In Color, Rotorua Grab One Voucher Debacle

My wife brought two (of the 77 sold) Grab One vouchers from In Colour, Rotorua on February 23, 2012 titled:

$69 for 3 Hours of Preparation & Painting or Wallpapering with In Color, Rotorua (value $155)

Here is the breakdown of what followed:

  • First phone call/message, nobody bothered to return my call.
  • Second attempt, told Shane would return my call during the weekend (nothing)
  • Shane phoned and came to inspect the job, and we were told to contact his wife or partner Rachel when we had finished stripping the wallpaper. He also said he would email us some product names (eg sealer) and also a special additional hourly rate for Grab One customers. To date, we’ve never received any email from him.
  • We tried texting and phoning Shane & Rachel multiple times, and again, no-one returned our calls.
  • We let approx 10 days go by then tried again and got hold of Rachel. She was extremely rude and kept saying “it’s not my problem“. All we were trying to do was tell them we had finished stripping the wallpaper (like Shane asked) and when roughly could they fit us in. Rachel said Shane would ring us later that night. We said that was not good enough, as we were sick and tired of my calls not ever being returned. Shane must have been sitting next to her as she put him on the phone. He said we were pencilled in for Thursday 5th april and he would be there 9am.
  • On the morning of Thursday 5th at 7:30am Shane rang and had to cancel as there was someone in Whakatane hospital he had to go and see. Shane said he would do the job over Easter weekend if he could. Failing that he would be here first thing Tuesday morning.
  • Tuesday morning came and went. Once again he has let us down and hasn’t turned up or even bothered phoning.

Our job involved our 2 young children’s bedrooms. We totally cleared out their rooms on Wednesday 4th April in preparation for Shane to come the following morning. So, to date, our children have had no bedrooms to play in and have been sleeping in our lounge for 7 nights now. Shane was well aware of this situation too, which makes his absence all the more appalling.

We no longer want to deal with Shane, Rachel or anyone from In Colour. Over the last few weeks, they have shown to be rude, unreliable and extremely unprofessional. Our household has undergone a huge upheaval all for nothing and all we want now is a full refund!

Anyone else care to share their experience with In Colour, Rotorua regarding their Grab One promotion? Everyone we’ve spoken to who brought these vouchers has had a similar experience dealing with Shane & Rachel from In Colour, Rotorua.

Please share this link with everyone you know who’s had the same level of appalling service from Rachel Stone and Shane from In Colour, Rotorua.

Full credit to Michelangelo Plasterers, who have come in and have completed the job within 72hrs after initial contact that In Colour couldn’t do in seven weeks!

Give them a call: +64 7 349 3265 and tell them you saw this post.

5 comments

  1. Just got off the phone with GrabOne who said they had finally received an email from In Colour stating they had never promised it was going to be done over Easter weekend and that we were booked in for next week. Strange that as we’ve still not heard from them.

  2. This from a workmate of mine at council

    Week 1 – Rang InColor and spoke to Rachel, asking if I can book a time for them to come and do some prep and paint work at a rental property. Rachel said that they can’t book me in at the moment as they are so busy and that she will give me a call next week.

    Week 2 – Didn’t receive a call, so I phoned them instead, asking to book a time, Rachel took my details (for a second time) and said she’d phone me back in a couple of days

    Week 3 – Still no call, I phone them again…. Rachel explained that they have so much work come in from the Grabone vouchers that they are desperately trying to get through everybody. I explained all I wanted was a date they could come, but she couldn’t give me a date as they didn’t know how long other jobs would take and that I should ring back next week as they will have a better idea when they will be available.

    Week 4 – Phoned again, and was told to ring back in a couple of days

    Week 4 and 3 days – (Getting very annoyed by now) Phoned and spoke to Rachel explaining it’s been nearly 5 weeks and you can’t even give me a date when you can do my job. Rachel passes the phone to Shane who reiterates what Rachel been saying, they are so busy etc etc, can’t give you a date blah blah blah. And I just hang up as I’m sick of hearing the same story, which I have heard 4 times now and interpret to be we are completely and utterly unorganized and unreliable

    Week 5 – Shane rings me 4pm on Wednesday YAY! I can do your job tomorrow morning…. I have things I need to organize but really want the work done so I take it. Shane completes the painting work and does a reasonably good job…Would I use InColor again? Absolutely NOT, NEVER, EVER, EVER. The reasonable job he did was completely over showed by the hassle to get them to do it!!!

  3. Finally got our refund accepted from GrabOne last night. Should receive it within 48 hours.

    So GrabOne finally (after multiple attempts) got a reply from In Colour (after attaching our story above to their email) saying “we had never promised that we would do the (Hodge) job over easter weekend” and that we “they (Hodge’s) were never booked in” but are booked in for this Thursday. Funny as why would Shane have to ring us to cancel on the Thursday morning before good Friday if we weren’t booked in already?

    And he didn’t promise to do it over the easter weekend, he only said he would if he could. Plus, to be “booked in” shouldn’t we have some knowledge of that?

    Anyway, GrabOne initally asked us to supply any correspondance we had had with In Colour (via email) which we had none, so I sent them various Facebook conversations I started with other GrabOne users who had commented on the deal and emails from friends with similar experiences to support our case.

    Last night we get a called from yet another couple we know saying they had had the exact same treatment. And that they had rung GrabOne last night and had been granted a full refund immediately, no jumping through hoops for them. So we rung up GrabOne last night and were granted the same prompt refund. Although the lady I spoke with was a little bit aprehensive to start with, she finally processed ours too.

    So all’s well that ends well. We’ve learnt a valuable lesson, but wonder if In Colour has?

  4. Another workmate with same problems, this is their last email to GrabOne:

    Since my last email to you, I have received exactly one voice message from Shane (17th April) asking me to text him back – which I did straight away, stating that I was away for 2 days and asking him to call me on Thursday 19th April to arrange a time to come and see the work that was required. Guess what – NO CALL from In colour!!! I have tried to call a few times, but they never anser the phone or return messages, so I am really angry now and just want my money back.

    I know of at least 2 other people who have had no end of issues, and I am completely fed up. I don’t want a call from them, I don’t want them to come and quote the work and then waste a few more weeks of my time chasing them up. I am totally at the end of my tether with the non-existant service I have had from them! This has been going on since The end of February and I would just like a refund please.

    Thank you for you time and effort in looking into this for me – but as it has been two months of stress and frustration for me I just want my money back please.

  5. We have also tryed many times to contact them. Initially we got in contact with rachel who told us they were very busy with grab one vouchers but would contact us as soon as possible to come around an give a quote and assess the rooms. That was back in early March. It is now July and we cannot get a hold of them, we have rung many times and left many messages, i would never recommend there service to anyone. I would like the job done but after reading these messages I am probably better off contacting grab one and asking for a refund. Do In Color have an alternative phone number or email address?

Comments are closed.