Harvey Norman: Pregnant woman left eating warm food

[kolonel1971]

Great response Jakke. The easiest solution is to treat this as simple as possible. Disregard the uneducated responses about taking a faulty fridge back to the retailer, as this will rarely get you any closer to resolving the actual issue. I will actually speak to a friend of mine, who is a Toshiba reseller, and make mention of your predicament. Will keep you posted on this one.

With most retailers, the service/repair side of any product (unless it has a replacement warranty), is generally dealt with the supplier (Toshiba in this case) or one of their service agents. I would not advise trying to fix the problem, as this would only result in a short term fix. When the issue arrises, contact the service department directly, and treat it as a new problem, and have the previous problems itemised as best you can to give to the repairer upon their arrival.

As pointed out by your contact with the store's manager, i definately would be dealing with Toshiba directly. Their ignorance, as weel as some of the responses in this thread, will not help you resolve the situation. I feel if you speak to them like human beings, and not let the emotional side get involved, there should be no reason why yuo cannot get this sorted.

[jakke]

If the fridge is not in proper working order then I suggest that you advise Harvey Norman and Toshiba IN WRITING that you are currently without a working fridge and that unless a replacement fridge is delivered to your home within 7 days you intend to get a hire fridge and will seek to recover the cost of the rental from them when the matter goes to hearing at the tribunal. You should set out the full history of the matter, including date of purchase, problems you have experienced, when and to whom the problems were reported, the responses you have received and state that you are not happy with the response you have received to date. Of course if you do get a rental fridge you may or may not be successful in recovering the cost of the rental and if you don't you will then be out of pocket so you could just tell HN and Toshiba that you intend to get a rental fridge but not actually get one and hope that the threat of having to pay your rental costs gets them moving. It does sound like typical Harvey Norman to me. I bought a microwave oven from David Jones several years ago and it broke down in the first week or 2 so I returned it to DJ's and they offered me a loan microwave oven while I was waiting for the replacement microwave oven they ordered in for me to arrive. I accepted their offer. They could not have been more helpful. Pity all retailers don't share David Jones's approach to customer service.

[balmainboy]

Get your application to VCAT in as soon as possible as your hearing may take anyhting from 2-6 months to be heard. Write to Harvey Norman (and Toshiba) detailing all issues, times & dates and put how you want it resolved. This will lay it out to them and you can use it at the hearing as evidence of what you have done. it will also be handy to quote from at the hearing. "Threaten" Harvey Norman & Toshiba that you will:
1) Take them to VCAT which will require their attendance and take up their precious time; 2) be claiming damages for spoiled food, etc; 3) you will issue a media release after the hearing to let other consumers know of their poor service and defective product. Sometimes that gets them off their arse. If it doesn't work, then go to VCAT and do exactly as you ahve 'threatened' - not all publicity is good publicity.

[Qagaar]

Go to Supercheap Auto and buy one of those $20 trollies, take you fridge to Hardly Normal with all the food in it and ask that something be done about the fridge and the food. It is their responsibility to arrange for the fridge to be fixed/replaced UNLESS it is a Toshiba policy that they deal with it.

ie; Apple will not allow iPods to be returned to the place of purchase, Apple policy is that they handle all problems.

P.S. Make sure the food is a few days out of date and going off.

[DashaSelwyn]

Dear NGE
I Keep having to Write this in here “Go Back” to Toshiba Australia AND Harvey Norman and tell them that no-matter what they say’ you are still under the manufactures Warranty! If they will not give you another Fridge, then you will exercise your rights under the “Australian Statutory Warranty laws and demand a total refund. According to the “Australian Statutory Warranty” laws you are entitled to a completely new fridge or a full refund‘nothing more, nothing less! Quote the Australian Statutory Warranty that is L A W "LAW"! Google the site and read it and enter it in ALL your written and “Registered” Correspondence to both The Managing Director of Toshiba Australia and Norman himself! Then you will see what so many people are not even aware of "Hardly Normal" and Toshiba are doing what they all try and do ‘Bluffing’ and sadly they get away with it more times than not” remember the Australian Way is never give up and stand up for what is right! Cheers Dasha

[jasper90]

This is nothing unusual with Harvey Norman I would recommend not to purchase anything with them as there customer service has always been UP To S*it. I purchased a digital camera with them about ten years ago it it stopped working after a couple of weeks and thought they would just replace it but NO. It had to be sent back for repair 3 times before it would work again. Not happy Jan! After a couple of months and still under warranty it failed again and they just fobbed me off told me to go to the manufacturer and get it fixed with them. Now that is what I call customer Service !! NOT.

[NGE]

My girlfriend and I purchased a new fridge from Harvey Norman in Maribyrnong, Vic, on December 27. She is now seven months pregnant and left to eat warm, unsanitary food, because the fridge has a fault that neither the retailer nor the manufacturer is willing to fix.

Soon after buying the fridge (a Toshiba) we went on holidays and when we returned we noticed it wasn't keeping things very cool. We thought as it was new we probably messed up the thermostat settings, so we experimented with them a bit, and sometimes the food would be warm and sometimes it would be frozen.

Eventually we realised the door wasn't closing fully, and that was the likely cause.

Right away Harvey Norman brushed us off to Toshiba. We called Toshiba in about March and was told it may be the seal, and to just push it back into its track.

On closer inspection we noticed the seal wasn't in properly, and we were able to thread it back.

The fridge then worked for a few weeks, and then the same thing happened.

We kept on threading the seal back into place but eventually my partner got tired of having to fix it.

Toshiba sent out a repairman, who came just after we had fixed the seal ourselves.

He opened the door and closed it and pronounced that there was no problem. I explained that was because we just fixed it, and that in a few days it would be broken again.

He said because there was no problem he wouldn't do anything.

We then moved house and my girlfriend, by this stage nearly seven months pregnant, was getting sick and tired of having to get on her hands and knees and thread the seal back into place.

It is quite dangerous for a pregnant woman to have to eat food that is not properly refrigerated and we threw out so much food we were unsure about I can't imagine how much it cost us.

Eventually Toshiba sent out their repairman again and he decided to replace the seal.
While he was putting it into place, he pulled out a drawer at the bottom.

He noticed a small crack at the bottom of the fridge, which he said explained the problem. The crack meant the seal wouldn't close flush with the door.

Unfortunately for us physical damage isn't covered by the warranty. As explained, this problem has been happening since the fridge was delivered, so obviously was a manufacturing problem or resulted from damage during delivery.

Harvey Norman Maribyrnong was extremely rude about the situation and basically said we would have to wear it. They said the damage occurred during the move to our new house, not where it was originally delivered.

Their manager said he didn't care if we made complaints as he was a franchisee and not bound to follow Harvey Norman's usual customer care.

Complaints up the chain to Harvey Norman in Sydney got nowhere, so we have made a complaint to the ACCC.

The next step is going to VCAT but in the interim, our family is left in danger by uncaring companies who are trying to shirk all their responsibility.

NGE Member: Unhappy and fed-up

Update:unhappy and fed-up writes:


I wanted to update this situation. Subsequent to posting this information the manager at the Harvey Norman franchise offered to help me out.

He has offered to sell me a half price fridge, and as long as that all proceeds smoothly, as far as I am concerned this complaint is over.