Coopers Sewing Machines

[PPC]

I have had the misfortune to have dealings with Coopers Sewing Machines Ltd this very day. It all started last week when I spoke with their sales staff who seemed very helpful and friendly at the time, they offered me a 30 day money back trial period which I felt was fair and worked for me as I wasn't sure if the machine was right for my needs.

So, I paid as I always do with a credit card and proceeded to buy a sewing machine from Coopers. I felt happy with their promise of after sales and awaited my machine. Having been assured the machine I had purchased was right for the intended job I looked forward to it's arrival.

The machine arrived last Thursday as promised and I eagerly un-packed it to try it out.. I immediately knew it was not suitable because it bounced around when I applied speed. I emailed Coopers and asked who I should address the return too and spotted the change in their manner. I then did my research and found all the horror stories about this Company.

I decided to take a deep breath and start the returns process and was pointed to their returns policy, no help just, look at the policy. I emailed again and was told I needed a returns number which I had to get from the returns dept. I phoned the returns dept and politely said "Hello, can I have a returns number please?" The chap asked am I returning for repair or refund, I said refund, he replied "5629" and put the phone down! I was shocked

I sent the parcel with UPS and 3 days pasted without contact - I checked the tracking and the parcel was accepted by Coopers and signed for with no notes so I assumed all was well. Got a phone call this morning from Mr D Henderson informing me the machine had arrived and it was damaged and required repair at my expense and that I had to claim this cost from UPS. This man was so rude and obnoxious, I asked, why was the package accepted if it was so badly damaged and why didn't the reciever note this on UPS's paperwork. He said they can't do that as they have so many machines in daily.

Stop there I said, this is consistent with the threads I've read on the internet about Coopers Sewing Machines and I'm not about to get involved in this. I said I'll speak with trading standards, my credit card company and then set up a small claims in the County Courts. This didn't bother him, he told my point blank I was not getting my money back and that he would send pictures of the box.

He put the phone down and I contacted trading standards who were very clear that Coopers had to prove the box and machine they spoke of was mine and that it was damaged by me or my transport providers. TS stated very clearly, Coopers are now making a claim against me and UPS, the onus is on Coopers to prove it.

The pictures arrived by email of a machine on a work bench which could have belonged to anyone.

I went back to Coopers and was told they would repair the machine and deduct the cost from my refund - My response was very clear that I did not accept any responsibility for this without proof and that I expect a full refund without and deduction. I quoted the conversation with TS and informed Coopers I would be sending a letter shortly once TS had emailed the copy to me.

Within 1.5 hours they refunded me the full amount.

I spoke with Jay Cooper and D Henderson, both of whom are very un-professional, rude and aggressive people. It's clear that this company have certain tactics to prevent people returning items and having a refund.

These people should be held to account and writen complaints need to be sent in the event of issues arriving from Coopers Sewing Machines and they need to be investigated. The lady who wrote a post earlier about the £25 bobbin charge, it's outrageous they have done this, how many others are bullied by this company.

I made a complaint to the Police, who in turn pointed me in the direction of the Action Fraud, we need to make complaints, even if we only get a crime number.

Remember, you don't have to deal with Coopers aggressive tactics on the phone, refuse to speak to them and put everything in writing, but do tack action. I think they do this with everyone in the hope the customer accepts what they say and keep the machine. I'm not qualified in consumer law, but this is my experience from today.

I've emailed BBC Watchdog also, you never know!

 

[Lindylou9561]

