The kitchen
Well, today has been one of those days. We were to take delivery of three kitchen appliances, which had been ordered (by us) on June 18th, paid for IN FULL on July 18th, and then apparently only ordered by Kleenmaid on July 22nd. It seems that was when they discovered that the cooktop we asked for, and PAID for, wasn't available. Not one in this whole wide brown country at all.
We were informed this morning, around 7am, that the delivery of two items would be between 9am and 11am.
"Two items????? We ordered three....."
"Sorry, no mention of any cooktop, only fridge and rangehood, nothing to do with me"
Needless to say at that time there was no contacting Kleenmaid to find out where they had stuffed up the order. When we were finally able to talk to someone, all we were told was that the cooktop wasn't available, and should be arriving in Sydney around August 12th.
"Why didn't someone bother to call us before this so that we could change OUR plans?"
It seems that didn't happen because they didn't want us to know that they run their business on the cashflow from orders that aren't even on their books yet!!
We had closed down our business for a week, so that we could get the kitchen in a state of some sort of useability, organised an electrician to come and connect rangehood and cooktop (you know how hard it is to find an electrician????) and ripped out our old kitchen in preparation for the cupboards and counter-tops, cooktop, rangehood and fridge.
I should point out that I've already been without a cooktop for 3 weeks, because it's also difficult to get plumbers, and three weeks ago we were able to snag one to come and set up the water for the fridge. That meant removing the gas cooktop, and using the pipe from the gas line for water. I figured I could deal with that if I could have the new cooktop installed pretty soon after it was delivered, around August 2nd!!!
My husband was told the bad news around 9am, that the cooktop wouldn't be available, so apart from stewing about it, he went on with preparing everything else, plus by this time the delivery guy was there with the fridge and rangehood. I took myself off and worked up a head of steam, then called Kleenmaid to see if I could get some answers. Even suggested that they should rip out their display cooktop so that we could use it until ours arrived, since they were the cause of all this angst. ******* said she would get back to me...........
Less than an hour later, she called back to say that there was nothing she could do, we would just have to sit it out for the next two and a half weeks, until the new stock arrived in this city.
She also gave me a number for customer complaints, which was a generous move, since I can't find anywhere online to get to customer service or complaint contact.
Buyer beware, Kleenmaid appears to make a point of getting money up front, before delivery, and there is NO refund or credit allowed on items bought from them. That's according to the receipts I have, which has room for signatures, but weren't offered as items to be read or signed on the day. Then they apparently don't even see if the item is available until AFTER you have paid in full. Stock control must be a nightmare for a company that works with a system like this.
After stewing about it all morning, we came to the realisation that we were obviously stuck between a rock and hard place, and that we might as well just get on with the rest of the kitchen. Hubby went ahead and started to install the cupboard skeletons he'd built, in preparation for the counter tops we had ordered. At around 2pm we received a call from the countertop delivery person to say that he was nearby, and would be arriving within 20 minutes.
Hubby had the audacity to say "Well at least something is going right today."
Famous last words............................
The counter tops we ordered were 2 x 600 wide and 2 m long, and 1 x 660 wide and 1200 long, (for the mythical cooktop).
*sigh*
When he opened up the package, the 2m long pieces were 660 wide, and the 1200 long piece was only 600 wide!!! Lucky we didn't have a frickin cooktop to put in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Late breaking news:
Kleenmaid has offered to pay the electrician's bill when he has to come back to install the cooktop.............
We were informed this morning, around 7am, that the delivery of two items would be between 9am and 11am.
"Two items????? We ordered three....."
"Sorry, no mention of any cooktop, only fridge and rangehood, nothing to do with me"
Needless to say at that time there was no contacting Kleenmaid to find out where they had stuffed up the order. When we were finally able to talk to someone, all we were told was that the cooktop wasn't available, and should be arriving in Sydney around August 12th.
"Why didn't someone bother to call us before this so that we could change OUR plans?"
It seems that didn't happen because they didn't want us to know that they run their business on the cashflow from orders that aren't even on their books yet!!
We had closed down our business for a week, so that we could get the kitchen in a state of some sort of useability, organised an electrician to come and connect rangehood and cooktop (you know how hard it is to find an electrician????) and ripped out our old kitchen in preparation for the cupboards and counter-tops, cooktop, rangehood and fridge.
I should point out that I've already been without a cooktop for 3 weeks, because it's also difficult to get plumbers, and three weeks ago we were able to snag one to come and set up the water for the fridge. That meant removing the gas cooktop, and using the pipe from the gas line for water. I figured I could deal with that if I could have the new cooktop installed pretty soon after it was delivered, around August 2nd!!!
My husband was told the bad news around 9am, that the cooktop wouldn't be available, so apart from stewing about it, he went on with preparing everything else, plus by this time the delivery guy was there with the fridge and rangehood. I took myself off and worked up a head of steam, then called Kleenmaid to see if I could get some answers. Even suggested that they should rip out their display cooktop so that we could use it until ours arrived, since they were the cause of all this angst. ******* said she would get back to me...........
Less than an hour later, she called back to say that there was nothing she could do, we would just have to sit it out for the next two and a half weeks, until the new stock arrived in this city.
She also gave me a number for customer complaints, which was a generous move, since I can't find anywhere online to get to customer service or complaint contact.
Buyer beware, Kleenmaid appears to make a point of getting money up front, before delivery, and there is NO refund or credit allowed on items bought from them. That's according to the receipts I have, which has room for signatures, but weren't offered as items to be read or signed on the day. Then they apparently don't even see if the item is available until AFTER you have paid in full. Stock control must be a nightmare for a company that works with a system like this.
After stewing about it all morning, we came to the realisation that we were obviously stuck between a rock and hard place, and that we might as well just get on with the rest of the kitchen. Hubby went ahead and started to install the cupboard skeletons he'd built, in preparation for the counter tops we had ordered. At around 2pm we received a call from the countertop delivery person to say that he was nearby, and would be arriving within 20 minutes.
Hubby had the audacity to say "Well at least something is going right today."
Famous last words............................
The counter tops we ordered were 2 x 600 wide and 2 m long, and 1 x 660 wide and 1200 long, (for the mythical cooktop).
*sigh*
When he opened up the package, the 2m long pieces were 660 wide, and the 1200 long piece was only 600 wide!!! Lucky we didn't have a frickin cooktop to put in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Late breaking news:
Kleenmaid has offered to pay the electrician's bill when he has to come back to install the cooktop.............
posted by Mel Brackstone at 3:09 PM
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