone...." (this refers to a number of brown goods).
In the past I have successfully used these, saving an engineer from coming out and therefore having to take time off work.
However, despite still being referred to on the new service agreements, these phone services are no longer available (except for PCs). If you phone Mastercare they say there is no technical or repair advice available by phone. In their words following my letter of complaint - "Mastercare deal with the booking of engineers and offer a repair service only. The Mastercare line is not an advice line".
So, yes they will send out an engineer (eventually) but you cannot get advice on the phone to correct minor faults or problems. I had a minor problem with my VCR. Mastercare told me they could give no advice over the phone and had to send an engineer.
He did not arrive on the day arranged so I had to arrange another day, necessitating taking 2 days off work, one of which I could not be paid for. On arrival it took him five seconds to rectify the problem by pressing several buttons on the remote control. This was not a tuning problem, it was a fault within the VCR, but I could easily have been told how to do this over the phone.
I have had a long and frustrating e-mail correspondence with Coverplan as well as expensive phone calls but they refuse to accept that their service agreements say there is a phone line for repair or technical advice.
Barbara
Abingdon, Other
United Kingdom
1. "When things go wrong, simply phone one of our customer helplines where you can get immediate advice and help to repair many products".
2. "We provide a range of expert helplines where good advice is only a phone call away."
3. "If we are unable to fix the problem over the phone...." (this refers to a number of brown goods).
In the past I have successfully used these, saving an engineer from coming out and therefore having to take time off work.
However, despite still being referred to on the new service agreements, these phone services are no longer available (except for PCs). If you phone Mastercare they say there is no technical or repair advice available by phone. In their words following my letter of complaint - "Mastercare deal with the booking of engineers and offer a repair service only. The Mastercare line is not an advice line".
So, yes they will send out an engineer (eventually) but you cannot get advice on the phone to correct minor faults or problems. I had a minor problem with my VCR. Mastercare told me they could give no advice over the phone and had to send an engineer.
He did not arrive on the day arranged so I had to arrange another day, necessitating taking 2 days off work, one of which I could not be paid for. On arrival it took him five seconds to rectify the problem by pressing several buttons on the remote control. This was not a tuning problem, it was a fault within the VCR, but I could easily have been told how to do this over the phone.
I have had a long and frustrating e-mail correspondence with Coverplan as well as expensive phone calls but they refuse to accept that their service agreements say there is a phone line for repair or technical advice.
Barbara
Abingdon, Other
United Kingdom
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Anon
Nottingham,Europe,
United Kingdom
Your rights.
#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, December 04, 2003
My advice is that yes ring them in the first instance and if the engineer fails to turn up ring up to complain and send a letter of complaint each time they fail to the mastercare complaints address (ask them at the first time they fail to solve the problem so you have it). Also mention the first fault and make sure you give all previous information and all the references for the call, service plan number, contact details, engineer visit ref. and any other references. Please note unless you mention these first year warranty rights the call centre WONT tell you. Be aware of your rights, if it fails with the first 28 days of within your warranty period you can have a refund or replacement. I'm afraid you'll have to keep this up for a total 28 days if your past the first 28 day period but within the first year of your warranty period, Mastercare cover does not affect this, but if they have not fixed it within 28 days you can again have a replacement or refund. If you bought it on a credit card the first month might be covered by this. If you are on your Mastercare cover then you have a contract with Mastercare and I would advise you see Trading Standards to see if they have fulfilled the contract. Btw Trading Standards are very good at dealing with Mastercare, but you will need to have complained to the company about three times first - you can contact them by phone, a local branch or their website. Personally except when I was employed at their call centre and had insentive deals I don't buy equipment from them, the staff in the stores are sales staff (I once applied for a position in store sales and was turned down as I had a computing experience) so seek independant advice. Also the Cover they offer is over priced - if you shop around you can get the same cover with a reputable online insurance firm for a third of the price. Please be nice to the call centre people, I know its frustrating, but they really are under the most terrible pressure and get little help. They have to juggle many outdated systems and depending which thing you call about makes the resources different - this is not intergrated (they even have to cut and paste or even type details between multiple systems). Brown goods is a little easier but suffers the similar problems. Hope all this is of some help. Anon (ex employee) Btw all the calls are handled in Nottingham.
