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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To wonder where people go to look at appliances now before buying if they don’t like Curry’s

101 replies

L00byL00 · 26/10/2024 23:29

Trying to buy a big fridge freezer but there is nothing in Curry’s that we like. Just realised in our area there appears to be nowhere else where you can view stock before buying. I’ve no intention of spending a lot of money on something I haven’t looked at. So where do people shop or does everybody order appliances without looking at them these days?😳

OP posts:
Bjorkdidit · 27/10/2024 05:00

Your problem OP is that you're looking for something out of the ordinary. Most people buying a fridge freezer in the UK aren't looking for the type you are so there's not an abundance of them for you to look at because the ratio of expected sales vs space required for display is low.

We're not as discerning as you so we went to Curry's, saw there were several fridge freezers that were fine and bought one of them that was cheapest for good energy efficiency and was also available for delivery quickly. 6 months later, no regrets.

How about looking online to make a shortlist, going to Curry's to see the quality of items from the same brand and then ordering something from your shortlist.

You are entitled to return anything you've bought online if you're not happy with the physical item although for something like a fridge freezer it's likely to cost you to do that, but what's the alternative?

You'd likely have to do some research to find a specialist outlet, but you'd likely have to travel unless you're lucky enough to live near other people who have the same tastes in fridge freezers as you.

Caspianberg · 27/10/2024 05:26

Most kitchen showrooms will have a selection of fridges and ovens and dishwashers installed so you can see what they are like.

We have a fitted fridge/ freezer so it’s not on show anyway. Saw a few brands at kitchen showrooms and liked Bosch quality best. So just ordered that online, comparing models for features or sizes.

L00byL00 · 27/10/2024 06:33

TikehauLilly · 27/10/2024 01:02

John lewis / a kitchen design shop

Fisher and Paykel are very nice french door fridge freezers

Almost decided on F&P until we saw one in a kitchen show room- The freezer is rubbish. 1 drawer you could get a few bags of frozen veg in and the drawer on top is sliced in half horizontally making it pretty useless.Freezer is very low down and annoying to open but I could live with that if it functioned as a normal size family freezer. It doesn’t unless you freeze platters of items on a regular basis. No F&P stockists as far as we can see anywhere and they’re quite pricey so would definitely want to see any in that brand to check the freezer before buying. Interestingly online there are very few pictures of the freezers on F&P American fridge/ freezers. The lady in the show room commented on it and backed up what I’d noticed as we were asking her what the freezer was like on other models and she said it was really hard to know.

Some of the Samsung models have issues with being able to get the crisper out to wash due to poor design. You need a big space to swing open the bigger fridge door. Read in reviews and saw it in reality. They sell other designs but viewing them appears to be hard.

We’d like a reasonable quality but not pricey non plumbed(.but at this stage if we could see it we’d take plumbed ), equal width, well designed doors so you can remove drawers to wash and don’t need a huge amount of swing space to accommodate a wider fridge door,reasonable amount of freezer space( drawers or shelves fine but design wise needs to be on the bottom for equal doors) depth and width right as you need to leave space round it for air to circulate. 🤷‍♀️ Basically a simple but well designed and reasonable quality freezer that isn’t t style over substance and isn’t silly money that we can view to double check measurements.

Don’t want a family hub, touch screen see through doors that illuminates the shit I’ve got in my fridge, useless style over substance freezers that hold next to nothing, drink dispensers( but would suck that up if needed), crappy plastic drawers that will shatter after a few months and cost £60 a pop to replace, shoddy shit quality, a massive fridge drawer on one side that needs a lot of clearance, a fridge that can turn into a freezer but would such that up…

In curry’s, we’ve seen cracked, grinding freezer drawers, split and peeling door seals, really poor freezer space, metal brand plates repeatedly hanging off models on the same models illustrating how poor quality the product is, read rubbish reviews…. They don’t stock to view F&P, many LG models, any of the better Samsung models,Bosch etc. it’s mostly Haier, Beko, Hisense or brands we’ve never heard of or come out very poor in reviews.

