I bought a 595 width oven from Marks Electrical in March 24. On 23/3/24 I received a 495 width microwave with grill, unfortunately it was the wrong width (neither myself, nor the advisor I dealt with noticed this major problem). I needed an exchange, as the oven & microwave needed to be the same 595 width. However, the price of the item I needed to exchange to (M2234SC) showed as £749 on Marks Electrical online, this was substantially higher than other competitors (I have sent them proof of this). On 23/3/24 I emailed, then spoke to Gillian in Customer Services who advised me that they should be able to price match on the exchange, which was great. Appliances Direct were marketing at £663 and AO were marketing at £619 if you bought their AO five star membership for £39.99 (a total cost of £658.99 for a years membership and the appliance). This is a massive £86 or £90.01 less than Marks Electrical respectively. Even though the item I received was unopened in its box, Gillian asked me to fill in a ‘report faulty/damaged item’, which was odd, but I thought surely they know what they are doing. Gillian advised I would get a call back, which did not happen. On the 25/3 I chased them at 11am via email and received no non generic reply. At 16:35 I rang the Support Desk again and spoke to Paige, who advised my issue was being dealt with & they would call back. I was on the phone for eighteen minutes & did not get a call back. On 26/3 @ 8:03 I sent another email, which I did not get a reply to. At 16:23 on 26/3, I rang them for the third time re this exchange. This was a thirty two minute call. Naomi could not price match. Naomi offered me a buy price of £688 for the M2234SC microwave (this is the AO price without the five star membership). I did ask to be put through to her manager, I then spoke to Charlotte who advised me ‘they were a retailer’ and wouldn’t match Appliances Direct or the AO five star price (which also included a years membership of AO five star), as previous, both of these were around £660, but she was adamant that they were giving me a wonderful discount at £688. She also advised they take 24-48 hours to call back, which is the first time I had heard this. Notwithstanding, I called 3 days ago initially, as I informed her, and had not had one call back. To which she replied that they were in a very busy period. I decided to ask for a refund in the end, not an exchange, due to the poor service I had received from Marks Electrical & because they wanted an extra £29.01, plus a £25 ‘exchange’ fee more than AO (the AO price included a years AO five star membership and the exact same microwave). You need to read their lengthy terms & conditions to know about the £25 exchange fee & £75 refund fee.

 After this experience, I feel that if anything went wrong with my appliance I would never want to deal with people like Charlotte. She gave me the impression that she was quite happy to charge me £75 for this refund, which I was again told was somewhere in their detailed terms & conditions. To be honest, I do not want hassle like this in my life & will be buying elsewhere, 0/5 stars. The only thing positive I can say about this whole sorry episode is that they have immediately booked in the return for tomorrow, for which they will keep £75 of the payment I made to them. Amazing that this was organised so well and so quickly! :(

 I will be looking into this further, & contacting the Ombudsman or similar as I feel that this charge is extremely excessive for the return of a smaller than average fitted microwave. FURTHER UPDATE 27/3/24 I have had no confirmation re my return today, so have chased them via email & sent a duplicate to their ‘reviews’ email account. FURTHER UPDATE 27/3/24 They have now reported my review to Trustpilot, again, amazing how fast this review has been looked at in comparison to my many calls/emails. Gillian has now confirmed that Charlotte did not book in the collection for today, & has promised she will book collection for tomorrow.