My television developed a fault 10 days ago. rather than just chuck it I contacted
a repair company I got through Google. I e-mailed them and they rang.
The offered to send out an engineer for £80. I was not home... but my girlfriend was there when he arrived. He said he needed to take the TV which he did without the power lead and remote?
I rang 5 days later to find out how my TV was, I was told they could not tell me unless I paid £80.
Which I did, I was then told the TV was under test?? I was told I would hear by today as to whether the TV can be fixed.
I have now checked the company on line 'Consumonics' there are dozens of complaints about them and their scams. I feel foolish for having trusted them in the first place. I'll not pay anymore money until I recieve a fully working television which I very much doubt I ever will.
I'm usually very careful but from a generation that got things repaired. TV's are just throw away items.
Any others heard of this scam
Last edited by wildheart; 24th June 2015 at 10:42.
Sorry to hear about your TV problem, you're right I'm afraid that these days things like TVs are made to discard when they go wrong.
I tend these days with things like TVs is to get one with 5 years warranty at no extra cost then dump when it dies...........
It begs the question why you did some research about the company after the fact?! I had a similar issue last year but found a company with great feedback (gained via various forums) and end result was markedly different to your experience. Hope you manage to get it resolved.
I'm usually very thorough with research, but was probably off guard at the weekend. I'll put it down to experience, report them to Trading Standards feel a bit foolish but you can't let your guard down for a minute is this day an age.Originally Posted by ~dadam02~
Chalk it down to experience and go and buy a new telly. They definitely sound like a bunch of cowboys.
Requiring payment doesn't seem odd - if genuinely is dead customer might not pay up.
Likewise power lead and remote - they've probably got these anyway.
I would never use a call out service to fix a tv. Plenty of repair shops around. You avoid call out charges and if the tv is dead or beyond economic repair, you may be able call it quits at no further cost. You either pay the labour so far and take the tv away or leave it at the shop where they will repair it at cost and sell it for a profit. Whichever, it's a contract you agree with the shop when you give them the job.
Anyone who demands money just to let you know how the job's progressing is a scammer. Imagine a car mechanic demanding money when you ring to check on your car...simply doesn't happen does it.
Not the same at all. You will be going to get your car. If TV's dead you could walk away.
Letterbox...+ poo, then go buy new telly.
Move on and buy a TV from JL for the 5 year warranty or one from PCW with the 5 year warranty.
I bought a TV and it broke 3 days outside the warranty and I swore I would never buy another Samsung but I did because they are the best for my needs.
You haven't seen the cars I drive :o)
I did look for local repair shops first of all, none in my area. The TV was a 50 inch Plasma, being disabled moving something like this is not a possibility.
Years ago I always used the same repair shop but these days I think it best just to ditch the telly.
Believe it or not they have e-mailed me a feedback form titled 'How did we do? ' you can imagine my response!
Where is the scam?
In your OP you say the company agreed to send an engineer out with a call out charge of 80 quid.... they sent an engineer out to your home and have requested payment for the services you agreed too - what more were you expecting?
I was assuming they were asking another £80 on top of the original fee? If this was not the case then correct you are.
With this extra info i would suggest ditching the plasma. Plasmas are trouble when they get older anyway. Replace with a nice up to date LED TV from a reputable dealer like John Lewis and pay for them to fit it too.
Well for one I would expect them to tell my why they were taking my TV. Secondly I would expect them to call be with a diagnoses, which they said they would do. They have now had the TV for ten days supposedly on test. Today they put the phone down on me? The orginal contact I had with the company last week said my machine would be returned in three days?
If thats not a scam I don't no what is
Ah i was waiting for a further charge, no they have got £80 and the TV thats all they're getting. After reading all the feedback on the net I'm never likely to see a working TV they will just string me along to try and get a few quid more from me.
Sounds rather like a scam , but where is the angle ? Picking up a duff telly which may or may not be repairable seems a bit of a waste of effort as new ones seem to be cheaper by the week.
Well they certainly are not in business to build a good reputation, I reckon they get the odd person who will pay the earth to have nothing done to it, I'm just waiting for that call. The so called engineer did not even take the back off it, just looked at the screen and declared it had to be taken away.
Seen a nice Hitachi on offer I'll replace it at the weekend
What company is it?
Bad news and does sound like a scam. If you get it back in one piece there ARE reputable TV engineers out there and, contrary to general opinion, modern TVs ARE repairable as are most other electronic items. Its just a matter of finding someone who has bothered to keep up.
I don't know where you are in Essex but this company is professional, well equipped, accredited by many manufacturers and has a good reputation.
http://www.centralservice.co.uk/About_Us.htm
Last edited by london lad; 23rd June 2015 at 17:18.
In the future use Checkatrade.
Should have given me a call Paul, might have been something simple
Most things are repairable but, more often than not, it isn't economically viable unless the unit cost is an order of magnitude more than the repair bill. As with anything the material cost of the parts is relatively small but the final bill is a reflection of the labour element and the cost of running the infrastructure behind the customer front end.
I deal with the general public every day in a repair and renew business. Wherever possible I will quote the cost of the repair upfront at the survey stage. If it isn't possible to give a diagnosis there and then I will tell a customer what will happen if I send somebody out to do a diagnosis and how much that diagnosis will cost. I will also give them an indicative value as to the cost of the final repair. That way, the customer has a reasonable idea of the costs involved and can make a judgement call.
