I apologise in advance for the length of this review (it's too long for Google Reviews). Perhaps that will tell you something about the ordeal I've been through.

On the 22nd October I bought a small Chiq fridge from Betta in Footscray. Normally I'd buy from the Good Guys, but I bought from this store because it's only one short block away from my new apartment (literally Betta -> carpark -> me), making transport easier. The employee who sold me the fridge implied that he was the manager, but I've later learned that he isn't. He also never told me about the free delivery promotion, and because I'm disabled I still had to hire someone to wheel it over the road and unpack it for me.

The fridge was faulty. I contacted Chiq. By the 24th they had cleared the warranty and tried to contact Betta Footscray to organise a replacement. Betta, however, decided to ignore all their attempts at contact.

On the 28th I went into the store in an attempt to talk about the replacement. A customer and an employee were leaning against the counter, chatting. I waited nearby. They must've been waiting for something, because the customer told the employee that he could serve me in the meantime. And so the employee asked me what I wanted. I told him that I'd bought a faulty fridge the last Saturday and that Chiq was trying to organise warranty with them. He immediately became very angry, was talking over me, and said he was busy with another customer so to get lost.

The not-manager arrived (the one who'd sold me the fridge), and so I spoke to him. He didn't listen to a single thing I said, and just accused me repeatedly of breaking the fridge. Not only was he refusing to acknowledge the warranty, but he then insisted that it's my responsibility to transport the fridge "that I broke" back to his store, and then my responsibility to buy and transport a new fridge back to my place. I tried to explain to him that I can't transport it on my own, and he told me "Well just go find yourself a partner and get him to do it for you." He again refused me the free delivery that is advertised for the store, and just insulted me a few times and attacked me some more about how it's all my fault and all my problem.

I went home, crying with no idea what to do. How was it fair for me to have to pay for three deliveries for a single faulty fridge that was supposed to have free delivery in the first place? I couldn't afford that. I looked online and found that the store has a reputation for selling faulty appliances and then either extorting or ignoring customers who try to get refunds or replacements. This, along with some of what he was saying, left me really worried that even if I returned it at my own cost he wouldn't actually replace it and would leave me with no fridge and him pocketing all my money.

I contacted Betta's web enquiries email and explained to them everything that had happened, along with the receipt and Chiq's warranty reference number. I sent that email at 3:23 PM. They must've jumped into action unbelievably fast, because at 4:08 PM I got a call from the store. Apparently Head Office had chewed them out and processed the warranty with Chiq, and they were bringing me over my replacement fridge now.

Since I was so close they only needed to wheel the fridge down the road. The 'driver' tried to dump the fridge box in my doorway and leave, but I said no can you help me unpack the box please - otherwise this is all completely pointless and I'll still need to hire someone to come and do that for me again. So he relented and did that, and by 4:25 PM I had my new replacement fridge. While here, he said that they'd never gotten any emails from me or Chiq and that's why the store had been "ignoring" us - remember this claim for later. I emailed the Head Office and thanked them profusely for the help.

You'd think that'd be the end of the story, wouldn't you? But no. That was actually only the beginning of this ordeal.

This replacement fridge was also faulty. The same fault, but even worse. I contacted Chiq again. They cleared that one for warranty on 7th November. They tried to contact Betta, who again ignored their emails. Betta also ignored me or fobbed me off every time I tried to contact them, whether it was email, call, or in person. On 15th November, Chiq rang me to ask what was going on. I told them that Betta was stonewalling me again. So Chiq rang Betta, and a few hours later, the 'driver' from Betta rang me. Because he was so unwilling to cooperate, we 'negotiated' that I would just shut up, move the fridge into the laundry, and try to put up with having a faulty fridge in there so that I wasn't such a bother to them, and that if I was still demanding a replacement on the 17th, they would relent and replace it with a similar fridge from TCL.

And so on the 17th I called them again and said I wanted the replacement. They said that they don't sell fridges anymore and that it'd be another year before they had any fridges again (their claims like this just get even more nonsensical from here). Therefore they won't be replacing my fridge. I said well then I want a refund. They said yeah okay fine, they'd sort one out and call me later that day.

They did not call me back, and so the morning of the 18th I called them again. They said they were busy with more important things and didn't have time to deal with my crap anymore.

At that point I'd gone a whole month without a functional fridge. I was hoping to get the refund first so that I could use that money to buy a working fridge. But thanks to Footscray Betta's behaviour, that was obviously not an option. I scrounged together some savings and went to Stan Cash in Brooklyn. Unlike their sister store they were absolutely fantastic, and I finally had a working fridge.

However, I was still left with the very large and expensive paperweight that I'd had to move into my laundry, along with the massive hole in my finances. I'd been so patient with Betta Footscray but enough was enough. On the night of 23rd November I emailed Head Office and asked them for help again.

Early 24th November, Head Office responded and told me that they'd spoken to the store, and that the store had agreed to collect the fridge by the next day and refund me.

Surprise, surprise, Footscray Betta had not been truthful with Head Office. By the afternoon of 25th November I still hadn't heard anything from the store. And so I called them, and this time I spoke to the real manager. After a bunch of non-committal non-answers she claimed to have told Head Office about not doing it after all, and I suppose the implication was that they approved of this. I kept pressing her on it, and finally she said oh yeah we've also got no driver so we can't, but okay fine we might consider doing it next Friday.

