{"id":221588,"date":"2025-12-08T09:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T09:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/221588\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T09:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T09:25:09","slug":"new-mother-repeatedly-let-down-by-currys-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/221588\/","title":{"rendered":"New mother repeatedly let down by Currys \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last April a couple expecting a new baby bought themselves a duel fuel range cooker in Currys<\/a> and were hopeful it would serve them well for years as their family grew.<\/p>\n

That, however, is not what happened. Instead the appliance caused them what must have seemed at times like an endless stream of disappointments<\/a>, culminating in a letter to Pricewatch<\/a> in which they said they had \u201cnever been ignored and mistreated to this degree\u201d.<\/p>\n

When Emma bought the cooker, the folk in Currys said they could not install a gas appliance and she accepted that. Instead she paid a gas installer and an electrician to do the necessary after the range was delivered<\/a> on April 19th.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe instructions said to turn on the oven and run it for up to 30 minutes until the \u2018new oven smell\u2019 disappeared,\u201d Emma writes. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was pregnant and my husband did not want to have this smell in the house while I was pregnant,\u201d she continues. She gave birth just 10 days later and it was after April 29th when her husband had the opportunity to run the oven as instructed while Emma and her newborn baby were out of the house. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband ran the appliance as instructed for 30 minutes with all windows open for ventilation but the smell did not decrease,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Over several months he ran the appliance on around eight separate occasions from 30 minutes to three hours at a time with all windows open for ventilation. \u201cBut the smell did not decrease and in fact increased to the point he had to stop trying to run it as the smell was overpowering.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took him this period of time since purchase to keep trying as he had to choose times when I and the baby were out of the house as the smell was so strong and we did not want to expose our baby to it, and it is difficult to leave the house for long periods like this with a new baby,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n

By the end of September it seemed as if the smell would not go away so Emma called Currys \u201cto report the issue and ask them why the smell was not going away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe faulty appliance from Currys never got rid of its \u2018new oven smell\u2019 <\/p>\n

She explained how much they had tried to follow the instructions but said \u201cthe smell was persisting and getting worse. I explained the urgency of the situation as it is coming into winter, we have a new baby, and we need a working oven.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was told an engineer would call out on Monday, October 6th, a week after that call was made.<\/p>\n

On October 2nd she got a call \u201cfrom a person who said they were part of an engineering company on behalf of Currys to say it would be Tuesday, October 7th, before an engineer would come out to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The call came and the engineer examined the oven. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe told us there was a number of possible issues with the oven but he wasn\u2019t sure which it was, but he could see there were possible faults including an issue with the fan which could mean a smell and the oven not working properly. He said we would get an update following his assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n

A further nine days passed with no update so Emma called the engineer directly. \u201cHe said I should have heard from Currys and to text him a reminder of the details and he would follow up with Currys. I did this and I heard nothing back after this from the engineer or Currys.\u201d <\/p>\n

A couple of days later she got in touch with Currys again and gave them the details of past contacts and the engineer\u2019s visit. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Is Currys in line for the worst customer care story of 2025?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She said that despite the passing of almost three weeks no one had contacted her or given her any update. <\/p>\n

\u201cI explained how I have a small baby and no way to cook food in an oven since I bought it in April. The agent I spoke with said it was in my notes that the oven is faulty and cannot be used and the part needed to fix it is out of circulation and did I want a refund or repair. I explained that this was the first I had heard of any of this and asked why was it in my notes but never communicated to me,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe agent did not know so passed me on to another agent. This agent also did not know why. I said I did not want it replaced because Currys say they cannot install a gas appliance and I also cannot afford to pay for a gas and an electrical installer again for a second time. The agent said I could have a refund processed instead and he would process it that day as I explained I cannot afford to buy a new oven until I have a refund. The agent confirmed he was processing my refund that day after the call.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was given a case number for the collection team.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe couple requested a registered gas installer to safely uninstall the cooker <\/p>\n

\u201cI asked if the collection team will safely uninstall the gas appliance using a gas professional and he said he believed so but was not sure and the collection team could confirm that. I explained how important it was to be sure that the gas could be safely uninstalled as I have a baby in the house. He told me the collections team would call me in up to 72 hours to confirm all of this and a date to remove the faulty appliance. He confirmed in the meantime my refund would be processed immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost two weeks passed and Emma received no call from the collections team and no refund. In fact she had received no contact at all from Currys to collect, to refund or to answer any of her questions including reassurance that the hob and gas part of the appliance would be safe to use while she waited for the faulty product to be taken away. <\/p>\n

So she had to call Currys again \u201cwith great difficulty as I am trying to mind a six-month-old baby while making these calls which take essentially hours to progress while being transferred and on hold and having to repeat the story and my details on every call.\u201d <\/p>\n

On the call, the representative she was speaking to said he had no notes on the issue although he was able to confirm that no collection has been logged and no refund processed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked to speak with a manager and he said he could not do that but would log my request. I asked to speak with the refund team and he said he could not do that but would log my request. I asked to speak with the collections team and he said he could not do that but would log my request.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she asked for an email address to follow up on she was told there was none available. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe agent offered to lodge a complaint with the complaint team for me and I confirmed I would like him to do this. He said I would receive a call from the complaints team and he said I would receive a call from the collections and refund team and he said I would receive a call from a manager.\u201d <\/p>\n

He also confirmed a registered gas installer would be part of the collections team to safely uninstall the gas.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Where in the world is the freezer a school bought from Currys?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Three days later and she still had received \u201cno call from anyone in Currys \u2013 no collections team, no refund team, no manager, no complaints team, nobody. I have never been ignored and mistreated to this degree by a service provider. Currys sold me a faulty appliance and will not collect it or refund me for it. The only reason I even know it is faulty is because I called them. After an engineer\u2019s visit nobody got back to me to confirm it was faulty. I could still be running this faulty appliance or cooking with it with unknown risks. I cannot afford to buy a new oven until this is refunded and they have not refunded me despite promising to do so. The faulty appliance remains sitting here and I am out of options.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is at this point that she contacted us and we contacted Currys. <\/p>\n

After we did Emma was given her full refund and the appliance was collected while Currys agreed to cover the cost of a gas engineer and offered her a voucher as a gesture of goodwill. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe sincerely apologise to the customer for the distress and inconvenience caused,\u201d a spokesman said. \u201cA full refund has been issued and received, and we have offered her and her young family a gesture of goodwill. Our customer service teams pride themselves on providing a high standard of care and support, but on this occasion, we fell short of the service we expect to deliver. We are reviewing this case internally to ensure lessons are learned and to prevent a recurrence.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last April a couple expecting a new baby bought themselves a duel fuel range cooker in Currys and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,2190,119531,18,19,17,6641,3439],"class_list":{"0":"post-221588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cost-of-living","10":"tag-currys","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-pricewatch","15":"tag-retail"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}