I received an email from one Janet Price… I say ‘one Janet Price’ because I have no further information about her personally or further details about her problem.
I have her basic problem though.
She wrote: “I am wondering if you can help me. I had a shop refurbishment done last year. I purchased a Lavazza coffee machine for £8,500 but it has been out of order at least once every month if not twice and keep being told they will get to the bottom of it but as yet they have not. It will be two years old in September and they will then be saying it is out of warranty then.
“Also paid [for] it outright so I would have no monthly bills to pay. Then after having it a couple of months I was getting emails saying I needed to fill in direct debit mandate and I said I paid for machine outright and was advised it was for the service plan so I now pay over £100 per month. I have needed the engineer regularly but on a brand new machine I should not and I currently only sell one coffee per day for £2 which does not cover service plan. Can you advise me what I can do. I asked for my money back or a new machine months ago but just keep getting told they will get to the bottom of it.”
I replied to Janet’s email with a few questions asking her whether it was Lavazza themself or was it a catering company that supplied the machine and which machine she had, as they do several types. I also asked her the name of her store and her whereabouts in the country. I also advised her that she could contact her local trading standards office on the basis that the machine wasn’t fit for purpose.
When I received no reply, I re-sent the email but it came back with a message saying that her inbox was full. Without her store’s name and location I had no other way of contacting Janet.
However, I think there is an important message from this story: why go to the bother of installing an expensive coffee machine when you are only going to sell one cup per day? A bit of research is really advisable. Coffee is a widely available product with a lot of competition about. There are a lot of pros about offering it, but there are obviously some cons too. Plus there is a fair bit of maintenance required. It needs to look nice and tidy to attract customers.
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