The Good Guys - issues

Paid for fridge weeks before on bpay,they couldn’t find the payment had to ring and supply full details. Thursday Kate from Fyshwick said the fridge coming Saturday around mid morning. My friend and I started early, moved all the furniture, emptied the fridge into eskys and waited.

At 12 I rang them, Kate said hold I’ll ring the truck and see, quote “the first delivery took longer than thought they’ll be there at 4” end quote. At 4.45 I rang again, a woman took down all the details again, back on hold, another man, this time we’ve no record of your phone number. Then,THERE NEVER WAS ANY DELIVERY, WE WERE SITTING THERE FOR 8 HOURS WAITING, no phone call, nothing.

They ring the delivery truck they are on the way then the LIE,THERE WAS NO FRIDGE. REPACK THE FOOD, PUT BACK ALL THE FURNITURE, COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.

Two days later…no apology, no phone call, nothing. Buy from anyone else, Joyce Main or Harvey Norman.

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Welcome to the Community @peter_16

Sorry to hear of your issues.

Have you got the Fridge now?

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hello Grahroll,
Thanks for your reply.
No fridge,no communication at all,I have sent them several texts and emails.
I suspect it was a total lie and they cant come back from it.
They rang the driver,he had the fridge and was coming and then it disappeared.
extremely disappointing.That was last saturday.
cheers

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Use your ACL rights to get your money back. There are lots of examples of what you can do on this site and I encourage you to search for the information on your rights.

CHOICE also provide templates for writing letters/emails to send to the Businesses that need to be contacted.

The ACCC also provide templates and you can make a complaint with them. You should also lodge a complaint with your Office of Fair Trading but you should first contact the Business and advise them you want your payment returned or the Fridge delivered and give them a reasonable amount of time to do so eg 7 days.

Finally if you used a Debit Card or a Credit Card you may be able to request a Chargeback from your Bank.

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Sometimes exercising one’s rights can take a different turn. I presume your purchase and delivery were in the ACT or adjacent delivery area? Was everything online or did you go in-store?

Based on your experience ask for the store manager not Kate, and don’t accept anyone less. Use the phone and be sure to log who you talk to and what they tell you. Not impressed with the conversation? Going formal with a ‘letter of complaint’ is then the best route as anything else becomes ‘idle chit chat’ when things go pear shaped.

Can the fridge be sourced and delivered from another company any faster, for the same, similar, or better pricing? eg Appliances Online or another local? I stay clear of Harvey Norman on principle unless they are the only choice. ‘Any faster’ might read as amusing since your fridge has gone missing, but I trust you know my intent.

BPay payment is essentially a cash transaction that is not exactly a cash transaction, and could delay getting money back in your hands. How long would a refund take and can you ‘double up’ until the credit appears in your account? If the fridge is not urgent you have the luxury of waiting for the credit prior to purchasing from another source.

Another thought is to ask for compensation either through a further discount or free products.

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Thanks So much for your careful thoughts Phil.
I did it online and live some distance from their shop.
I am still waiting for a reply to my emails to the manager Fyshwick.
I am under the impression it wasn’t convenient to do the delivery and I became disposable, rather than abject stupidity on their part and so no-one wanted to give me the bad news-hence"there never was any fridge".
still waiting.

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Do not wait more than a day, and go formal.

The contact numbers on this web site might be helpful. Some of the ‘complaint contacts’ obviously are not very useful.

The MD is Mr.Terry Smart.

Their corporate mail is The Good Guys Corporate Office, PO BOX 5190, South Melbourne VIC 3205

You can get contact information here (if you register)

and some parallel information from this older topic (and subsequent posts)

I believe the OP was stonewalled and do not know if he got a satisfactory or any outcome or even acknowledgement. He apparently sent a registered letter to the Niddrie address that either is an incorrect address, or they decline to collect registered post since registered post is often a legal document they might not wish to deal with.

Hopefully you have a better idea what you might be dealing with if they have not improved.

