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| - We had the company out for several years to service our air con and we were happy enough. Then came the day it needed replacing. The guy gave us a handwritten quote, on which he scribbled "life time guarantee". We had checked online, the system seemed OK, the price seemed OK. We said yes.
They arrived and started work outside and in the garage, where the boilers and stuff are. Then I had to go out for a couple of hours. Did they need anything from me before I went? No. I shut my dog in the house and left. When I came back, they were just finishing up in the garage. Everything OK? Yes.
One held out his hand for the check. Where's the invoice? He handed me a torn off corner of paper with an amount scribbled on it. Um - where's the invoice? Oh, normally the boss brings it on the last day but it's too far to come out. They'll probably post it. I paid up. What else could I do, when it was the amount we'd agreed - but professional?
They left. I went inside and upstairs. While I was out, they had come in to my house, which they had not said they needed to do nor mentioned they had done. What if they had let out the dog? What if the dog, friendly outsde, was territorial? They had gone upstairs and replaced the controller for the heating - I had not been asked or told, it was working fine, and it was a different size. There was plaster from drilling on the floor and I needed to repaint the wall to cover up the fact it was a different size. There was no instruction manual. No guarantee. No sign of the promised "lifetime guarantee". The "invoice" eventually arrived - a copy of the service engineer's report stating what we had agreed.
I phoned and got an answerphone, and explained at length. They phoned back when I was out and left a message saying they didn't understand why I was unhappy and what I wanted but to phone back at a specific time to talk because they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. I phoned back at the time they told me - answerphone. Because they said they didn't know why I was unhappy I spelled it out carefully, item by item.
I never heard from them again.
We went online to get instructions for the controller, I went and bought an expensive tin of paint as we had none of the original left, and we realized their "lifetime guarantee" was non-existent.
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