I have joined this forum only to make a comment about Coopers Sewing Machines in light of what I have read here. Last Wednesday I called the company to order a Brother sewing machine. I spoke to a very pleasant gentleman who was very helpful with all aspects of the purchase. I was then handed to another extremely helpful member of staff who took all my payment and delivery details. I was promised a brand new machine for the cost of a reconditioned one. I was told that the machine would probably be despatched on the Friday, once my payment had gone through. Unfortunately, it did not arrive Friday, but I must say I didn't expect it to come so quickly. On Sunday I noticed that my payment had gone through but for £10 more than had been quoted. I rang the company on Sunday lunchtime and was answered almost immediately by a lovely lady by the name of Lisa. She promised to sort out the refund and provide me with details of delivery the following morning, when she was back in the office. I rang Monday morning and was able to speak with Lisa, who confirmed that she had spoken to the accounts department regarding my £10 refund and that she would check the distributors information on another line - to call me back in 10 minutes. She duly did and said my machine would arrive that day. I missed the delivery, but they had the good sense to speak to a neighbour who kindly took the parcel on my behalf. Monday evening I opened a perfectly packaged brand new Brother sewing machine. I even had two free gifts - a pack of sewing threads from Brother and 3 very good pairs of scissors from Coopers. My machine works brilliantly and I am delighted with it. My £10 refund arrived in my account the following morning.
I have nothing but praise for this company. The service was exceptional. Everyone I spoke to was polite and efficient. I will definitely use them again.

 

[PPC]

I have joined this forum only to make a comment about Coopers Sewing Machines in light of what I have read here. Last Wednesday I called the company to order a Brother sewing machine. I spoke to a very pleasant gentleman who was very helpful with all aspects of the purchase. I was then handed to another extremely helpful member of staff who took all my payment and delivery details. I was promised a brand new machine for the cost of a reconditioned one. I was told that the machine would probably be despatched on the Friday, once my payment had gone through. Unfortunately, it did not arrive Friday, but I must say I didn't expect it to come so quickly. On Sunday I noticed that my payment had gone through but for £10 more than had been quoted. I rang the company on Sunday lunchtime and was answered almost immediately by a lovely lady by the name of Lisa. She promised to sort out the refund and provide me with details of delivery the following morning, when she was back in the office. I rang Monday morning and was able to speak with Lisa, who confirmed that she had spoken to the accounts department regarding my £10 refund and that she would check the distributors information on another line - to call me back in 10 minutes. She duly did and said my machine would arrive that day. I missed the delivery, but they had the good sense to speak to a neighbour who kindly took the parcel on my behalf. Monday evening I opened a perfectly packaged brand new Brother sewing machine. I even had two free gifts - a pack of sewing threads from Brother and 3 very good pairs of scissors from Coopers. My machine works brilliantly and I am delighted with it. My £10 refund arrived in my account the following morning.
I have nothing but praise for this company. The service was exceptional. Everyone I spoke to was polite and efficient. I will definitely use them again.

You're very lucky Lindylou9561, I only experienced disgusting individuals with zero respect for the consumer. With this said it's my mission to tell as many people as possible about this awful company, I'd also urge everyone who has had a problem with Coopers Sewing Machines to contact the manufacturers of the machines they purchased from Coopers Sewing machines and complain about Coopers, they are well known to machine manufacturers.

PPC

 

[rimce44]

Its not very funny.. but same thing happened to me last year..

 

[Pau]

I spent a few days researching sewing machines, and thought what a fantastic offer, well many of them on the Coopers website. I took the plunge and telephoned to ask a few questions about the Toyota SA53 before parting with my money, after all I wanted to be 100% sure that the machine that was on offer was a genuine offer (rediuced from £299 to £89.99) I asked how long this particular model had been available and was told 18 years, which I thought was a bit unrealistic and became even more concerned, when the man that answered my call was rude and got fed up of my questions and said, Ive got to go now. He also tried to upsell me! I got my partner to ring back and it went to answerphone. he left a message and said he wanted to buy a machine. The man called back immediately, surprise surprise. When we asked about the SA53, he said it was out of stock and they might have more in the morning and cut us off. Thankfully we were sensible enough not to buy off this company. We then looked for forums and came across this site and were even more thankful we didnt purchase from them. I make most of my big purchases on line, but will be looking for a local supplier or a high street name this time.

 

[trickygj]

I have today been contacted by a director of Coopers, Mr Jay Isow. He was astonished to read for the first time the comments in this thread and categorically states that he has never used abusive language to any customer.

He is holding a meeting with his staff early next week to try to get to the bottom of the complaints. He has also asked if he can contact me next week to discuss further the consumer comments.

