JB Hi-Fi tested my brand new coffee machine with a staff member’s water bottle and still refused refund
Not sure is this actually normal?
Bought a coffee machine from JB Hi-Fi on Friday morning.
Machine arrived faulty and wouldn’t even complete the first rinse cycle out of the box. Just flashing red constantly.
Took it back the same afternoon thinking it would be a pretty straightforward exchange/refund situation.
That was apparently optimistic.
Staff member starts testing the machine and first asks me to hand him some random empty 1.5L bottle sitting near the counter so he can fill the machine with water.
I said no because honestly that seemed insane.
So instead he uses water from his own personal drink bottle to test my brand new coffee machine.
At this point I’m already wondering if I’m overreacting or if this is genuinely bizarre.
Anyway.
Machine still not working properly.
Then he swaps my original water tank with one from the display model and suddenly the machine works.
He literally tells me:
“See? No problem.”
I said the original water tank was clearly faulty and the machine was unusable when I received it, so I’d prefer replacement or refund.
That somehow triggered a full Australian Consumer Law debate.
Staff member starts loudly explaining that:
“THE WATER TANK IS NOT THE COFFEE MACHINE”
and keeps repeating “minor fault”.
Meanwhile I’m standing there thinking:
isn’t the part that lets the coffee machine actually hold water kind of important to the coffee machine?
Then I pointed out the replacement tank looked scratched and still had promotional stickers on it.
Staff member loudly tells me:
“THIS IS NEW.”
Manager finally appears after standing nearby watching the whole thing for ages.
Manager then says he’s “not technical”, won’t test the machine himself, and basically just repeats whatever the staff member says.
I mention I may need to submit a complaint and manager responds with:
“Yeah you can do that. They can’t do anything to us.”
Honestly the whole interaction became so weird that I started taking comparison photos of the two water tanks because I felt like I was losing my mind.
Best part:
another JB Hi-Fi refunded the machine the very next day almost immediately because yes, the original water tank actually was faulty out of the box.
Still trying to work out if using your own half-finished drink bottle to test someone’s brand new food appliance is normal retail procedure now.
Edit:
For everyone asking, it was JB Hi-Fi Narre Warren HOME.
Already lodged a complaint through the website, but the confirmation email says the “support team at our Narre Warren HOME store will be in touch”.
So from what I can tell, the people I’m complaining about are also the ones handling the complaint.
Starting to see why the manager didn’t seem overly concerned when I mentioned it.🤷♂️