Mr Bealby
January 2019
I have always been a fan of Sykes, having been a regular customer for many years.. However, the acid test is when a business faces a customer challenge, and you see how the company responds.
I rented the cottage, Llechwedd in Dolgellau mid Jan 2019. It is a large hillside detached house with big rooms and corridors.The central heating is oil fired and it broke down due to boiler failure three quarters of the way into our holiday. The owner promptly came over with a couple of noisy warm air blowers. These were not nearly enough to keep the house habitable and ineffective as a central heating substitute. We hunkered down in the kitchen which was the only room that we could get warm. The rest of the house remained freezing. The boiler repair man said the spare part for the boiler could not be fitted until our due departure date.
We decided to leave early and go home as the house was too cold.
The owner and Sykes have been absolutely dogmatic that provision of warm air blowers is an adequate substitute for a full CH system in a Welsh January. This was definitely NOT the case.
I have explained to the owner and Sykes that I understand that problems and breakdowns can happen, but that we, the customers have lost a couple of days of our holiday for which we made a payment. I am not after a rebate on the money we paid for the rental, more an acknowledgement/apology of how much we were inconvenienced. All responses from the owner/Sykes have been defensive and dismissive of our problem, which frankly I find very poor behaviour.
I have suggested that as a goodwill gesture a small value voucher towards our next possible Sykes cottage holiday would make for good customer relations. This has not been forthcoming either. So overall I have felt very disappointed at my treatment by the owner and Sykes who basically say being left with no Central Heating in a Welsh January is fine.
Bob