Raw Deal: Make sure you enforce the terms of a guarantee

WHEN you have a job done on your house, you should get a guarantee.

It may be termed a warranty, or “quality assurance” but the meaning is the same. If anything goes wrong with the job, you have the right to expect that the problems will be fixed promptly.

There’s nothing worse than having home improvements done, sometimes at a hefty cost, only for the job to be incomplete or fail to do what it was intended to do.

If things do go wrong, then it should take only one phone call or email to spark action.

Sheila Stephen, of Aberdeen, had new soffits fitted to her house (soffits are the underside of the eaves, not to be confused with gables, which are the triangular upper part of a wall on the sides of houses).

The firm she contracted to do the work was Penicuik and part of the finished job was a set of recessed lights.

The soffits and new guttering were installed on October 7 last year and looked very nice.

However, it soon became apparent that the lights weren’t working properly. As the winter progressed and the weather worsened, it transpired that the guttering was leaking.

Sheila got on the phone to Penicuik.

Guarantees are often a selling point of double-glazing and eaves-replacement firms and, right enough, Sheila’s contract showed she had a 10-year guarantee.

But her phone call didn’t seem to get much of a response. She reported what was wrong and the admin team took all the details. They said they’d get back to her – but no one ever did.

Over the course of a few months, Sheila made six calls, and each time was promised someone would be in touch. But no contact materialised.

Tired of this, and a little baffled at being ignored, Sheila contacted Raw Deal.

We wrote to Penicuik and it sprang into action. Its “legal & compliance” department wrote to us to say: “We take customer queries and experience seriously and apologise that Mrs Stephen’s experience has fallen far short of our own high expectations. We apologise for the delay in dealing with the inquiry which resulted from an internal reorganisation and transfer of our customer services function from Norfolk to Cheshire.

“We can confirm our customer services team have arranged a visit to resolve the issues raised.”

So was the job done to Sheila’s satisfaction? It seems it was.

She told us: “I know I would not have got the job done if it hadn’t been for you. A man got in touch with me straight away and organised an electrician who came and did a very good job which I am very pleased with. Unknown to me, a wire from the broken light was melting and could have had consequences.

“Thank you Raw Deal for getting my job done.”

No problem, Sheila.

The lesson here is clear. Get a guarantee at point of sale. Be clear what is guaranteed and for how long you are covered.

You have a right to enforce the terms of a guarantee and shouldn’t rest until you do.

Keep phoning, keep writing, keep visiting the vendor to make sure you have any problems sorted out.

Do you have a problem?

 To get in touch with Raw Deal please email your address and daytime/mobile number to rawdeal@sundaypost.com or write to Raw Deal, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee, DD4 8SL (please include SAE).

Briefly outline the problem and how you would like it resolved. Include contact details of the other party and any customer ref/order numbers.

By requesting Raw Deal’s assistance you agree for your name, location and a photo to be published.