While I am not in the TV repair business I am also not in the business of ripping people off with ever fluffy cost structures. We don't pretend to be cheap but, when we quote a price we stick to that price even if it costs us more. I build the risk into the initial pricing structure.
I'm not suggesting for one moment that the OP is an example of this but I have to mention that its amazing how people hear what they want to hear: I quote for a service, the customer agrees to it (it being described in writing) and then following implementation the customers sometimes think that we were going to do something that we were clearly not and I have to draw their attention to what is stated on the quotation and, consequently, what is not. As a customer it really does pay to do your homework, buy based upon reputation and to not be afraid to ask questions and seek clarification. As a company owner, I want satisfied customers and this only happens if both parties agree carefully what they expect and deliver upon it.
I'm not sure I fully understand the post above, I work in electronics, the biggest issue with fault finding and quoting for repairs is that once you know what the fault is you've done all the work, therefor if the customer says no you don't get paid, that is why a lot of businesses where third party repair is their core activity have an up front charge.
you used a company which is based in Streatham London, to come to Essex to pick up your TV? that also has one of the worst reputations I have ever seen in the internet?
I mean there is clearly no misunderstanding as to their reputation, every post I have read is saying they are scam artists, learn from it, and put it down to experience, go to John Lewis and pick up a new TV with 5 year warranty, and if it dies after that, bin it.
is it this mob?
Consumonics Ltd
Address: Unit 8, Vale Industrial Park, 170 Rowan Rd, Streatham, London SW16 5BN
Phone:020 8764 3000
Last edited by soundood; 23rd June 2015 at 19:39.
Sadly yes
I have an electronics degree and spent the best part of 30 years in that industry.
You are right - there is a huge amount of up front diagnosis. All I am saying is that if there is a big upfront cost the service provider needs to make it clear what that cost is and what it is for. They also need to give a clear indication of what further costs could be and not simply dangle a carrot in front of a customer and extract money on an on going basis at every opportunity.
It doesn't cost money, or very much money, to explain to a customer how the customer service process works and the sort of costs that the customer is expected to pay if they follow the process. Let's take the TV as an analogy - the service provider could say that that it will cost X for somebody to collect the TV and take it back to base. That it will cost Y to run a diagnosis check on it and that it could be anything between A and B to fix the fault based upon a typical range of possibilities - power supply, display, signal processor, speaker, etc.
The customer can then decide if they want the expense. If they don't they can go to John Lewis or Curry's or a host of other retail outlets. If they want to follow the process then they should expect to pay for the process to be implemented.
Just don't leave people in the dark and keep taking their money and, if you do explain the process make sure that the customer understands the process, what it will cost them and what service offering they can expect in return and in what time frame. Too much of the world revolves around tactics of people sucking through their teeth, saying that "it will cost ya" and then never clearly explaining what that really means in monetary terms. It's just downright poor service and verges or actually is a scam.
There wasn't a free call out, the upfront cost was £80 which is what the company is asking for. No evidence from this post of on-going charges in this case.
£80 for an engineer to visit the house, and then to take a TV from Essex to London for more diagnosis assuming it wasn't something simple that could be fixed at the house sounds reasonable? (And they did it without being paid up front?)
If I understand it right, you've only so far paid the £80 which was the engineer/visit charge?
They should have asked before taking the TV back to base though.
Are they asking for more cash to do any more work on it?
I spent £240 two years ago repairing an LCD telly that cost me £500 new five years before that. With hindsight, not great value for money given the ever decreasing prices, but it's still going strong and I prefer not to chuck stuff away! They also didn't want the power cord or remote, so that seems normal to me.
I'd probably give it up as a bad job by now to be honest, but make sure you reach an agreement with them that they don't chase for any more money and they keep the TV. You don't want something on your credit file a few years down the line.
I wish I had Adrian I just did not think
I made a similar mistake about 6 or 7 years ago. They took £80 or £90 saying they had sorted it out, but same problem occured. I asked for money back but they wanted to replace the TV with a similar one. Couldn't be arsed so I just did that. Ended giving it away a few years ago.
Didn't a similar company like this feature on Watchdog a few years ago? Not suggesting they are the same but they would also turn up from distant locations, always take the tv away no mater what the fault and then attempt to extort money by holding the tv to ransom.
oh well.I wish I had Adrian I just did not think
The problem with most modern consumer electronics products is that the level of integration is very high, they use silicon (ASIC's) to mop up parts and effectively reduce complexity and cost, unless you are in that manufacturers supply chain it is impossible to obtain these, so repairers just change PCB's, provided they can get them, getting these boards can take a long time, and the repairer may not know the cost to start with, but they should keep you informed as to what is going on.
Last week I agreed to repair some product that had been in the field for some years, 156 units of a product that I had made, I knew exactly how they worked and what was in them, I still couldn't give a price up front.
Lets hope this lot aren't con artists.
Apparently screen has failed on the TV, nothing to be done than scrap it! It took them until today to tell me that
They apologised, and could not understand why the diognoses had taken so long?
Off shopping at the weekend
I suspect most men secretly hope their 5yr+ old TV develops a major fault because we all secretly want a bonafide 'Missus proof' reason to go out and upgrade.
I myself, somewhat stupidly, went all mean and took my blank screen Samsung to the recommended repairer. £80 to diagnose, £110 to repair a 'dry joint'....but I got my £80 back.
I'm justifying it by telling myself that this years £2000 TV is next years £500 one....and the old one is now back and working fine.
If only watches were the same......
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