I am having severe difficulties with an order for a washing machine that was placed with Appliances Direct on 15th February. On 16th February, I received a cheery email saying "It's on it's way", but it wasn't. The shipper, Arrow, emailed me to arrange a delivery date, which I did for 2nd March. I had the old machine removed on 1st March and placed in position for collection. It sustained some damage in the move. Shortly after this was done, I received a text message from Arrow to say that there would be a slight delay in delivery. When I called them to find out why, I was told that they were no longer collecting scrap machines when delivering new ones (due to Covid, whatever that has to do with it; if they can deliver a machine they can take one away). They said that Appliances Direct had been made aware of this but had still accepted my order with scrap collection. Arrow could not carry out the delivery because they were under instruction from AD to make a collection as well, which they would not do. Since then I have had a lot of back and forth emails and calls with Appliances Direct but without resolution of the issue of when I will receive the machine. The customer relations staff are clearly struggling and I presume that I am not the only one affected. Today I was called by a manager who was still unable to state a date and told me that he had processed a £30 compensation payment in respect of my inconvenience. This had not been requested by me. When the confirming email arrived shortly thereafter it contained the wording “Agreed Amount To Settle all Outstanding Claims”. At no point in the telephone call were my legal rights mentioned and this was a disgraceful, low trick that had been perpetrated on me in an attempt to eliminate Applianced Direct's contractual agreement to deliver the machine by 10th March at the latest. I lost no time in emailing to repudiate the payment under these conditions. I also consulted my solicitor. Until I received that email, I had thought that I was dealing with a decent company that had a one-off unexpected problem with deliveries. The attempt to deprive me of my legal rights in an underhand manner has led me to revise my opinion. At the moment we have no washing machine and no information whatever about when one will be delivered.