kierenmccarthy.co.uk

Blimey, it only took two months but I have finally been refunded for the Mukka Express - the cappuccino maker that doesn't make cappuccino.

I sent the machine back to the company I bought it from by recorded delivery at the start of November. I also sent two emails to two different addresses for Red Monkey Coffee after I heard nothing. Then, bizarrely, I received a blank postal delivery sticker from a different coffee company with no note, no nothing, so I emailed them as well - and heard nothing back.

[I also did a small bit about it for a column in The Guardian.]

Then, just when I was about to make things official, I receive the email below this morning. If you are to believe it, the delays are thanks to a employee that is no longer there, and the Mukka does work, it's just that mine had a faulty valve.

What is most interesting though is that the refund may have come more as a result of this blog than any of the emails and letters I sent the company direct. That definitely says something about modern society, but I'm not sure what and I'm not sure it's a good thing.

If you do a search on “red monkey coffee” on Google - my blog entry comes on the fourth page - so it must have popped up prominently elsewhere. Anyway, here is the email, and beneath that, my response:

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Dear Kieren McCarthy,

Sorry for the delay in replying to your faulty return, your case was assigned to an employee who is no longer with us and left a number of neglected, unresolved outstanding cases we have only been getting to the bottom of including yours. These have been causing problems and if known about would have been resolved along time ago.

We have now refunded your card the full £49.99 for the Mukka Express, it appeared to have a faulty valve so was not staying down to build up the steam pressure to generate the full froth for cappuccino.  I can assure you only a very few customers have ever reported faults or dissatisfaction with the Mukka.

We would also ask that you please remove the comment on your website referring to us as “bastards” as we are a trading partnership of myself and my Father this is both defamatory and offensive to us both, we would appreciate it being removed. We understand if you feel the need to report the poor service received earlier but comments like that are not acceptable.

http://www.kierenmccarthy.co.uk/blog/_archives/2005/12/15/1451414.html#539835

Apologises again for the poor service received and delay in getting your return resolved, we can assure you that we do pride ourselves on good customer service and as with every business we do have problems but we do try to deal with them fairly and as quickly as possible, in this case it was not achieved but this is certainly not our standard service.

Kind Regards,

Mr Grant Ward
Business Partner

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Thanks very much Mr Ward, I appreciate your getting back and refunding me for the Mukka Express.
 
Re: the “bastards” comment on my blog. I am sorry this has caused offence, it was not intended to and was in fact written in a light-hearted way. But I shall be happy to remove it.
 
Thanks
 
 
Kieren