When Curry's disappears( they’re struggling) I wonder what consumers will do.

So will check out kitchen show rooms and independents. Thanks so much for the tips.

OP posts:
KimberleyClark · 27/10/2024 06:38

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 26/10/2024 23:32

John Lewis (bought my DW here )

Anything else like the cooker or WM which were replaced a couple of years back were from AO . So didn't see them IRL.

Costco have display appliances but I haven't bought from there

For a moment I thought you were saying you bought your wife at John Lewis!

L00byL00 · 27/10/2024 06:39

Caspianberg · 27/10/2024 05:26

Most kitchen showrooms will have a selection of fridges and ovens and dishwashers installed so you can see what they are like.

We have a fitted fridge/ freezer so it’s not on show anyway. Saw a few brands at kitchen showrooms and liked Bosch quality best. So just ordered that online, comparing models for features or sizes.

Yes Bosch seemed to tick a lot of our boxes ( so much better design wise and reasonable quality)but unfortunately is too deep. Thankfully we did manage to view one to measure and see. Samsung and LG have some possibilities too as do F&P but viewing seems impossible although I haven’t tried kitchen showrooms yet.

OP posts:
Phonomnomnom · 27/10/2024 06:47

Elekdirect have a massive showroom north Manchester somewhere. They sell returns / damaged stuff from AO so you can grab a bargain.

coffeesaveslives · 27/10/2024 06:58

We use our local independent.

They deliver and take away old appliances for free. Last time DH went to order a new washing machine, they had delivered it and fitted it before he even got back from town!

Hateam · 27/10/2024 07:05

L00byL00 · 26/10/2024 23:49

I don’t know what has happened to Curry’s it’s awful now. Poor quality damaged stock, scruffy stores with staff who have poor stock knowledge and aren’t the slightest bit interested. They clearly have a monopoly so you’d expect better.

The vast majority people that go into Currys never buy. They simply want to look at the product before they buy it. They then they go online and find it somewhere else - that's the problem.

In effect most people use them as a free service. Thst's unsustainable.

Did you intend to buy from them?

RampantIvy · 27/10/2024 07:06

L00byL00 · 26/10/2024 23:49

I don’t know what has happened to Curry’s it’s awful now. Poor quality damaged stock, scruffy stores with staff who have poor stock knowledge and aren’t the slightest bit interested. They clearly have a monopoly so you’d expect better.

When my washing machine died mid wash a few weeks ago I needed a new one very quickly. I did a bit of research and ordered one from Curry's. Two days later it was delivered and installed and the old one taken away. They even phoned me the day before to confirm delivery.

The service was outstanding.

Our fridge freezer is from John Lewis BTW.

Bjorkdidit · 27/10/2024 07:08

I'm now wondering if the limited freezer space on American and French style fridge freezers is because, in the US at least, it's the norm to also have a chest freezer in the basement/an outbuilding? So the fridge freezer is mostly for fresh food and small amounts of frozen food?

It's interesting that you say the Bosch is too deep. When we bought our last FF a few months ago, it was to replace our aging, still functional, but a terrifying gobbler of electricity, existing version and one thing we didn't notice until the new one was delivered was that it was substantially deeper than the old one.

So perhaps that's common now, different design, more insultation means they end up being deeper? We've now got used to how much it sticks out into the kitchen.

SmileEachDay · 27/10/2024 07:08

Another vote for AO - bought a washing machine there - the fitters are brilliant and they deliver the next day.

It just took me a long time to work out that the first reply on here didn’t buy their Dear Wife at John Lewis…

WiserOlderElf · 27/10/2024 07:13

Currys is struggling because people just use it as a show room to go and look at things before then buying elsewhere.
I have bought my last fridge freezer, washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher unseen from AO.com and am happy with them all.

Bjorkdidit · 27/10/2024 07:15

Hateam · 27/10/2024 07:05

The vast majority people that go into Currys never buy. They simply want to look at the product before they buy it. They then they go online and find it somewhere else - that's the problem.

In effect most people use them as a free service. Thst's unsustainable.

