Washing machine delivered broken, still waiting for refund

Ordered a washing machine from Argos online, it duly arrived and they took away our old one. The delivery guys asked if we wanted them to unwrap it but we said no, we'd do it. Started to unwrap it immediately, and found the a massive crack along the back, the front panel was hanging off, dispenser drawer was totally broken. Totally unusable, looked like it had been dropped from a great height! My husband ran out to try and stop the van driving away but it was too late, so he phoned them on the mobile number they'd used to advise us of the delivery slot. They couldn't have got any further than the end of the road but they refused to come back, said they weren't allowed to collect, only deliver, and they also refused to return our old machine, which was still working but was just very old.

I phoned Customer Services and they were thoroughly unhelpful to the point of rudeness. They said they couldn't deliver a new washing machine for a week - odd that, when they offer next day delivery, obviously they weren't prepared to do that without extra payment. I said I couldn't possibly wait for a week so I wanted the damaged machine collected and a refund. Guess what, they couldn't collect it for a week, and I couldn't leave it outside 'in case it got damaged or stolen'!! And I couldn't have a refund until it had been collected.

Having reluctantly agreed for collection in a week - 8 hour time slot! - I then ordered a washing machine from Appliances online. This was Thursday, I could have had it Friday for an extra £9.99 but settled for free delivery on the Saturday. Wish I'd used them in the first place, they'll certainly be my first choice from now on. I then phoned my card company to start a chargeback dispute.

Argos turned up to collect the machine on the agreed date. My husband had wrapped it up again as best he could but had taken photos of the damaged areas, printed them off and attached them to the top of the machine. The guys who came to collect said that was a very good idea as they'd had instances of washing machines being sent out for delivery even though they had a sticker on them saying 'faulty, do not deliver to customer'!

That was Thursday. On Tuesday evening I emailed Argos to say I hadn't had the refund onto my card. I was phoned by someone in Customer Services to say it took 5 working days, it had been processed and would come through by end of Friday at latest. Guess what, it didn't. Emailed again and got an email back saying the refund had been processed and should be showing on my card, but they would chase it up with the Finance Office. I then had a call from the Finance Office saying that in fact it hadn't been processed at all, due to a 'system error', which apparently meant it had been flagged as 'awaiting exchange'. So the refund would have never gone through if I hadn't chased it. The lady from Finance was very apologetic, even though it wasn't her fault, she was probably the only helpful person I've dealt with at Argos. She said she'd done a manual refund but that would take 3-5 working days to reach my card!

I will be writing a letter of complaint to Argos Head office, and needless to say, I will never buy from them again.