No after sales service

I bought a new Ariston gas stove in late 1999. After the deal was done and the stove delivered, they did not give me a letter of guarantee. They said they had run out of them and would send one later. Unfortunately, up to now, I have not received the guarantee letter. But it is stated on the invoice that the gas stove is under warranty for three years, including spare parts. Believing they would keep their promise, I stopped requesting the guarantee letter.

Unfortunately, after using the stove for several months, there was a problem with it. As I was busy, I just lodged the complaint in May 2000. After a lot of problems, at last they sent their service man. I had to pay for the transportation but had no problem with that. Unfortunately, I just used the stove for one day and the same problem happened again. So I called them again. They said I had to pay for a spare part. I told them that the stove was still under guarantee, but the representative told me that the previous company that gave guarantee with all the spare parts was taken over by their company, PT Mayer Sukses Jaya.

I told them that the invoice contained the letterhead of PT Mayer Sukses Jaya. I was referred to the head of the service department. But the response was very disappointing. He asked me to contact the salesman who promised the spare part. I certainly advised him that the salesman was their company's representative. If there is a mistake made by the salesman, the problem should be handled internally, not involving the customer.

He told me afterward that they had run out of the spare part. I had to wait and he would gave me a call. I called him again since there had been no news, but his response was still the same. He was still trying to contact the salesman to get the spare part. He asked me to deal with the salesman, because for all new stoves the salesman had to provide the spare parts not, the service department.

The salesman could not be contacted, so I got nowhere. The worst response I got from the head of service department was that it could be the user's fault, so it was the user's responsibility. There was a leak in one of the tubes inside the stove, so how could it be the user's fault?

I am very upset about the service of PT Mayer Sukses Jaya, especially as I also bought a refrigerator from them. No guarantee letter there either. Is this the way their sales people sell their products, even with all the promises stated on the invoices? Yet you cannot have the after sales service.

SONYA IG WATSON

Jakarta