Did you intend to buy from them?

We bought from Curry's after looking in the local store, but the one we chose was on display but not available for delivery from that store. We had to buy online and I assume it came from a central warehouse.

For a lot of things, it could be a sustainable model as many people want to see before they buy. If an item was available from Currys and Ao at a similar price, I'd buy from Curry's because I could see before I bought so less likely to need to return if not suitable.

Curry's could probably cut their costs by reducing stores. We have 3 'local' ones and another 5 within 10 miles or so and I assume that's typical for many areas unless quite remote. I travel widely across the country and there appears to be a Curry's on just about every retail park for example.

RedRobyn2021 · 27/10/2024 07:16

We just got our new fridge freezer from AO lots of good reviews and it is a good fridge freezer

What are you afraid will happen?

You can't test out the appliance in the shop anyway...

TheDowagerCountessofPembroke · 27/10/2024 07:52

L00byL00 · 26/10/2024 23:42

Need to see and measure exact size, door sweep of opening, quality( so glad we saw some of the crappy quality ones as we’d have been so pissed off after ordering),unbelievably some of the French style ones don’t show pictures of the freezer online…

What is a French style fridge freezer?

SmileEachDay · 27/10/2024 07:52

TheDowagerCountessofPembroke · 27/10/2024 07:52

What is a French style fridge freezer?

Full of cheese, wine and very nice butter?

L00byL00 · 27/10/2024 07:55

SmileEachDay · 27/10/2024 07:52

Full of cheese, wine and very nice butter?

Sadly not.

French-door fridge freezers, situate the freezer compartment directly below or above the main fridge compartment. Both of the parting doors open up to reveal an incredibly wide fridge compartment. Above or below these parting doors is a single-door freezer compartment that usually features a number of drawers.

OP posts:
MrsKwazi · 27/10/2024 07:56

AO
John Lewis to view

When I last needed a dishwasher I went to AO for a comparison, then called the local euronics, who called the rep to match the model (some model numbers are made for certain retailers). They not only matched the AO price but advised me that a new model would be out in a matter of weeks if I could hang on, gave it to me at the same price and came to install the day it was delivered! The installation guy gave me a lesson on how to use it too 😆’twas needed!

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 27/10/2024 08:01

Online John Lewis.
Nowadays I’d probably check AO, too.

Tereseta · 27/10/2024 08:02

Hotpoint Factory Outlet
0191 415 7765

https://g.co/kgs/9bYkGF3
My friend who lives in the ne used this place, loads on show. Also suggest IKEA for domestic appliances .

Hotpoint Factory Outlet Gateshead - Google Search

https://g.co/kgs/9bYkGF3

TheDowagerCountessofPembroke · 27/10/2024 08:07

L00byL00 · 27/10/2024 07:55

Sadly not.

French-door fridge freezers, situate the freezer compartment directly below or above the main fridge compartment. Both of the parting doors open up to reveal an incredibly wide fridge compartment. Above or below these parting doors is a single-door freezer compartment that usually features a number of drawers.

The ones with side by side doors on the top and then freezer drawers that open directly underneath? I see. Thank you.

One thing I would mention is that whenever I’ve looked at white goods in showrooms they have always been cracked/scratched/falling apart. I think it’s because of the sheer number of people coming along and fiddling with them.

Heartbreaktuna · 27/10/2024 08:17

We bought a fridge freezer recently online and I could not find a single one with freezer shelves/doors. They all have tiny drawers.

HeddaGarbled · 27/10/2024 08:36

I'm surprised there are so few shops where you can examine the stock available to you

Because there’s no profit in paying rent and rates and energy bills and staffing for a shop people use to just view products which they then buy cheaper online.

WillowTit · 27/10/2024 08:45

also AO
or local appliance shop = which turns out to be a branch of Euronics
or Boots, for points

WillowTit · 27/10/2024 08:52

KimberleyClark · 27/10/2024 06:38

For a moment I thought you were saying you bought your wife at John Lewis!

i was thinking it was some sort of place where you met potential wives