In February 2008 I purchased a Daewoo Electronics Fridge from Chandlers in Lismore.

The fridge has run well for 1 year, but it is now making some nasty noises; noises that Daewoo has said could be due to a faulty part in the fridge.  As the fridge is only 1 year old it is still under warranty (it comes with a 2 year warranty and I paid the extra for the 5 year extended warranty).

I called Castel Electronics (the Australian distributor and warranty provider) and logged the fault.  After a couple of days they called me back and said they have no-one who services my area and they have been unable to find anyone who can assist.  They then told me there would be a $55 call-out fee for a service agent from Lismore to attend my house to investigate the fault.

I decided that this sounded like a rip-off and tried calling a local fridge repair company (I looked it up in the yellow pages).  They recommended I call a person in Casino who is often in the area.

I contacted Russell Kennedy (from Kennedy’s Appliance Repairs) and he told me he is an authorised service agent for Daewoo, he also told me that he is in my area twice a week and that there is no call out fee.

Since then I have tried contacting Castel Electronics twice.  The first time the person I needed to talk to was unavailable so I left a message for him to call me back.  I missed the call at 18:15 whilst I was riding my motorbike home in the rain.  I then called again today and was told he was once again unavailable.  I wonder when I will get a call back this time!

Basically I think it is showing poor customer service for this company to have been unable to locate a local repairer (when I was able to do so with just 2 phone calls and no more than 15 minutes of my time).  Additionally, having only one staff member who is able to handle my warranty situation is also poor and reflects badly on Castel Electronics.

I don’t think I will buy another Daewoo product again!

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