Faulty Elbow joint on Russell Hobs hob caused leak

[Essjay78]

Hi All,
We had a brand new hob fitted early last year, we assumed all was well. In the July we realised we had a gas leak from the hob. We had missed our meter readings for a few months so we had a 4 or 5 month gap. When we submitted them our account was almost £600 in credit (I have always ensured I have kept a large credit balance in there for a rainy day or emergency) the account was immediately debited by almost £2,300!!! We then received an email from Russell Hobs to say they had been informed the elbow joints on these hobs were faulty and could cause a leak. We had this leak confirmed by a gas engineer. The issue was then passed to Product Care who are not part of Russell Hobs who told us from the start that the manufacturers will not be issuing any refunds but that they would investigate our situation. This has been ongoing since last summer, they kept organising for British Gas to attend to replace the joint, each appointment was cancelled on the day as they claim they did not have the parts, this left us without a hob for months until we finally asked if they could send the part direct and we paid an engineer to fit it ourselves. They have now sent me an email to say they will not refund at all. Please help!

[echat11]

Hi ESSJAY78

Welcome to LB

How did you pay for the 'brand new hob and fitting'?

[Essjay78]

Hi All,
We had a brand new hob fitted early last year, we assumed all was well. In the July we realised we had a gas leak from the hob. We had missed our meter readings for a few months so we had a 4 or 5 month gap. When we submitted them our account was almost £600 in credit (I have always ensured I have kept a large credit balance in there for a rainy day or emergency) the account was immediately debited by almost £2,300!!! We then received an email from Russell Hobs to say they had been informed the elbow joints on these hobs were faulty and could cause a leak. We had this leak confirmed by a gas engineer. The issue was then passed to Product Care who are not part of Russell Hobs who told us from the start that the manufacturers will not be issuing any refunds but that they would investigate our situation. This has been ongoing since last summer, they kept organising for British Gas to attend to replace the joint, each appointment was cancelled on the day as they claim they did not have the parts, this left us without a hob for months until we finally asked if they could send the part direct and we paid an engineer to fit it ourselves. They have now sent me an email to say they will not refund at all. Please help!

Hi, thank you so much for responding! We paid by debit card for the hob itself through Currys. As for the fitting we paid cash.

[R0b]

On the face of it, your contract is with Currys, not the manufacturer so any claim you bring would be against Currys. Unless the hob has caused some kind of property damage or personal injury, you won't be able to claim against the manufacturer.

It sounds like you have not contact Currys at all and only dealt with Russell Hobs, which is potentially a problem when it comes to ascertaining how much compensation you might be able to claim back. For example, if you contacted Currys directly, they may have been able to source the part much quicker and then have a gas engineer remedy the problem. That would have likely mitigated any gas leakage and the amount of gas you have been paying for non-use.

That's not to say you can't claim the full amount of losses from Currys, but I would expect them to defend themselves and argue that they can't be expected to pay for something they did not know about when you had every opportunity to inform them of the issue and to carry out a repair but you decided to eventually fix it yourself.

So, did you at any point make Currys aware of the situation, and what was their response?

[Essjay78]

Hi, thank you so much for responding! We paid by debit card for the hob itself through Currys. As for the fitting we paid cash.

No we did not contact Currys. The reason being, the first we knew of the faulty part was when we received an email from Russell Hobs to notify us of a potential leak due to the faulty part and that someone would be in touch to organise a replacement. A company called Product Care then contacted me to organise the replacement which took months as they kept cancelling the appointments, in the end they offered to send the part directly to me so we could have it fitted ourselves by our own gas engineer. I have sent my energy statements to them and for the same period the previous year to compare the sudden surge in use. I have since discovered that this is a nationwide issue with various brands, not just Russell Hobs as the same elbow joint has been supplied to all of them. I have been told that British Gas have taken on a contract to replace these joints.