I would have been happy to give Marks a positive r...

I would have been happy to give Marks a positive review this time last month. Unfortunately our new Hisense fridge freezer, only 4 months old, has failed and, since this happened, we ve had no end of problems with Marks in trying to resolve the problem.

Since it failed Hisense has sent out two engineers who both confirmed that they aren t qualified to perform the required repairs on the appliance. On the first visit they also advised that, because of the possibility of an electrical short, we have to keep the appliance switched off.

As a result of this, in addition to the wasted food due to the initial breakdown, we have had no way to store any fresh or frozen food since the failure occurred a month ago. We have an 18-month-old child and we also have no way to store milk once opened, resulting in substantial waste and further cost, not to mention the time and stress involved in trying to solve the problems.

I ve been in contact with Marks to explain all of the above a number of times to try and arrange a refund under the Consumer Rights Act (which states that, if a product is under 6 months old and if at least one failed attempt has been made to repair or replace the product, the retailer is legally obliged to provide a refund).

I ve spoken to Marks by phone on four separate occasions, speaking to both Heidi and Sarah in their customer service department. In every case they ve been sympathetic to our problems but unable to assist. They simply state they can t do anything unless Hisense issues an uplift code to authorise the return. Every time I m told that I will hear from them within 48 hours (I never do). This is in spite of explaining on every occasion that we re making a request under the Consumer Rights Act and not under warranty. I ve also written an official email to Marks, laying this all out, and allowing them a full 14 days to respond... 14 days have come and gone and we ve had no response of any kind.

At this point I can only assume that Marks are stone-walling and are either unwilling to acknowledge that we have any statutory rights (in spite of these being mentioned in their terms and conditions) to avoid having to compensate us, or they simply don t understand their legal obligations. Every person we ve mentioned these problems to has been amazed at the difficulty we re having and have agreed that this should be an open-and-shut case given the age of the fridge.

As I say, it s a real shame that we ve seen these problems since the appliance failed. Our experience with Marks up to that point had been positive, with an efficient and friendly delivery, but our recent experience has made it impossible to recommend Marks to anyone.