7 August 2016

Ask RiotACT: How long to wait for kitchen repairs before complaining?

20 July 2016 | Spiral

We have problems with a kitchen that was installed late last year.

We have contacted the installer about the problems and they have promised to attend to them.

However they claim they are really busy doing new work elsewhere and as we are on their maintenance list they will get to us when they have time.

It has nearly been 2 months since we reported the problems to them and they still have not provided any real indication of when they will get to us. We have been contacting them about every 2 weeks to ensure we don’t get forgotten (sometimes they have had difficulty finding our details when we have contacted them).

How long do people think we should reasonably wait before we start to complain loudly and to other people (such as fair trading, social media etc)?

Thanks.

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Arthur McKenzie1:00 pm 22 Aug 16

If you have a contract of some sort and the job is paid for I think you are being more than generous. A reasonable time to investigate and rectify a fault would be about 5 working days tops. I would send them a letter or email immediately and at the same time approach consumer affairs. These sort of people are notorious at pushing people around and the only way to treat them is with plenty of backup. Fair Trading is best to get advice from, social media is not a good move in the first instance because these creeps will use it to justify their wonderful attempts to FT.

ungruntled3:44 pm 24 Jul 16

wildturkeycanoe said :

Thanks,

We do have all our calls and emails documented (I got in that habit while building our house as our builder put us through hell and we needed a good record of things to help lodge formal complaints).

We were just wondering how long we should wait before escalating. To us, two months (which will be this Sunday) without giving us a real idea of when they would get to us seems excessive, so I will contact them on Monday and follow your suggestion.

Yes, contact them on monday. Be quite firm about stating what your problem is, what you want done about it & in what timeframe. Remembe that definite & firm is not the same as aggressive, no matter how you may be feeling.
Be sure that whatever you say is put in writing & give them a copy of what you have. That way, if there is any misunderstanding about what you are saying or what it is you are hearing them saying, it will come to light quickly.
Best of luck.

Spiral6:41 pm 20 Jul 16

Thanks,

We do have all our calls and emails documented (I got in that habit while building our house as our builder put us through hell and we needed a good record of things to help lodge formal complaints).

We were just wondering how long we should wait before escalating. To us, two months (which will be this Sunday) without giving us a real idea of when they would get to us seems excessive, so I will contact them on Monday and follow your suggestion.

lobster11:49 am 20 Jul 16

Make sure you have all the times you contacted them documented.
Call up and tell them you have contacted them on this many times so far and you have not had any result.
Speak to manager. Advise them they have a week to respond or you will take it to [whatever ombudsman/small claims etc.]

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