Pixmania.co.uk (Before November 2010)

Hmm - Pixmania! Last week my tumble dryer went kaput for about the fourth time in two years. The money I have spent to get it fixed each time would have bought me a new one. So, this time I decided to actually get a new one. I spent all Saturday afternoon going through the various options; Tesco, Argos, Comet, Amazon ..... . Eventually I found Pixmaniaa through a search engine (Google probably). They were by far the cheapest, and for a model I had actually heard of - Indesit. Sold! They also offered fitting and taking away the old machine for under £10 - bargain!

On the following Monday I received two e mails from Pixmania, the first saying I had been refunded a small amount - £5.90, or as they put it 5.9 £ (?). They didn't say why I had been refunded this amount, so I assumed it was some kind of discount.

The second e mail stated that my delivery day would be Thursday - not bad, five days from ordering. In order to discover exactly (wrong word really) what time it would arrive, the instructions stated that I should telephone or click on a link the day before delivery after 5:00 pm. Therefore, today being Wednesday, I clicked on the link. My "time slot" is 13:30:00(?) to 17:30:00(?) - I suppose that they are being uber accurate there, including seconds in their timing.

Now, this "time slot" is a problem as I have to collect my daughter from school which means leaving here at around five minutes to three, getting back, if I'm lucky, around 4:10 or 16:10:00 if I want to be pedantic! Damn! Now, if I change my time slot, I also have to change the day. But I want my tumble dryer! So I telephoned the number and got Currys, the people "delivering" the tumble dryer. Whilst discussing the delivery "time slot", I mentioned the stipulation in the e mail that the old machine had to be disconnected and pointed out that it was not attached to a plug, but sort of electrically 'plumbed in'.

"Ooh no, can't do that."

"But you are fitting the new one", said I,"what's the difference to disconnecting the old one and connecting the new one?"

"No we're not."

"But I've paid to have it fitted, and the old one taken away!"

I was told to telephone Pixmania. Pixmania told me that this particular item does not include fitting. When I said I had paid for fitting, the penny dropped,

"Was that what the refund was for?"

"Yes"

And they had removed the 'installation' button from the website I was told. It had obviously been advertised wrongly and they had sent me the refund e mail but not told my why they were making the refund.

Damn! Now I know it's not rocket science to wire up this sort of connection, but I'd much rather someone else did it. I was really miffed! I will say that the lady I spoke to was very nice and tried to be helpful, but that doesn't get my tumble dryer fittted.

Not to mention that I have had to get someone else to pick my daughter up tomorrow, at short notice, something she is not terribly keen on. I rather think that if I had known the refund was instead of the advertised installation, I just may have cancelled the order altogether and gone elsewhere. I wonder if that is why they didn't tell me? And, if I hadn't telephoned about changing the day, I would not have known that installation wasn't included until the tumble dryer was actually delivered, and I would have been left with a nice new completely useless tumble dryer, not to mention a not so nice, old tumble dryer that hadn't been disconnected as I figured that the delievery men would be doing it!

So - Pixmania - hmm, prices seem good, information on the web pages not always accurate, polite staff on the other end of the phone. Wonder if I will use them again ...... dunno - if I do I'm going to make sure that I have checked every aspect of the item I am buying.

Therefore whilst I may recommend this site for their prices, I do not particularly recommend the site's accuracy. I am writing this more as a sort of forewarning; probably best to double check any transaction by phone, which sort of defeats the object really.

Little codicil:

Delivery time was, as I said 1:30 - 5:30, it actually turned up at 2:00 which wasn't bad, did smile sweetly at delivery men but when he went to plug it in I explained that it needed 'fitting' he said, "Oh, I'll leave that to you then"! I'm really no good at acting the defenceless, can't do electricity type, so didn't push it. Luckily I can use it if I pull it out of it's little hole and plug it in. Nice machine, dead simple to use, perhaps I'll review that too!