Edinburgh family including six-months pregnant mum left without working fridge during lockdown by Currys

The family were forced to borrow ‘beer fridges’ from friends in order to store chilled food.

David and Kirsty Walsh and their two-year-old daughter Isobel have been without a working fridge since before Easter.

An Edinburgh family have been left without a working fridge for almost a month after Currys failed to replace or repair their broken appliance.

The experience has meant six-months pregnant mum Kirsty Walsh, her husband David and two-year-old daughter Isobel, were forced to use donated beer fridges, donated by friends.

Their Grundig fridge ground to a halt on Good Friday, 9 April, and despite having paid a monthly fee of £9.99 to ensure a quick repair if the appliance they bought in September ever did break, it took Currys 10 days to send around an engineer.

At this point, the family were entitled to a new fridge free of charge, something that is still to arrive with the family met with a brick wall of silence from the technology store.

Describing the experience of being left on hold for hours at a time and having emails and Tweets ignored, the family said they were “bollocked” by an engineer for having switched off the fridge when it broke down.

Since the engineer attended, the family say they have been “ghosted” and have not heard anything from the repair company or Currys.

Mrs Walsh, 34, said the experience has left her stressed as she balances being pregnant, working from home, and looking after a toddler, all without a functioning fridge.

She said: “It is just an added stress. In the greater scheme of things it is not the worst thing that would happen at the moment but it is frustrating that we are putting ourselves more at risk due to a simple fridge.

“Having to juggle working from home and a toddler, I don’t really have time to be sitting on hold for hours and that makes it really difficult. It is just not feasible, it doesn’t really work.

“The fact is is that they are saying they can’t find a replacement but they are still selling them to people. If you can sell them, why can’t you replace it? It doesn’t make any sense to me.

Mr Walsh, 32, said: “We get that the pandemic is on and these companies are snowed under but given Kirsty is pregnant I try to go out as little as possible and try and do our best to observe social distancing but with the fridge the way it is I need to make more trips out and that’s more risk.

“We are stuck and no-one seems to know what to do or what they are going to do for us. We have had to rely on Kirsty’s colleagues who have had beer fridges and I’ve had to go to their house to pick them up which has put them at risk.

“The fact is is that they are saying they can’t find a replacement but they are still selling them to people. If you can sell them, why can’t you replace it? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

A Currys PC World spokesman said: “We have apologised to Mrs Walsh for the inconvenience caused and the time it took to resolve the matter. We have now delivered a new replacement fridge freezer due to the delay in finding the correct replacement parts needed to repair their existing product. Mrs Walsh is happy with the resolution.”