I paid £889 for a robot vacuum that doesn’t work: CRANE ON THE CASE

In December 2022, I bought a Roomba robot vacuum cleaner for £889.

It worked fine until August 2023. Then, it would only clean or charge for a few minutes before stopping and playing the ‘I’m finished’ tune. This happens repeatedly until the device is reset.

I called iRobot, the manufacturer, but couldn’t get through for nearly an hour. I sent an email, and eventually someone called me back and gave me instructions on how I might fix it.

It still didn’t work, so on 3 September I emailed iRobot asking for a replacement Roomba. I emailed again on 6, 21 and 25 September but got no reply.

Disappointing droid: The reader’s Roomba cost £889, but stopped working in eight months

On 3 October, I called iRobot again and, after holding for more than an hour, was told that the person I was speaking to couldn’t raise a complaint or transfer the call, but that someone would call me back.

They did not, so I followed up with emails on 5 October, 8 October and 8 November which have all had no response.

It appears from the iRobot website that the Roomba has a two-year warranty, which I should still be covered by. Can you help? C.W

Helen Crane, This is Money’s consumer champion, replies: For the uninitiated, a Roomba is a small disc-shaped device which which users can program to vacuum all around their house while they sit back and relax.

The dust-busting droid can be instructed to take a certain course around your home and avoid certain areas (so no falling down the stairs for example).

It’s a nifty invention, and in news that will surprise no-one, buying a robot so you never have to vacuum your house again has proved popular. There are now even self-emptying Roombas and Roomba mops.

But the convenience comes at a cost. You paid £889 for your high-tech vaccum- so you expected it to last for years.

Sadly, that wasn’t the case. It conked out after eight months, and you were back to pushing around a vacuum yourself. How old-fashioned!

It came with a two-year guarantee, though, so you were confident you’d be able to have it repaired, refunded or replaced and get back to the future.

But sadly your many calls and emails went completely ignored by the company – and on the rare occasions you did get through, there was little help to be found.

It seems the robotics firm could do with a few more humans around – especially in the contact centre.

As you paid by credit card, you could potentially have sought to get the money from your card provider under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

Under this protection, the bank may be required to reimburse you if a product or service you bought wasn’t as promised and you have tried – and failed – to get the money back from the firm who sold it to you directly. The item must cost between £100 and £30,000.

However, you paid via PayPal which means this protection does not always apply. You did raise a dispute with the payments service, but told me it closed the complaint because your transaction happened more than six months ago.

After trying to get hold of iRobot for more than three months, you contacted me. You said you wanted me to publicise the firm’s customer service, which you described as ‘terrible’.

I took the challenge to iRobot, and also found my initial message to the firm went unanswered.

Then, a week or so later, something strange happened. 

Frustration: Our reader repeatedly contacted iRobot, but many emails weren’t replied to

I received a message from you thanking me for my help so far, but saying that you could no longer speak to me about your Roomba.

I instantly recognised this heavy-handed tactic as one that firms use to try and keep bad stories about them out of the news.

It is my belief that iRobot offered you a refund or replacement, on the condition that you would not share the details of this with me.

Sadly, this happens from time to time when I contact companies to tell them about readers’ complaints – with some even asking them to sign legal documents to say they won’t tell anyone what has happened. 

A short while later, I received this reply from an iRobot spokesman. 

‘As a customer first organization, iRobot’s award-winning care team is committed to providing customers with an exceptional level of service. 

‘iRobot takes the privacy of our customers seriously, and it is our practice to not publicly discuss specific customer interactions.’

I understand that you just wanted your vacuum fixed or your money back, and forgive you for giving me the brush-off.

But I think the firm still deserves to be named and shamed for ignoring so many of your calls and messages – and for only sorting it out on the condition that you kept quiet.

You paid an awful lot of money for something that didn’t work – and the problem should have been put right straight away.  

I also wanted to warn other companies considering gagging complaining customers that, while they might be able to silence them, they can’t silence me.

I hope that everything did get sorted, and that a new robot vacuum is happily shuffling around your feet as I write. 

Why won’t John Lewis guarantee cover broken iPad?  

I’m 75 and bought an iPad in May 2023 so I could video call my children who live around the country. I got it from John Lewis and it cost £1,369.

In October it developed a fault whereby it charged to 23 per cent and then would not charge any more. I called John Lewis as I thought it would be covered by its two-year electronics guarantee. 

John Lewis said I had to send it away to Apple. Apple reported back that there was internal damage – caused by me – and said I would have to pay £600 for the repair. 

Damage disagreement: A.C insists a problem with her iPad wasn’t caused  by her, but John Lewis and Apple say it was 

I’m adamant that I haven’t damaged the iPad myself. I have taken good care of it and only ever charged it with the provided cable. 

I wasn’t happy with that response, so I contacted John Lewis again and was told to send it directly to them. They said the same thing but asked for more than £800 to repair it.

I feel John Lewis is accusing me of lying, which I find upsetting as a loyal customer and a John Lewis card holder of for 30 years. A.C, Oxfordshire

Helen Crane replies: I’m sorry to hear that your new iPad wasn’t the Apple of your eye. 

John Lewis says that it offers a minimum two-year guarantee on all electricals, at no extra cost. It even specifies on its website that this covers Apple products. 

But the cover comes with a huge list of exclusions, including not only accidental damage but also faulty software, viruses, ‘neglect’ of the product and ‘failure to follow the manufacturer’s general care, maintenance instructions and installation guidelines’. 

A list that long could allow the retailer to wriggle out of covering almost anything.

In your case, you insist that the damage to the charger port wasn’t accidental and caused by yourself, but instead was the result of a fault. 

You told me: ‘I can’t see how it can be damaged internally by me just putting the charger in.’ 

Annoyingly, neither John Lewis nor Apple revealed to you what exactly they found in their investigations that ‘proved’ you were to blame.  

I spoke to John Lewis and asked if it would reconsider replacing your iPad. 

I am sorry to say that it declined. However, it has offered you £200 towards the cost of the repair, if you choose to have it fixed with John Lewis’ repairs partner. 

As that only brings it down to £600, the same cost as repairing it with Apple, the offer does not look particularly tasty. 

A spokeswoman said: ‘We’re really sorry that A.C has been unhappy with her purchase. Both Apple and our own repair agent concluded that this issue was caused by damage to the charging port.

‘While this isn’t covered by our warranty, as a gesture of goodwill, we offered a significant contribution of £200 towards the cost if she decides to have the iPad repaired.’

I suspect John Lewis may have lost a loyal customer here.