No urgency to resolve anything
No urgency to resolve anything. Would never buy from Rauch again and would seriously think about ever buying from Next as well.
We ordered a Rauch wardrobe in May 2023 with an expected delivery time frame of 8-9 weeks. In June we sold our old wardrobe to make space and to ensure we were ready. August was when it finally arrived. Damaged I might add. The right side panel was chipped at the top right. To make things worse, Rauch uses a company called Walker Payne Logistics to deliver and install their furniture in the UK. I'm fairly certain Walker Payne looks out for incompetence when hiring people. Not only did the installers dent my walls in multiple different locations, they damaged the wardrobe by over-tightening one of the bolts. Shattering the wooden base. Now we have 2 parts of this wardrobe damaged.
We emailed photos to Next explaining the exact damage and the installers took pictures of the damage from transit. We hadn't spotted the damage they had done building it until after they left. We were told that replacement parts were on order. September rolled round and we finally had word that the replacement parts had arrived in the UK. We were informed by Next to contact Walker Payne to arrange delivery. The earliest they could come was October... Despite the fact they had damaged our walls and furniture, we were on no priority list for them. In fact, this is a theme that persisted with Walker Payne. They seem to host no CRM and have never kept track of the clients they should probably go the extra mile for. One lady that answers the phone for WP rudely informed me she wasn’t aware of what was happening when I hinted everything should be on record. Maybe they annoy too many people to keep track of.
So October rolls around, we book a second day off work (first for the original install) and the drivers eventually turn up close to the end of the day. If Walker Payne could at least ballpark their delivery times in advance, we wouldn't have wasted so much annual leave. However, when they did turn up, they only had the base Walker Payne ruined, not the dented side panel. So they leave the base with us and return. No work was done as there was no point fixing half of it, only to come back later.
Later on in the week, between contacting Next and trying to reach Walker Payne, we’re informed for the second time that the replacement panel would need to be ordered from Rauch and would take another month.
November. The panel, we were told, had arrived. We had to call Walker Payne again to arrange a delivery and yet again, they had not earmarked a time for us despite the history. We would need to wait until December before they could arrive and fix everything.
December. The 3rd attempt rolls round. A third day off work. We received a call towards the end of the day from the Walker Payne driver. “We’re coming to fix a wardrobe, you have the parts?”. After all of this, they left their depot without the side panel. We told them not to bother and that was that. That week we reached out to Next again and said enough is enough, refund the wardrobe and get it out of our house. They agree and ask us to contact Walker Payne again to come and collect it. We do and we book in a collection for January 2024.
January. 4th date of annual leave taken and again, Walker Payne could not remotely tell us when they would arrive to dismantle and collect. About 2ish we get a call from the driver. He’ll be with us between 3-5pm. By 4:30 we got another message. It will now be more like 5-7pm. We hold off on bathing the kids, hold off on making dinner. 7pm rolls round. No word from the driver. We called him multiple times, no answer. By 8pm we accept he’s not arriving.
The next day we called Next. More platitudes and a promise Walker Payne will be in touch to arrange a recollection. Nothing is ever received from WP, they simply ignored the fact they failed a pickup and didn’t inform the client.
As we now approach February, Next is arranging their own collection of the wardrobe. I have no faith in them at all. If it wasn’t for the fact we’re still awaiting our refund I'd smash it down for firewood and be done with it all.
Lastly, the quality of the wardrobe is poor. We’ve had it for months, with nothing much in it as it’s not stable and the shelves have already started bowing. This is on top of the fact I suspect the wardrobe is hiding more damage to my property from the original install.
Almost a year to deliver and fix a wardrobe. I don’t know how some people are employed.
January 23, 2024
Unprompted review