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The Good Guys, like many other appliance retailers, use contractors to deliver their larger products. It is likely they will try and shift the blame to their contractor, however, at the end of the day you have a relationship with the Good Guys and they are responsible for their (contractors) ability to deliver when they said they would.

When discussing with them, I would be asking for the delivery (and installation) charge to be refunded as they were unable to provide a service, as agreed on purchase of the item. Under the ACL, this is a failure to provide a service. If they say they will not refund the delivery charge, I would threaten to cancel the order which you have a right to do and ask for a 100% refund. This is likely to get them to accept your request for the delivery charge to be refunded. A refund of delivery charges should be the least they do for ‘stuffing you around’ with the order.

I would also be suggesting to them that hopefully in the future they keep other customers up-to-date with the status of a delivery. A customer should not have to chase a retailer when there is a delivery problem…it should the the other way around.

Also, be frank, but unemotional in your dealing with them. Being emotional, abusive etc will close of some negotiations which might have otherwise been possible.

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Thanks phb for your interesting reply.
I have received an apology from the manager at Fyshwick 3 days later after my complaint to head office in melbourne was relayed to them,My direct email on monday did not produce a response.
Hi Peter,

First of all I would like to apologise for the overall experience you have had with your fridge purchase. I can agree it has been a big mess around from the beginning and I am very sorry that you and your friend were inconvenienced on the weekend.

I have spoken to my operations manager Jamie who has told me he did speak to you on Saturday (5th), discussed the miscommunication on our end, and confirmed that the fridge could be delivered this Saturday. I called my out of town driver to see if he was booked in to go anywhere near your area sooner, and unfortunately the earliest he is heading back down is still Saturday the 12th (this Saturday). If he does end up having to go down that way earlier I will let you know as soon as possible.

I have personally made sure your delivery is booked on the 12th, and the driver will give you a call roughly about half an hour away from your location.

My apologies again for this experience and if you have any further inquiries please feel free to reply to this email.

Have a good night,

Emily
Sales Manager
my reply.
Hello Emily,

Thankyou for your thoughtfully worded email.

I am not convinced this was a mixup.

This is a major failure in your system.

Kate rang the contractor who replied he would deliver the fridge at 4pm.He must have had a fridge and to identify the delivery kate must have mentioned my name and the destination.

Jamie suggests there was never any fridge to be delivered, this doesn’t make sense and smells like a misdirection to obscure the failure of your delivery arrangements with the contractor,who could not pick up the phone and ring me,or ring staff and say he’s not going to make it or say there is no fridge or there are circumstances beyond our control or ANYTHING.

Instead we were left sitting there like idiots all day waiting for nothing.

This is plain rude uncaring abuse of our time and a piece of text with the word apology in it fails abysmally in compensating us for this ridiculous lapse in customer service.

Yes,we can do it all again next Saturday,but I still feel we’ve been treated badly and casually by people who really don’t care.

Peter.

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In your place I would be up front with what I expect as restitution. It is rare they would be first to bring it up and if they did it is likely to be tokenism.

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Yes. They are shit. They took my money and cancelled my order. Been over a week and no refund. No money to go out and buy again. Lost out financially through faults of theirs and no compensation. Too lazy to even reply to my complaint emails. What a shit company. Should be called “The Bad Guys”!

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It is unfortunate but it is possible they processed a refund in the 2 business days they allot themselves, but refunds often inexplicably take another 5-7 business days in the banking system (eg ~10 days?) to show in one’s account, card issuer dependent.

From the TGG web site regarding them cancelling an order, they refund according to

12. REFUNDS OF YOUR MONEY

12.1. Where TGG is obliged to refund your payment pursuant to these Terms and Conditions, TGG aims to initiate your refund to your original payment method within 2 business days (Monday – Friday 9am to 5pm Melbourne time). Please note that where Goods have been purchased using a Gift Card, the applicable refund will be processed as a new eGift Card and issued to the email address used on the web order. The additional time that it takes for you to actually receive your refund will depend upon how quickly your financial institution or other payment provider processes the refund. Please note that if TGG is obliged to provide you a partial refund of your payment for specific Goods in your Order, TGG will only refund the component of the Delivery Charge relating to the Goods which are subject to the refund.

