New here - need help please!!

[Johniboi]

Hi Robbo. No i won't be trying my receiver at his house. I will just wait until Tuesday.

It's nuts isn't it? Obviously there is a rational explanation, whatever it is, that only needs to be discovered. I only hope the sat guy can tell me what it is. I hope i don't end up looking completely stupid because i have missed something so obvious that none of us even thought of it, but even that is better than never finding out what it is.

Anyway. Watch this space. John.

[Johniboi]

Ok boys - this is it. I have now replaced the receiver and the LNB, with still no improvement, so the satellite guy came around today. He put his meter on and showed me that the signal was wrong, checked other stuff out like the dish alignment and diagnosed a faulty LNB. He fitted a new LNB, we did a scan and it all worked. Fantastic!

So i did everything right, the dish was spot on, both LNBs were faulty, i have wasted an inordinate length of time, effort, nerves and extra money on diesel and masonry fixings and it just cost me £80 cash with the satellite man. It is a good thing the kit was on offer at £100 of since it has cost me that much extra in money terms alone. So not much saving there!

I rang Maplins and spoke to some oik who said they could refund the cost of the LNB but that they wouldn't consider any other compensation.

I intend writing to someone higher up the tree. Thanks again for all your help, but where do you think this leaves me with Maplins? I am of course delighted with what i have got now but i am somewhat miffed otherwise.

Cheers, John.

[robbo71]

Good news that it is finally sorted.

Yes, all they are obliged to do is provide a refund for the faulty item.

It doesn't bode well for Maplin though does it.
'Maplin sells faulty LNBs'

Having one faulty is unlucky, but having the second one faulty as well is REALLY unlucky.

Maybe Maplin had a faulty batch, we know what to suggest when someone else has a similar problem with a Maplin kit.

[kerrywez]

Hi John very happy to hear that you got it sorted, but what a bummer, two faulty LNBs, as robbo says it is bad luck getting one, but two smells of a bad batch to me.

As they say, alls well that ends well, but that is not much good in this case, as you are out the cost of getting the installer out, and no chance of getting anything from Maplins.

If you do write to Maplins I would suggest that you send them all the posts from this thread and let them see that you are not at fault. I should think that it would not be in the interests of Maplins to be seen to be anything other than conciliatory in this case, as the bad publicity from this would cause would be worse that the cost of offering you some recompense. If it were to get about that Maplins were not going to be a reasonable retailer then I should think that it will be less than advantageous to their image. I for one would not like to be in your situation and will not be taking that chance that I might be, by buying anything from Maplins, unless they offer to recompense you.

Very best regards Wez

[Johniboi]

Hi guys, and thanks for your comments. I shall be writing to Maplins to see what, if anything they are entitled to offer me in recompense. I think they should at least make some sort of offer of credit to spend with them or something like that. Like you say, Wez, the alternative could be an unspecified amount of future lost business from me and from guys like you through negative publicity. I am always buying stuff from Maplins. This affair has emptied my wallet of a total of £100 in cash which i cannot afford to lose at the moment, purely though the supply of goods which are not fit for the purpose for which they were sold.

I have nothing against Maplins and i know what has happened is not their fault but if Fortec have supplied a faulty batch of LNB's then that is an issue which needs addressing, or how many other people will be going through what i have? I get the feeling that if i took that LNB back to the shop then i would just get my few quid back and no further investigation would be made into the matter - i.e. warning bells would not ring and they would just keep selling the things.

Cheers, John.

[kerrywez]

You are, of course right, in your belief that the matter would get swept under the carpet if all you did was to get the refund for the LNB. Besides that there is the matter of you being out of pocket due to no fault of your own. If, as I suspect, they have had more returns of these LNBs they are not going to say it in public, but we know what the situation is in your case. I would recommend that you seek recompense for your having to get the installer out, as I have said through no fault of your own. These are just my thoughts on the subject and do not reflect the forums.

Very best regards Wez

[Johniboi]

I quite agree with you Wez. I am going to compose on of my "special" letters! I am quite good at those when i want to be. It will have wait a few days for me to get my thoughts together since i have other, more pressing, problems to sort out at the mo.

Will keep you informed. Cheers, John.

[Johniboi]

Hi guys,

I have received a reply from Maplin to my email about the faulty kit that caused me all the trouble. I had explained the whole story, complete with scans of receipts and the link to this forum thread.

I have just answered their reply and both are pasted below for your delight.

Cheers, John.

Maplin Electronics wrote:

Dear Mr Howard,

Thank you for your e-mail,

Firstly I would like to apologise for the problems you have occurred while installing this item, and the faulty items that you have received from us. If you would like to take the faulty LNB's to your local Maplin store we would be able to offer you a refund for those items.

Unfortunately on this occasion we would not offer any compensation for the charges you received from Kent Aerials.Our policy is that if an item is faulty we would require you to return that to us for a replacement or a refund. We do not refund customers for charges they have received from another company, as you decided to do this as this was the best option for you personally at the time.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused,

Kind Regards

Ben Sellars

Customer Care Department

Maplin Electronics Ltd

Dear Mr Sellars.

Just how would you suggest that i should identify that a component was faulty? Having purchased the faulty satellite kit from you i was lumbered with the job of trying to find out what was wrong with it. The only means i had of doing this without further expense was through a process of elimination, by substituting suspect components one a time. I replaced the receiver with a new one but this did not cure the problem. Then i replaced the LNB with a new one, thinking that the only remaining possibility was that the original LNB was faulty. This still did not cure the problem and so then, and only then (and also since Maplin could offer me no further advice on the matter), did i feel the only real option left to me was to seek professional help.

I trust you will understand from the above, i did indeed take the steps outlined in your reply that "if an item is faulty we would require you to return that to us for a replacement". I actually did this, replacing both the receiver and LNB with new ones and i therefore i consider that i acted correctly as per your advice and took every reasonable step to remedy the situation. The only other option left was to return the whole kit for a refund which would have meant my having invested an awful lot of time and effort for nothing and would also have defeated the entire purpose of the exercise, which was to have a working HD satellite system. Obviously there would have been no point in this from my point of view.

The fact is that, having taken every correct course of action i was then supplied with a second faulty LNB by yourselves. I am very disappointed with your intransigence in respect of your company policy. I would have imagined that there was room for some measure of intelligent interpretation where individual cases are concerned in order to avoid the alienation of hitherto loyal and valuable customers. I would not have expected full compensation for the £100 of expense which the supply of goods "not fit for purpose" involved me in, but i would have thought that some gesture which met me part way would have made good financial sense from your point of view and would have made all the difference to my opinion of Maplin as a reputable company. In the absence of any such gesture i shall have no confidence in purchasing from you again since you do not appear to support your customers when things go wrong. Up until now i have been spending increasing amounts of money in your stores and i had expected this to continue in the future. Therefore in the long run Maplin will be the loser since the many hundreds (potentially thousands) of pounds i might otherwise be contributing to your future turnover will be spent with other suppliers instead. I also know of other individuals who will be similarly disposed on learning the outcome of my unfortunate purchasing experience with you.

Yours sincerely

John Howard

[nanochickin]

Just send him the URL of this thread and see what happens

[Johniboi]

I already did that in my original email to them but i wouldn't really expect the attention span of any Maplin employee to be up to the job of reading it!