“I miss fish,” was the intriguing subject line in a mail from a reader called Andy, who got in touch recently, but it turned out that he needed help with a warranty issue rather than his dinner.
“I have been trying to get a five-year warranty with an Ikea extractor hood honoured but to no avail,” he says.
It stopped working in January, so he phoned Ikea’s customer service number, “as the information that came with the product seemed incorrect, as the number would always ring out. After a long holding process, we were directed to the kitchen department in the UK, who told us Elica Ireland service all hoods and gave us the details to contact. Sorted.”
Or so he thought.
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“Unfortunately not, as the number they provided also rang out. Back on to Ikea for another 45 minutes’ wait to be put on hold and told they unfortunately gave us the wrong information, and gave us an email and another phone number – the third. Sorted.”
Nope.
“We emailed Elica, who gave us details of Gowan Home in Dublin, who apparently look after the Republic of Ireland for them. Sorted.”
Again, no.
“Gowan Home told us that we were one of an average of five calls per week in relation to similar [issues] and they do not service any Ikea products,” Andy says.
With phone lines and emails not proving effective, he decided to take the two-hour round trip to Ikea in Ballymun.
“The thoughts of another hour in the company of Ikea’s soothing music didn’t appeal, so I joined the queue for customer service. When my number was called and I explained to the chap behind the counter, he told me that this looked like it would take a while to sort, and since he was finishing in five minutes, I would have to queue for another colleague.”
Andy accepts that this Ikea employee might well have the right work-life balance “in fairness”.
So, Andy joined another queue only to be given the same information he received over the phone, and he was told that the best bet was for him to email Elica.
“I’ve been on to Ikea several times since, as I don’t want to give up like I presume they would like me to, but I’d also like the issue resolved. Every time I’m given the same incorrect numbers, [I’m] told to escalate with Elica, who have emailed saying they only service Elica-branded goods and they don’t service any Ikea products (even though they supply them),” Andy writes.
“This has gone on since January 20th and [a resolution seems] further away than ever. I purchased the fan in March 2022 at a not inconsiderable €550 from Ikea, not anyone else. All I want to do is grill a little fish and get rid of some of the smell. It’s the simple things,” he says.
And this should have been a simple thing.
Ikea’s response
So we contacted the company and received the following statement.
“Ikea in Ballymun has been in contact with [Andy] directly, and the issue has now been resolved. We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused, and we always strive to ensure that our customers have a great after-sales experience should they encounter any issues with their product.”
So, all we can do now is hope that Andy is reading this over a fish supper he has cooked under his own grill.
Should you find yourself in a position such as this – not necessarily with an extractor fan sourced in Ikea, but with any product or service that has let you down – you would do well to be as persistent as Andy was.
There are a few things you might bear in mind that will hopefully save you having to jump through all the hoops Andy had to go through.
The first key point to remember is to set yourself clear goals when planning to contact a retailer about a faulty product. And be realistic when setting those goals.
Consumer law gives you the right to a repair, replacement or refund if something you buy turns out to be faulty or flawed.
But – and this is an important point – you do not have the right to choose which one of those Rs you get - the retailer makes that choice, and more often than not, they will want to have the product repaired in the first instance.
Knowing that should stop you from demanding a refund that you are not entitled to.
Bear in mind that if a product breaks down a second time, the shop can offer to repair it again, but they cannot keep doing it forever, and if it is repeatedly shown to be faulty, the conversation will shift to getting either a refund or replacement.
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While it is good to have at least a notion of what you want when you go in to make a complaint, it is also important to be flexible and to listen to what is on offer – if there is anything on offer.
Do not rigidly adhere to your starting position – that is a bad approach to take in any negotiation, and ultimately, that is what we are talking about here.
While bad customer service and the feeling that no one is listening can be incredibly frustrating, it is important to stay calm. This is particularly important when you are caught up in a vortex of inefficiencies, and listening to an endless loop of hold music interspersed with soothing promises from the service provider that your call is important to them when you know it really isn’t.
No matter what is going on, try to be polite – the person you end up speaking to on the phone or in a shop is almost certainly the worst-paid and least empowered person in the company and shouting at them will almost certainly achieve nothing.
While you should be calm and polite, you also need to be firm. Your aim is to present yourself as a reasonable person who has been wronged and not an unreasonable one who is wrong.
Good record-keeping is essential, so take a note of what happened and when it happened. Write a quick timeline of your grievances – or at least the serious ones and include dates and times of phone calls or other conversations. Write down who you spoke to and what was said. You don’t have to be a court stenographer about it, but document what has happened even loosely.
Don’t be fobbed off by a shop assistant who says you are to blame for whatever has gone wrong. They are probably not qualified to tell you your laptop has suffered water damage because you dropped it in the sea, even if that is true. They have to send the product off to be properly assessed.
If things are going badly, ask to speak to a manager or a supervisor. There will not be one available, but there is no harm in asking. If the conversation is happening over the phone, ask for the name of the person you are speaking to – you won’t get more than a first name – but it is worth having all the same. And ask if the call is being recorded – is it worth reminding the person you are talking to that it is.
If you get a replacement product under warranty, the warranty clock is not reset to zero the moment the new product reaches you. So, if your TV breaks after 10 months and you get a new one, do not be surprised if the manufacturer tells you the new TV has a warranty of only two months.
It is also important to note that they do not – and we cannot stress this enough – supersede your statutory rights. That means that if a warranty has expired or something is not covered under the warranty, a consumer can still pursue a remedy under their statutory rights.
These are a legal guarantee allowing consumers to seek redress if an item is faulty, regardless of whether a manufacturer has offered a warranty. Under the Sale of Goods Act, consumers have up to six years to seek redress for faulty or defective items.