12.2. Except to the extent otherwise required by law (including, without limitation, the Australian Consumer Law), TGG will not be liable to you, or any other person, for any loss, damage, cost or expense suffered as a direct or indirect result of any delay in you receiving any refund due to you, whether in contract, negligence or any other tort, equity, restitution, strict liability, under statute or otherwise at all.

How many days has it been? Did you send an email or use their web form? Did you get an auto-acknowledgement with a service level (eg responses in 3-5 business days or whatever) and has that time passed?

Did you ask for a reply or assume you would receive one, and if your complaint ‘demanded’ an immediate refund that would be impossible so they could be waiting those days hoping your money will appear.

If you purchased off the web site have you called them, and if unsatisfied with the agent, ask for a supervisor or manager to see how you go?

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My elderly mother bought a vacuum from the Good Guys late March of this year with a years guarantee. It hasn’t worked properly for the past few months and keeps turning off. As we have been in lockdown and unable to return we returned a few weeks back and the guy said its the filter and replaced it. Got it home turned on and within a minute turns off again. We returned it today and instead of replacing they have sent it away without a vac as a replacement. Shouldnt they be replacing the unit?

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I have moved your post over to a relevant existing thread. If you look back through the responses you will get a lot of valuable information.

Under the ACL it all depends whether it is a minor or a major fault. At this stage, The Good Guys have the right to try to have it repaired. Then it all depends on what the fault was. It may be something minor that can be fixed, and your mother may get back a perfectly working vacuum. So wait and see.

Make sure that you keep all the paperwork relating to the purchase and repair so if a further claim under the ACL is necessary later on you have evidence to back up your claim.

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If it is a major fault, which is an unknown here, the consumer gets the choice of refund, repair or replace. It isn’t the choice of the Good Guys unless it is a minor problem. If it is a major fault and the Good Guys repair it, does this allow them to set the choice for the consumer?

An assessment of the problem is certainly their option, once an assessment determines if major or minor then the rights of the consumer are able to be determined.

Would the purchase have occurred if they known of the fault beforehand? Is this an isolated fault or does this model of machine have a history of similar faults, is it fit for purpose? Should they seek compensation for the costs involved in returning the item and inconvenience?

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Latest update. No contact from The Good Guys so I called on Friday. Spoke to a Manager who asked me to email them and they would do an exchange. Since then no contact so I called yesterday and the state they are waiting on Electrolux to ok the exchange. Not sure why its taking a week to get an answer. The Manager assured me yesterday someone would call me back yesterday and so far no calls.

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Assuming there is not more to your situation, TGG ‘own’ the warranty and the product problem. Any arrangement between TGG and Electrolux should not be your problem. TGG appears to be working on the proviso that Electrolux will ‘make them whole’, eg no out of pocket by TGG.

TGG should be taking care of you, their customer, and then separately working on their own issue w/Electrolux. Importantly, a manufacturer’s written warranty is in addition to your rights under the ACL and does not supplant nor replace them in any way.

In you position I would not accept what appears like either a cop out or delaying tactic, but would quote the Australian Consumer Law to the manager and let them know you will be filing a complaint with your Fair Trading/ACCC agency [on a date] as TGG may be misleading you regarding your rights and their responsibilities.

There are nuances between major and minor faults, what can be repaired, and so on, and who makes that decision, so it might not be that straight forward, but assuming it is in the first instance could get some movement.

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Telephone calls don’t carry as much weight as the written word. So I would suggest that you send an email to the manager using @PhilT’s informative post as a basis.

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If the store is local, the best option is to go in store and ask for the manager that you spoke to. They should resolve on the spot since they have already agreed to an exchange.

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