Cyra

Review of East Midlands SHA

I would AVOID USING AGAIN AT ALL COSTS. Know Your ...

I would AVOID USING AGAIN AT ALL COSTS. Know Your Rights!!

We ordered 3 bags (x 2 blocks in each) of Harveys Block Salt from this company, where I signed for the box as the box looked fine and was not damaged or in any obvious bad shape; where also, the box had nothing on the outside of it to state that the box held fragile items and / or that it needed to be handled with care.

Upon opening the box that evening my husband and I found that there was loose salt in the bottom of the box, which was also coming out onto our hall carpet. Upon inspecting the plastic bags around the block salt, we also found that the bags appeared very knocked about and even had what appeared like knife slits in them. We could also feel that all 6 of the blocks of salt were severely broken in several places and that there was an amount of loose salt within the bags which was freely coming out. We did not open any of the bags and I emailed the company about the damaged order and did not receive a response, where I then telephoned East Midlands Water Company the following day and spoke to a young lady who had a very poor attitude towards me and informed me that it was okay for the broken salt to be used in a water softener unit still. Upon me insisting that I was unhappy to accept the order, she asked me to send over some photos where she stipulated that I should not open any of the bags of salt for the time being.

I sent photos of the damaged bags of block salt and the shipping box with the loose salt in the bottom of it, and also informed the young lady that we have purchased a lot of Harvey s Block Salt before from other companies in the past, where when it has arrived (usually 6 bags at a time = 12 blocks) it had been very rare to find even one block salt slightly broken (plus the bags around the salt where always in good condition) where their bags were in a damaged condition and the block salt was severely broken.

In response to the photos the young lady then just emailed me and copied and pasted over a paragraph which has been put on their website: stating: *Although every effort is made to ensure your salt arrives safely, the salt blocks are very brittle and can occasionally arrive damaged. This does not affect the performance of the salt and it can still be used in your water softener*

I then telephoned Harveys Block Salt and described the problem to them, whereby they advised me that it was NOT okay to just put the broken salt straight into my water softener, but that I needed to put the bits into a stocking and try to pack the blocks back together, where they also advised me that small parts of block salt and loose salt particles could block some parts of the water softener unit.

I contacted East Midlands Water again and said that I was not happy to accept this delivery and that I wanted them to arrange for the Block Salt to be collected and for me to have a refund, where the young lady very haughtily just told me to send it back if I wanted!

I then sought legal advice from Which Legal Services and was advised about my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Where I was informed that East Midlands Water Company are responsible for the quality and fitness for purpose of what they sell : whereby I did not have to accept damaged goods; which signified an unfair contracts term!

After my very formal letter to a manager who was also previously very rude to me on the phone (where he informed me that 'He had heard about me!') I was offered a full refund and they did not want to collect the damaged block salt.

All of this in my opinion equals a terrible company to purchase anything off due to their lack of customer care and extremely poor levels of service and products. Incidentally, when I then immediately purchased block salt directly from Harveys (for nearly the same price) - it came unbroken in very well packed boxes marked with FRAGILE - Handle with care.