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!

I received my order from DIYTools.com.au today, not too bad time wise, it took 3 days from the date of order for the items to be sent to me (via normal post) from Melbourne.

I got some O-Rings for a filter for one of my fishtanks (more info) and a cordless screwdriver with around 100 different bits.  The O-Ring kit is great and had the O-Ring I needed; the screwdriver looks like it’s pretty good for the $31.50 price tag.

About 2 weeks ago I purchased some flavours and gas for my SodaStream machine via the SodaStream web site.  I was starting to wonder where the products were and so I logged into the web site to check the status of the order; it was still documented as “New Order”.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I ended up calling SodaStream yesterday to ask what was happening with my order.  Rather than an apology for it taking so long I was told “oh, that should be at the warehouse by now”.  I was like WTF?!? TWO WEEKS for the order to get from their web site to the warehouse, are they sending it via carrier pidgeons.  I expressed my dissatisfaction with their service and suggested it would be good customer relations to put a note on the web site to say that there will be delays, I was just told that they had recently moved and that my order will be sent next week sometime.

Anyway, in summary, SodaStream has no comprehension of customer service.  To date I have sent them 2 emails (neither of which they have responded to) and I placed an order which they charged my credit card for instantly, but they have not yet filled the order.

As a side note, no changes have been made to their web site to inform customers or potential customers of the unacceptably long delays.

I purchased two spare gas cylinders and 6 flavours from the SodaStream web site yesterday.

I got 2 of each of the following flavours:

• Lemonade (for use in Lemon, Lime and Bitters)
• Cream Soda
• XStream (energy drink)

I didn’t win any of the tenders I placed.  I’ll have to try again next time.

I popped past the Tender Centre this morning to see what they had.  I ended up placing the following bids:

• RJays motorcycle jacket $20.00
• 3ft aquarium with black stand $30.00
• 2.5ft aquarium with accessories $15.00
• Small fridge (desktop size) $10.00

Hopefully I’ll get the aquariums and the bike jacket.  The fridge would be cool, but completly unnecessary.

I logged onto the SodaStream website today to order some more flavours and some gas cylinders, but it appears as though the gas cylinders aren’t available.  I’ve emailed them to see if I can just buy a refill and not return the cylinders as their site has this functionality built-in.