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“Terrible - Poor Customer Service when things go wrong”

written by Tessavc on 20/01/2015

We bought 3 Virginia electric thermostatic towel radiators, one small 650 x 400 and two medium 1000 x 450 to fit before Christmas. They arrived all with 100 watt thermostatic elements and were fitted by our electrician. Unfortunately they took over 4 hours to become lukewarm so weren't working properly. I called Bath Empire who told me this hadn't happened before but agreed to send me 2 new thermostatic elements only as the smallest one was heating up slightly better & they felt that that one wasn't faulty. They arrived & I had to get my electrician to come back to fit them. This time one didn't work at all & the other was the same. I called them again & they said that they'd had a bad batch & that the thermostatic elements weren't so good so they sent me some standard elements. Electrician came back & fitted them but still the same. I called again and this time they admitted that the 100 watt elements were too small for the size of the radiators. I explained that I was having to pay for every additional call out fee to my electrician to get these fitted and that I wanted to be reimbursed. I was told that should be fine, then I heard nothing more until I received an email to say that my existing 300 watt elements should work fine and no mention of the electrician cost reimbursement. I called them again to explain that I didn't have any 300 watt elements and was told that they'd send two out but that their T & C state that they do not reimburse any 3rd party costs. This was confirmed to me in an email by their so called Customer Relations department. I called the Which? Legal Helpline and a solicitor there told me that regardless of their T & C they are in breach of contract under the Sale of Goods act 1979 as the radiators as sold were not of satisfactory quality and therefore they are liable for any consequential loss which arises as a result of the breach, so I wrote to them and stated this. Customer Relations wrote back simply saying that my costs cannot be honoured as they do not cover third party costs. This means that they do not feel they have to follow current legislation and I will have to make a claim through the small claims court which will be a great inconvenience.
To rub salt into the wound I now see on their website that they sell all the Virginia radiators with 300 watt elements as standard!
Appalling company, we will never use them again and we will be telling everyone we know about them. Do not buy from them.