Consuming Interest
All-in-All
By LESLIE ADRIAN The idea is that the MAA, with the help of the Institution of Automobile Assessors and the Institute of Arbitrators, will settle disputes be- tween registered garages and dissatisfied cus- tomers. Member garages will pay £7 7s. a year, and in return, 1 hope, will get more and better business. All such schemes help to stamp on the petty, dishonest operator. It is a pity, though, that the Association is not going to publish a list of registered service stations. This would be a great help to the driver in distress.
A leading electrical appliance manufacturer told me in very blunt language last week just what he thought of dealers. He was thinking particularly of that not uncommon breed that is interested only in moving the goods. After the sale they just don't want to know about any- thing that goes wrong. 'Write to the makers,' they cry. 'Write to CAC, your MP,' and so forth.
Take this example. A reader tells me that last January she bought a Flatley clothes drier (Flatley have now gone into liquidation, by the way) for cash and asked for a 210-volt model which was not in stock. Between January 30 and February 24 she rang the dealer six times. The first time they had lost her address (it had been on the back of the cheque); on another two occasions they fobbed her off with promises; the fourth time the manager was out and no one else could cope; then another promise; then they got clever and told her they had put the 210-volt model in the window. Finally, they delivered the standard 220-volt model. She still had this 220-volt machine when she wrote to us, and her letter of complaint to head office had not been answered. The dealer in question has not gone into liquidation, but he deserves to.
Another reader had a Morphy-Richards toaster that went wonky. Her dealer did try the local wholesaler, but in vain, for a spare part. She then wrote direct to head office in St. Mary Cray, twice, but received no reply, not even a printed acknowledgment such as HM Civil Ser- vice are wont to issue as defence in depth.
When the Motor Agents' Association Fidelity Scheme gets up steam, the ignorant motorist may get a fairer deal. But let's hope that the business that ensues will be better handled than that experienced at a Kensington car-hire firm by a reader who ordered a Renault for a week. When he called to collect they were not ready for him, but raked around and found a car, but the wipers would not work. The customer refused to take it. They brought another, but the front door was jammed. Our correspondent went for lunch. When he returned they had another car ready. It had a flat battery and would not start. The fourth had a loose front passenger seat, but when this had been fixed he took the car—five hours late. On the Al it blew a gasket, and he and his wife had to journey on by train, having hitched a ride in a lorry. He rang the car-hire firm, and spoke to a telephone answering service. When he later presented the repair bill they refused to meet it, on the grounds that the customer had no per- mission to have the repair done, that they had not received the phone message, they they did not believe the repair had been done (where was the faulty gasket now, etc.?), and last, the bill was too much for that particular job, anyway. Two letters from the customer's solicitor are still unanswered at the time of writing.
Retailers can be just as bad about their own shortcomings. One large London store, specialis- ing in woollen and worsted wear, first forgot to bill a reader for goods bought over a period of six months, then billed for all that and for several items he had already paid for. He pointed this out in an unacknowledged letter to the firm's chief accountant, enclosing a cheque for the out- standing sum. Then the firm sent him a receipt for the earlier amount and a new bill for the amount that he had just paid. He wrote to the managing director as a gesture. Waste of time; he has never had a reply.
Another reader found herself up against the same resolute silence with the Reader's Digest Association, who billed her for a sum said to be outstanding against the purchase on 'easy payments' of a set of twelve discs of light classical music. She was not in arrears and said so in a letter. No answer. She thereupon discon- tinued payment, and wrote saying that she would not resume until she had had an explanation of the discourtesy. Still no answer. Her husband writes to me (we do acknowledge, albeit some- what tardily at times): 'What happens to letters of complaint when they arrive at 10 Old Bailey? And how .does one argue with, or even address, an organisation which simply ignores one's letters?' A very good question. Has anyone a very good answer?
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