Q: Four years ago I bought a fridge-freezer with a two-year commercial guarantee. A few weeks ago, it became faulty as its alarm was turning on very frequently and both fridge and freezer were not cooling and freezing properly.

I contacted the seller to have it repaired. Over the phone, I was told that once the appliance is collected from their end, it will take approximately a week to have it repaired and was also given a quote for the costs involved.

Before collection, a technician came to my house and informed me that the panel and the heaters were faulty and needed to be replaced. He then charged me €30 just for coming to my house to inform me what the problem was about.

Furthermore, I asked whether it would be possible to have a small fridge on loan while mine was being repaired but was told this was not possible unless I paid a €5 fee per day.

To date, five weeks later, the fridge-freezer has not yet been repaired and whenever I call the company, I am told they do not know what the problem is. What can I do?

A: With regards to the €30 charge, it is standard procedure for companies/technicians to charge a fee to go on site and assess the problem. Consumers should always ask about these fees before making an appointment with a technician to come to their house. To avoid bad feelings, technicians should also clearly inform clients about the charges.

As to your request to borrow a small fridge while yours is being repaired, since the fridge-freezer is no longer covered by the guarantee, the company is not legally obliged to lend you such an appliance free of charge.

With reference to the amount of time the company is taking to repair the fridge, if you do not want to wait any longer, you can ask them to return the appliance to your house so that you can take it somewhere else to be repaired.