Thank you for the contact details. Our 18-month-old integrated Hotpoint fridge freezer broke at the weekend (all the food spoiled, costing God knows how much, but I don't to claim it on insurance as the premium would probably negate the effort), but, as we bought it from John Lewis, I knew we were still covered by their standard 2-year warranty.
However, both John Lewis and Hotpoint have both been giving us the runaround, passing the buck back and forth. Apparently, the soonest Hotpoint can send an engineer to a London zone 2 address is three weeks from now - we don't live halfway up the Himalayas! What are we expected to do without a fridge for three weeks? A TV or even, at a push, an oven or a washing machine you can cope without for a while, but not a fridge.
Am furious, and have posted on both their facebook pages and emailed the CEOs of both companies. John Lewis makes me the most angry, however - our contract is with them, not Hotpoint, so I don't see why we should be the ones ringing around. The fridge shouldn't break so soon anyway, but, if it does, I should be able to make one call (to JL), speak to one person, and have an engineer come out within 48 hours. If Hotpoint are rubbish, that's John Lewis's problem, as they're the client, not us, and, like most people, we buy products from JL because we feel that, if they stock it, it's of a certain quality and the extended warranty gives that extra assurance. Load of rubbish, clearly. Was also horrified to learn that JL customer services has been farmed out to Capita. No point calling the number, frankly - you're best off going into the store where you bought it again. However, when we did this, the woman we spoke to in the 'After Sales' department put a call through to Hotpoint and went through the same rigamarole all over again and they hung up on her! Couldn't believe it. I'm guessing JL is quite a significant customer and sells a lot of Hotpoint products.