Bad Santa

derkav

For Christmass 2011 Santa decided to bring my 4 year old son a new tractor. He is simply mad about them and loves nothing more than driving around with his firends on them. This time out we decided that we would go all out and buy him a big one with two scops (front and back) and a trailer for it. We went to Ken Blacks to buy it. The thing was huge as you sould expect for the nerly €200 asking price on it. So the big day came christmass eve. My self and my wife put the new shiny tractor together there not the easiest job but a sucess none the less. It nearly took up the whole sitting room with trailor attached. Christmass morning and the kiddie winks arrived down stairs to the wonderland that awaited them. They were over the moon.

About a week after christmass the pedals on the tractor slipped and were both rotating the same I.E. not up and down. So because of a constant sream of "have you fixed my tractor yet dad" I gave in and opened the bottom part of the tractor up. ( this part of the tractor came preassembled BTW) and found that a small alimunium pin had slipped out of the crank. Grand I said and I slid the pin back into position. There was no way to lock hte pin into place, Thats a pretty poor design I thought but continued on.

So now its may and every week at least once I have had to take the tractor apart to repair this dodgy design. Eventually the pin dissapeared and I have had to resort to replacein it with nut and bolt which also breaks. I realise that I should have just brought the tractor back to Ken blacks. However we have mislaid the receipt. On the off chance I rang the store and was given the exact answer that I have grown to expect from Ken blacks. No receipt no help:mad:. This product is less than six months old ad still they say tough no help from us with out it. even though they are the only store in the area that sold this type of tractor. Over the years I have purchased probably €2000 worth of toys beds bikes from ken blacks and to be treated like this is simply discracefull. Just wanted to warn people about the people that you are dealing with here. I will never purchase another toy from them or their partner store of smyths. They simply dont care unless they are forced to by law.

To put it simply KEN BLACKS = Rip off store who dont care about you or your problem. even though your problem is your dissapointed child who's Santa present now is knackered.

Rant over.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

well.. you dont have a receipt, what do you expect them to do
you could easily have bought it on ebay for 20 quid and then bring it into them for store credit after it broke, they can't know

derkav

Sure the would be a great idea. Except for the fact that the tractor was exclusively to Ken Blacks, But thanks for your two cents!! Probably work for them or are affilated to the m in some way.

steder

Hi not sure if this can help but if you paid for it with a credit card or debit card you could ring the bank and ask for a print out of the statement with the purchase on it. You could bring it to the shop with you and see what they say then.

I had to do this before with a faulty TV and all was sorted with no problems.;)

slimjimmc

derkav wrote: »

Sure the would be a great idea. Except for the fact that the tractor was exclusively to Ken Blacks, But thanks for your two cents!! Probably work for them or are affilated to the m in some way.

Well I'm not a bit surprised you got nowhere if that's the way you treat people who don't give you the answer you want to hear.

It's a safe bet that the tractor is not exclusive to KB and can indeed be got elsewhere. Why would any large toy tractor manufacturer restrict it's entire market by selling exclusively through a small chain in Ireland? For all anyone knows you could have bought it on e-bay, or N.I., etc so the onus is on you to prove KB sold it. There are other ways of getting this resolved if you don't have proof of purchase but I think slagging them off by calling them a "rip off store" won't give you the co-operation you need.

derkav

steder wrote: »

Hi not sure if this can help but if you paid for it with a credit card or debit card you could ring the bank and ask for a print out of the statement with the purchase on it. You could bring it to the shop with you and see what they say then.

I had to do this before with a faulty TV and all was sorted with no problems.;)

Thanks for the helpful info. I had a root around and found the transaction on my debit card. There was something else bought with it though. How does that leave me? The tractor cost €179.99 but my statement says €219.98 think we bought a buzz light year for his birthday too. I dont think that the bank get a copy of the receipt with contents on it. How does that work? Any Ideas? Oh thanks BTW.

To every one else who has nothing more usefull to say. Really, why bother coming on to a forum to just offer nothing but I told you so or what do you expect. Life is far too short so stop wasting it.:D

ShayK1

If the bolt keeps breaking, get a higher tensile bolt.

The standard bolt has tensile strength of 5.5 if I remember correctly.

You can get a 10.9 or 12.9 that will be much stronger. Just be aware, if the bolt is breaking something isn't right. If the stronger bolt doesn't break, something else might.

Here is an image of where the tensile strength is stamped on the head of the bolt.

http://www.hotrodhotline.com/md/assets/images/Torquing-MD-12.jpg

And btw, your attitude stinks. What do you expect a store to do for you if you can't provide proof of purchase?

There's my 2c

derkav

ShayK1 wrote: »

If the bolt keeps breaking, get a higher tensile bolt.

The standard bolt has tensile strength of 5.5 if I remember correctly.

You can get a 10.9 or 12.9 that will be much stronger. Just be aware, if the bolt is breaking something isn't right. If the stronger bolt doesn't break, something else might.

Here is an image of where the tensile strength is stamped on the head of the bolt.

http://www.hotrodhotline.com/md/assets/images/Torquing-MD-12.jpg

And btw, your attitude stinks. What do you expect a store to do for you if you can't provide proof of purchase?

There's my 2c

Cheers for the bolt info. If you think my attitude stinks you should hear the attitude of ken blacks. Hopefully you won't find yourself in the same position.

foggy_lad

The bank statement should be enough as they will be able to bring up a copy of the transaction from that and will then have proof of purchase.

monkeysnapper

I feel after all the fuss getting the reciept ' the second they see that you've taken the law into your own hands their just going to wash their hands of you' and thats what any company in the world should do.

