Knock on wood and hope this won't happen to you!
2011-02-24
WHEN you order and pay for a new staircase, you expect it to be delivered on time, installed properly, and most of all, to be safe. Not so with Satchel Joinery in Wellington. One fine day last year, Satchel declared the staircase they were working on in our house finished and left out reinforcement braces between the steps to secure the mainframe, as stipulated in the original design. E-Mails and letters requesting them to come back and finish the job were left unanswered. Two weeks ago, only eleven months after installation, two steps of this open 3,5m high staircase came loose and fell out of the mainframe while I was walking down. Considering I experienced a free fall from 3 metres, I am very lucky to “only” have sustained torn ligaments and serious bruises. We have a pregnant employee, guests and clients climbing this staircase regularly and the damage could have been much worse. Good luck dear clients, and knock on wood…or maybe not! Birgit Schmiederer Wellington Ian Manchip of Satchel Joinery responds: Firstly we would like to re-express our apology for any inconvenience to the Schmiederers, the situation is unfortunate. Quality and accountability rank high in Satchel’s credo and we do not rest until our clients are satisfied. As policy, we have no intention in being drawn into a slinging match with a client save to say Satchel’s response was fast and efficient as indicated by the time line below. On Thursday 20 January approximately 10:00 am we received a call from Rene Reiser who is Birgit Schmiederer’s husband. He relayed the incident to us. We offered to immediately meet at the farm to assess the position, discuss options and rectify any problems at 15:00 of the same day. After receiving a call from Rene to inform us they were home we met him 45 minutes later. It was decided that we would install cleats on the stringers and would manufacture these on Friday morning 21 January. We installed the cleats on Monday 24 January and completed the job on Tuesday 25 January. Birgit then indicated that she wanted us to install steel brackets to reinforce the stairs. We agreed and installed torsion rods on Monday 31 January. At Satchel this “guaranteed ser- vice” is usually reserved for clients who have paid their bill in full.
More
News
|