I'd had the foresight to record this phone call, and sent it to Head Office. By this point I'd well and truly had enough.

Head Office called her, and she claimed that their driver was sick and couldn't do any deliveries that day anyway. The Head Office co-ordinator who'd been dealing with my case sent all this off to the regional manager in order to escalate the situation. I have so much gratitude for them - honestly I think they were almost as sick of this store as I was. They also told the store to communicate with me via email from now on so that I had an undeniable paper trial. Head Office was constantly apologising to me for the ordeal, but having them on my side was such a blessing.

The regional manager apparently called the store as well, and at 1:38 PM I got an email from the store. Despite having just claimed to Head Office that their driver was sick, the store told me that the driver would come around soon to pick up the fridge, and asked me how I wanted to do the refund (in person or bank transfer). This email, I should note, was a reply to one of the emails I'd sent weeks ago, which they'd ignored. You know, the emails that they claimed they'd never received.

I said that because I am so close, once the 'driver' picks up the fridge I would just go back with him to the store and do the refund in person. At 3:23 PM she asked me for my address. I told her and explained again where the entrance was so the driver could just walk across the block. She never responded to this.

At 4:55 PM I emailed Head Office again that the store was about to close but they still hadn't turned up and were ignoring me again. The co-ordinator called the store. Guess what the store told them? That the driver was running late because he'd had so many deliveries today. Yes, you know, the driver that was sick and not at work today, and therefore couldn't do any deliveries? Yeah, him. Doing too many deliveries today. The number of inconsistent and often nonsensical 'explanations' thrown at both myself and Head Office every step of the way is just breathtaking.

I told the co-ordinator that I was worried the driver would finally pick up the fridge and then, because the store is now after-hours, they would refuse me the refund. My prediction was correct.

At around 5:50 PM the 'driver' arrived. Despite knowing full well that the fridge was Chiq and in the laundry, while I was closing the front door behind him he immediately started dismantling the TCL fridge in the kitchen. I turned around and yelled at him to stop - that was my good fridge that actually works! For some reason he seemed pretty annoyed about having to get the faulty fridge from the laundry. Maybe because it was more difficult to move from there. Gee, I can't imagine what that's like - it's not like he's the one that made me shove it into there in the first place, by myself while disabled and exhausted, centimetre by centimetre. As he prepared to leave, and I prepared to go with him, he said no, we're not refunding you, because the store is closed. What a shock. Once he was gone I realised that he'd dragged the TCL fridge off the appliance mat and never bothered to fix it. I'm not strong enough to lift it back onto there on my own, and so my good fridge remains unsecured. Thanks mate.

The next morning I reached the store for opening time, so 9:30 AM on 26 November. The store remained closed. A couple of other people arrived for an order they were supposed to pick up, unable to do so because the store was still closed. Finally at 9:50 AM the store opened. I let the couple deal with their delivery first.

The manager asked if I was the one wanting the fridge refund. I said yes, and waited a few minutes for them to get the cash together (since they'd just opened they didn't have it in the till yet). She was pleasant enough to speak to in person this time. Though she wasn't afraid of more stories, pretending that she hadn't refused my return yesterday, or told me that she had no driver, or told Head Office that the driver was sick, and was telling me now to my face that the driver had always been coming and had simply been a little late to get to me because of all the deliveries he'd had that day. While counting out the money, she messed up halfway through, and I had to correct her. Not sure if that was a genuine mistake or an attempt to short me - frankly I'd be shocked at this point if it'd been genuine. She then took my receipt (I assume for paperwork) and wrote on it that the refund was for my "cancelled order". I'm not sure if it's normal for a manufacturer-cleared warranty return to be filed as a "cancelled order", but it seemed pretty odd to me.

Now finally with the fridge gone and my money back, after more than a month, I contacted Head Office and thanked them a few more times for everything. I mentioned the cancellation claim, in case that was important, and pointed out some more of the manager's inconsistent stories, because if I was Head Office I wouldn't be too impressed with that. I felt really bad about everything that'd happened, and like I was some horrible Karen for constantly harassing them over the weeks. The co-ordinator reassured me that I hadn't been difficult at all, and they gave me a gift card as compensation. If they have to deal with this sort of thing regularly from this store, I have so much sympathy for them.

The behaviour demonstrated by Betta Footscray over the last few weeks has been absolutely egregious. I have so much gratitude and respect for Head Office - without them this would've never been resolved. If you're able to, save yourself the trauma and go to the one in Brooklyn (Stan Cash, but still owned by Betta). They're absolutely fantastic, and I can testify that they're still fantastic even when problems arise. Because I'm 100% cursed when it comes to fridges, the TCL fridge I bought from them arrived damaged (not the driver's fault - the box was intact so damage was from the manufacturer). The drivers noticed before I did, whisked the fridge away, the store organised the replacement without me needing to do anything, and then they brought me fridge #4 (which thank Christ actually works). So I had faulty products from both the Footscray and the Brooklyn stores, and the response between the two could not have been more different. Footscray abused me, kept my money, and left me without a fridge for weeks upon weeks, needing Head Office to repeatedly intervene, whereas Brooklyn reacted immediately and efficiently and had everything resolved in less than 24 hours. Go to Brooklyn. And if you can't, and Footscray does this to you, contact Head Office through the web enquiries email. That is the only way you will ever see the light of day.

Approximate cost: $500