Everybody has rights ' companys have rights '
Very simple

Buy goods keep receipts in file in with your important stuff like car insurance ect if its expensive enough to warrent it .

You have every right to be annoyed but you should be more annoyed with yourself for not following the correct procedure .

Rabidlamb

Now the Ken Blacks cheerleaders have died down I'll pitch in a poor experience I had with this retailer.
We bought a toddler buggy there about 4 years ago, pricey item at the time.
One of the plastic buckles broke within the first month rendering it useless.
We had the receipt & my wife looked for a replacement where we were met with a brick wall.
We contacted the National Consumer Agency who informed us we were perfectly within our rights.
After a number of visits & speaking to managers we were told that as the buckle was part of an assembly the whole section would have to be replaced.
We insisted on them ordering it which they eventually did but it took a further 6 weeks to arrive.
As our little fella didn't appreciate falling out every time we made a turn I went in one day & retrieved a replacement buckle myself off one of the display models.
I still find the shop handy for checking out large ticket items before ordering online or picking up 2nd hand.

monkeysnapper

Rabidlamb wrote: »

Now the Ken Blacks cheerleaders have died down I'll pitch in a poor experience I had,.

Excuse me but your experience was completly different to the op's . I dont think anybody was being supportive of the shop as much as the op got everything wrong in his/her approch to dealing with the situation.

And on another note its bad enough that ken blacks was slated for following procedures but santa also got dragged into it , bad santa me bum , ive never had a bad experience wi the old feller. Leave him alone!!!! He's resting or helping making toys for this year!!!!

wheres me jumpa

Bring back Atkinsons I say.

Memory Of 98

When it comes to anyone having any trouble with any retailer I only have one piece of advice, call the consumer rights agency and get them to give you some lines of political jargon to quote out.

I won`t name names, but I bought an item in a shop in Carlow town last year, the item was supposed to be new and I paid full price for it. But, It was obviously second hand and was not even working upon closer inspection.....

I Went back to the shop within 15 minutes of buying the item and expected a refund or exchange, I was pretty calm and a tense stand off ensued in which I left very angry. I returned 7 times over the space of the following 4 days demanding a replacement or refund. Finally, I was informed that I would have to talk to the store manager, but, whenever I went up he could not be found and I was told to leave and come back some other time. I finally saw him on the 5th visit. The constantly sour faced manager dryly confronted me and asked if I was the trouble maker he had heard much of, then told me that I would have to go to Dublin to see about getting a replacement and even at that I was not guaranteed anything, which is ridiculous for an item bought in Carlow.

I got mad and went home and called the consumer rights people. They told me to go back calmly and quote a certain line of consumer rights to the staff at the shop, then come back and tell them what happened.

I went to the shop again and quoted the line they gave me. This heralded a very intense stand off where a member of staff verbally berated me for several minutes while quite vocally calling me a thief in front of several customers who eyed me up very suspiciously. He claimed that I had stolen the item, even though I had a receipt with the same cashiers name listed as the salesman, the full packaging (the item itself is kept behind the counter in a safe room and only the box is left on display, so I obviously could not have stolen it) and CCTV video of me purchasing the item.

I am no thief, I never have been and never will be and will not stand anyone instigating such. Fighting the urge to split skulls I turned on my heels and went home once again.

Absolutely furious I called the consumer rights people once again. I told them what happened and they were furious also. They informed me that the retailers had more than completely broken several consumer laws, and the verbal assault was a criminal case in itself. I was told which laws they were in breech of and wrote them down to quote them back.

Went back to the shop once again and calmly read out the laws they had broken and informed them that if I didn`t get a refund or replacement I would be going to the small claims courts, the local radio and the newspaper immediately. I left my phone number and said I expected a call soon from someone in power.

By that night I had gotten a very, very, very sincere call from the top brass and a full replacement.

I used to frequent the shop dropping €100 a month or so. I have never returned, they have lost themselves a few hundred euro`s worth of a good customer, I have lost nothing.

Moral of the story.

The consumer rights people are your friends

Hound the retailer constantly

Be calm

Threaten to go to the newspapers/Radio broadcasters.

ganger

We have bought various things here,2 items we got were not up to scratch so my wife went back with them and the receipts,got fobbed off told to call back when mr x was here.I went in immediately after my wifes return with items and receipts and spoke rather loudly ,mr x appeared and i asked why couldnt he have spoken to my wife 20 minutes previously and resoolved this.Anyway i demanded replacements or my money back pronto,was offered replacements which i took and awy home i went.End of story ,but here didnt i forget to get my nephews present and away back i went,when i walked in there was a "scatter":pac::D of staff and me only wanting to buy this toy he was looking forward to getting.:D:D

Nothingbetter2d

derkav wrote: »

To put it simply KEN BLACKS = Rip off store who dont care about you or your problem. even though your problem is your dissapointed child who's Santa present now is knackered.

Rant over.

its hardly ken black's fault you mislaid your receipt nor is it their fault the tractor was faulty... they only resell toys not make them.

your beef should be with the tractor manufacturer.

slimjimmc

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

its hardly ken black's fault you mislaid your receipt nor is it their fault the tractor was faulty... they only resell toys not make them.

your beef should be with the tractor manufacturer.

They're not responsible for the fault, but they are responsible for selling a product that's not up to scratch. His beef is correctly placed.