I’d just like to apologise in advance to anyone who has already heard this story… I’m afraid I did rant in person to a few people! But I thought it was probably worth posting up here as well. You know, just in case anyone hadn’t heard it. Because it’s worth hearing. Yeah.
So. I mentioned a while back that we bought a washing machine from a well-known outlet whose name is almost the same as a well-known form of Indian food. We paid a bit extra to have it installed, in order to save us a bit of hassle on moving in day. We arranged to have it delivered on the day before we were moving in (the Friday).
On the Friday, the delivery men arrived and delivered the washing machine OK, but they refused to install it for two reasons: (1) There were no taps on the washing machine pipe outlets; (2) the electrical socket was too close to the pipe outlet. They’ve been sued in the past because they installed a washing machine like that, and the water pipes burst throwing water all over the electrical socket causing all manner of problems.
Either way, I’m none too happy about it: on Saturday, we (well, technically, my Dad…) had a look at it: there were no taps on the water pipes, this much is true. However, there were grub screws… apparently grub screws are too complicated to operate 😉 And in terms of the electrical socket being too close to the water pipe outlet – Phil’s Dad brought the IEEE guidelines on the subject, and apparently the only regulation is that the electrical socket should be above the water outlet (so that water doesn’t drip down onto it). Our socket was well above the water outlet, by the way. To some extent I can understand their concern, but if they had installed the washing machine they would have done it in line with industry regulations – what more can you ask for? And how have people managed to sue them and get away with it?
Apologies for this long and rambling story, but the moral is: don’t pay extra for installation from shops (unless maybe it’s a small independent place who know what they’re doing). If you need someone it’s probably better to get someone independent (i.e. someone who knows what they’re doing!)
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