I would not normally agree to being involved in such arrangements as I am a moderator on this forum which I believe allows me to delete spam and offensive language etc. However, I have myself recently been a victim of a cyber-attack which has resulted in two defamatory websites being suspended by the ISP. I feel it only fair in the circumstances to listen to what a director of Coopers has to say with regard to the huge amount of complaints received.

I hope that I can post further comments later this week.

 

[kwb]

I have to add my own voice to the outraged complaints. I don't know if the manager I spoke to was the Mr Cooper referred to below. But I do know he was probably the rudest and least professional manager of any company I have ever dealt with.

I phoned to buy, and made a passing utterly polite comment to the salesman about a problem with their web site, trying to be helpful. He swore at me and hung up!

I thought I should let the management know about such terrible behaviour by one of their staff. I was put through to 'a manager' who I explained my experience to, expecting him to be shocked. He replied that they had lots of salespeople. I asked him if he wasn't bothered that his staff were so rude to potential customers, and he said they were "too busy to be worried by complaints". He then was equally rude, telling me directly to get lost.

I repeat, i was polite and professional throughout.

In my experience customer service attitudes start at the top, and if this is the management's attitude to the buying public, then there's no way I'd buy anything from them as their after sales service will be even worse. All I can say is AVOID AVOID AVOID.

I'd suggest The "Director" needs to do some mystery shopping as a customer with a complaint, and find out how they really treat the public.

 

[kwb]

Just following up to my previous comment... I'm concerned that there seems to be an implication all the complaints might be 'orchestrated'. I'd like to put it on record I've no axe to grind, and no connection with this firm. I'm a business owner myself, who happens to care about customer service. And I'm also a consumer, who was genuinely shocked by his experience here.

NOTE TO MODERATOR: if the director of the company is genuine about investigating and happens to want to contact me, you have my permission to pass on my email address directly. I would then be happy to give him all the evidence he needs of my real identity, and verify that I had no reason to add my experience to the other voices here, other than a wish to warn others of the utterly dreadful attitude I encountered.

If I was a director of such a company, I would feel it my legal as well as my professional duty to fully investigate why there is such a self-evident pattern of serious complaints, and why the company appears to be throwing away sales (e.g. to me) by such scandalously unprofessional behaviour, particularly at the managerial level. It would be easy, as I suggested earlier, to affirm this objectively and independently by recruiting mystery shoppers, particularly examples with problems, not just once but on an ongoing rolling basis. And if as it seems highly likely this is part of an endemic problem starting with particular individuals, it is absolutely a case of gross misconduct and so a case for summary dismissal. I would seriously suggest this director takes his duties seriously and investigates fully on this basis.

 

[trickygj]

kwb

Just following up to my previous comment... I'm concerned that there seems to be an implication all the complaints might be 'orchestrated'

I do not beleive that I, in my last post, indicated that I thought that the complaints may possibly be orchestrated. What I did state and I repeat is that I have spoken to a director of Coopers today who has informed me that for most of the year he lives abroad and has no direct contact with customers. On that basis he stated he was both shocked and upset that these allegations have been made.

I think it only fair therefore that I listen to what he has to say and report back. If there are individuals in his organistion who are treating customers like you have experienced then it is only right that the director has the chance to investigate and take appropriate action. This sort of thing is not good for his business or for consumers such as you.

I hope that one way or the other there will be a explanantion from the director next week.

The best we can do as consumers for the time being is to ask the name of the person we are dealing with when the first approach is made so that we can complain about the right person.

I look forward to any developments in the near future.

 

[Kiamose]

Can I just ask, is coopers the same company that deals with the create and craft (C&C) shopping channel that offers on many machine sold via the C&C between 10-20 years free servicing and free courses, I luckily never brought either my sewing machine (brother innov-is 350e) or embroidery machine (Janome memory craft 350 E) from coopers or C&C as I brought them from a reptible local sewing machine shop in Lincoln as I wanted to try the machines out before I parted with alot of money and the machines I'd set my heart on where not available through coopers. But I once emailed C&C when mr cooper was live on a show selling a singer machine asking a question, I told him I had the brother innov-is 350E and he said live on C&C that the machine was rubbish, Debbie shore had to tell him to be quite, so my question is, if it is coopers that C&C are dealing with I wonder how many problems they are having with this warranty, but I have noticed in the last few months that Coopers are not on the live shows anymore so have they to had a few problems and going direct to the manufacturers?

