Readers' forum: Have your say

Frozen out by Samsung customer service:In May 2009, a reader called Anne Marie bought a Samsung American fridge freezer. A couple of months later it developed a fault which the company repaired but she was left with €300 of spoiled food. Samsung said it did not cover such losses and advised her to make a claim from her house insurance policy. "As my house insurance policy has an excess of €250 this is total a waste of time," she writes

She sent the company a registered letter and called them numerous times but says the only response she got was when she told them several months ago that she was writing to Pricewatch.

“A guy called Rob then told me to go out and replace everything I had lost and that he would ensure I was refunded, which I did.” She was told to send the receipt by registered post which she did but she has never heard back from the company. “I’m a single mum to three boys. I work part time and to be honest I feel very annoyed about how my case was ignored and semi dealt with. I feel as if a trusted company such as Samsung have made a complete fool out me, leaving me out of pocket not only once but twice.”

We contacted Samsung after which its customer service team in Dublin got in touch with our reader “in order to investigate fully the details of the complaint so that a satisfactory resolution can be found”. In a statement Samsung said that the terms and conditions of its manufacturer’s warranty stated the company could “not provide compensation for consequential losses, however Samsung customer service will consider such claims on a case-by-case basis.”. It said its customer service team had investigated the matter thoroughly and agreed to reimburse our reader for the loss of food to the value of €300. They have also agreed to send a goodwill gesture for the inconvenience caused.

Overcharged by Vodafone:

Bairbre O’Hogan from Dublin asked us to highlight, and possibly solve, the problems she has been having with Vodafone at Home “customer care”. She changed to Vodafone at Home from BT Esat who were bought by Vodafone at Home in late January. She bought two phone lines but has been repeatedly overcharged since she switched.

She says the problem has been costing her more and more money since February this year. “I have been overcharged every month since I changed to Vodafone at Home in late January. Every month, when I do eventually manage to get through to customer service, they can all see the problem and tell me they have fixed it. Every month I continue to be overcharged and the previous overcharging is never refunded,” she writes.

She points out that it is virtually impossible to get through to customer care and says the director of customer care has not answered or acknowledged either of the two letters she has sent.

“She is not contactable on the phone, e-mails have not been answered, except the most recent one which says they have passed my e-mail to the relevant department. I work from home using the internet at all times, I cannot take the risk of just cancelling my direct debit until I get this sorted,” she says.

We contacted Vodafone and were issued with a statement in which the company said it recognised our reader’s experience “was far from ideal and extremely frustrating”. It said it “sincerely regretted that we have not provided this customer with a high standard of service and have apologised unreservedly to the customer and have sought to resolve this matter directly with them, in recognition of the poor service they have received on this occasion.”

It said there were “key improvements that need to be made in our processes to prevent a similar experience in the future and have moved to make those changes immediately”.

It said a new e-mail handling process has been introduced and “new resources, procedures and measurements for actively monitoring our response rates to issues of this nature to capture issues early and enable us to better resolve them in a timely manner”.