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Saturday 26 April 2014

Our bad experience with AO.com (Appliances Online)..

We purchased the kitchen extractor from http://ao.com/ (Appliances Online).

This was our first time ordering from this online company and although they advertise great service & delivery  'Brilliant every click of the way' unfortunately our experience did not live up to the hype.

Quote from AO.com website:


Brilliant every
click of the way

From the moment you first visit us and for as long as we're in touch, we'll make sure your experience is as good as it gets. We'll always give you the info, tools and user reviews that explain why people come back


We took delivery of 5 extractors!! Each extractor was either damaged / delivered unprotected in the carton or on one occasion the incorrect product arrived.

The first extractor was delivered in a damaged box & missing part of its protective packaging, exposing marks and scratches on the stainless steel.

See photos below:








After calling customer services to inform them that we had received a damaged product, they arranged a replacement extractor to be sent out immediately.

The 2nd delivery arrived, but the replacement arrived only to find it was the incorrect product.

After another phone call to customer services, they scheduled a 3rd delivery to deliver the replacement extractor.

Again the 3rd extractor delivered was damaged, broken polystyrene in the box, plastic protective coating peeled away from the product exposing badly marked stainless steel.

Yet again another phone call to customer services.

This time I insisted on speaking to a manager, he apologised profusely, promised the 4th extractor to be delivered would be checked in the warehouse.

He assured me this time it would be perfect, he would monitor it himself & check there was no problems.

So I waited on yet another Saturday morning for the 4th extractor to arrive in perfect condition.

Unfortunately upon opening the box, there was disappointment.

AGAIN the protective plastic film to protect the stainless steel was removed and the stainless steel was badly scratched & marked!!

Here are some more photos to show the state of the box it arrived in & damage to the product:




Protective coating has been pulled away
& the stainless steel is badly marked & scratched



I called the manager immediately to advise that the product was damaged.

His response was that all they could now do was to issue me with a refund!?

Considering I had designed my entire kitchen around this extractor this was not an option!!

I insisted that someone take responsibility for this order and follow it through from start to finish and actually do what they said they would and open the box & check the product in the warehouse before sending.

Such a simple request & something I would've thought to be standard!!

I was promised again that this would be done!!

Therefore I waited for my 5th delivery to arrive.

The delivery guys arrived, before they even brought the box up to my front door, I opened the box to check all was ok.

To my utter frustration & extreme disappointment, another DAMAGED extractor was sitting on my doorstep!!

Seriously this was now beyond a joke, I had wasted so much, time, money & energy on phone calls, waiting for deliveries and the extractor was now delaying my builders finishing our kitchen!!

Knowing that http://ao.com/ was clearly unable to control this situation I decided to purchase the product as 'graded' item at a reduced price.

I had to settle for a damaged item, I was left with no other choice as our builders couldn't be delayed any longer.

Unfortunately our experience with AO.com was NOT...

'Brilliant in every click of the way'!!

This was our very first purchase with http://ao.com/ & unfortunately I think it will be our last, we'll be heading to their competitors for all future purchases.

#johnlewis #currys