 

[Kiamose]

Also I notice that they are one of the companies advertising on this page of complaints for where to buy sewing machines

 

[trickygj]

kiamose

where is the advertisement please? if you can give me the date?

 

[trickygj]

kiamose

In reply to your shopping channel query, when Mr Cooper called me at the weekend he did say that he was on shoppings channels and that they vet the companies who appear rigourously. On that basis he claimed that a lot of the complaints were not true.

I await his call!

 

[trickygj]

kiamose
I see where you mean now.

The advertisements are Google PPC adverts. The type of adverts that appear are decided by Google I believe.

 

[Kiamose]

Thank you for you super quick reply. Regarding the complaints and mr Cooper saying that he is on a shopping channel and they vet the company and therefore alot of the complaints can't be true, I really can't believe that so many would complain if they had not been true, yes I know some people just like to complain even if they've had no dealings just for the fun of it, but reading through all the posts wrote on this site and on many other forums there truly has to be a problem as it is very easy to say they are not true. I was just so lucky that I went to a shop to try them out first and make sure the machines where in perfect working order and didnt have problems with delievery, but I wonder how many delivery problems where from the delivery companies themselves as it is often said 'delivery between 7am and 5pm' that part is not cooper fault if you happen to pop out when the delivery driver arrives, if you've been told it will be delivered/picked up in those hours, I have three small children but if you know something is being delivered on that certain date you just stay in, or leave a note saying drop of or pick up from a neighbour etc, as I'm sure there are many other companies on the web not just coopers, I do look forward to his response

 

[Edward Duncan]

Hi TrickyGJ,

I was browsing on this site this evening as it always amazes me how the awful experience of consumers continues with Coopers Sewing Machine company. Every so often I have a look to see who the latest victim to lodge a complaint on-line is.

My post on this site about Coopers was some time ago, but I assure you that verbatim the experience I recorded on your site is accurate. The fact that my experience reflects so many others so closely leads me to the conclusion that it seems the other complaints are also true. Please do not delete these posts. They are one of the few chances we have of warning people about the shocking service that are delivered by Coopers. I have no doubt that not all customers complain: they must deal with a huge number of machines each week. It all seems to brake down when a customer is not satisfied, at which point the 'service' is truly shocking; and I suspect illegal in terms of verbal aggression and abuse.

Watchdog have contacted me twice about Mr Cooper and Coopers sewing machine. They are well aware of his company and say they have a large number of similar complaints.

For all this to have been made up and posted on the web is truly a conspiracy theory to rival the moon landings!

 

[trickygj]

Edward Duncan

Mr Cooper, who called me on a Saturday afternoon and took up at least an hour of my time, has yet to get back in touch to have his say. He said he was amazed at what was being said about Coopers and that a lot of it was down to a competitor?

He also said he was speaking to his solicitor about the claims.

As a moderator I have to be cautious. I do not hide my details and it would be quite easy to be accused of defamation. If the company in question disputes the claims it is only fair that they have their say. In this case, Mr Cooper has failed to follow through with this. This leaves me to the my own conclusions.

I do not delete posts unless they are advertising, spam, abusive or clearly defamatory. I have not deleted any posts but my own on this particular thread.

I too find it hard to believe that all these posts are by one competitor and I have given Mr Cooper 'the right to reply'. I feel I have acted fairly to Mr Cooper and taken a balanced view of the situation.

 

[Edward Duncan]

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me; I understand your position. I will come back to the site at some point and see how this all progresses..... My prediction is that similar stories to my own will sadly continue to be posted on this and other similar sites....

 

[trickygj]

Edward Duncan

Yes.....I'm inclined to believe you

 

[Kiamose]

Good morning, I am also a member of a sewing forum and there are around 25 pages of customer complains regarding coopers, very unhappy customers all been verbally abused, it makes me wonder how he can honestly say that all the comments are fake, when so many of the members are my friends and I speak to them in other threads on different subjects is I know they are real. Many of those to have contacted watchdog, so it can only be a matter of time.