Austral Clothes Hoists Fold Away Rotary 51

I'm just going to paste the review I wrote for Daytek below so don't worry about the first paragraph slamming Daytek keep reading and you'll get to the good Austral stuff I promise. :-) Purchased the twin fold down Daytek a couple of years ago and this year one of the arms stopped staying up as it wasn't able to click in. As the warranty is something like 20 years I contact Daytek about a repair or replacement however without my receipt (illegible by this time and therefore useless) they flatly refused to honour the warranty in the rudest way possible as they had "no way of knowing" (apparently Daytek aren't aware of a way they can identify their products after manufacture) if I had personally purchased it or how long ago I had done so and therefore whether it was even still under warranty.

It's a clothesline, I wasn't aware there is such an issue with people shoplifting them and then attempting to defraud the warranty process when the item becomes faulty a couple of years down the track.

So I went back to Bunnings and told them the whole sorry saga and they asked for the warranty card which comes in the box. After I duly presented the card Bunnings attempted to mediate the situation but as Bunnings really only deals with swapping the product out a repair option wasn't even discussed and when I spoke with my Bunnings person afterward he told me the Daytek rep had laughed at him! So not only do they have disgusting customer service directly with the customer over the phone but they laugh at who I would assume is probably their largest retailer or very close to it. It's safe to say they aren't my favourite manufacturer and I certainly would not recommend one of their clotheslines in the future.

The lovely staff at my local Bunnings however, while I'm sure they regretted ever attempting to work this out for me saved the day when they credited me for the cost of the Daytek because when they offered to replace it I, as politely as possible, muttered nasty things about companies who treat customers and end users like garbage before asking really nicely if I could please get an Austral instead. I had already called Austral as the only other Australian manufacturer of clotheslines (because who else is going to understand our weather for a product that lives its entire life outside?) and they assured me they can tell by the model if it's still under warranty (20-25 years) and in addition to that they don't care if you personally purchased it, as long as you've used it for its intended purpose and haven't done silly things with it they understand clotheslines are typically purchased by people for homes and they believe in and stand by their clotheslines so if you call them within the warranty period with a fault they'll work with you to rectify it. I realise this sounds like an ad for Austral now but I promise it isn't. I paid the difference between the Daytek and the Austral (over $100) to change brands even though I had to also increase clothesline size and I was just super impressed with Denise and Dennis at Austral who far exceeded my expectations with how helpful they were. Give them a call and chat clotheslines with them, if your experience is anything like mine you'll become a fangirl too and if you call Daytek first your bar will be set so low that Austral just answering the phone will be the highlight of your day before you even get into the details.

TL;DR Daytek hold the public in contempt and aren't afraid to show it so they obviously have so much business they're past silly inconveniences like customer service. Austral however are perfectly lovely and knowledgeable with great clotheslines (I paid someone to install the Daytek whereas my kid and I installed the Austral ourselves and only stuffed it up twice thus proving once and for all clothesline installation isn't a career option for us sadly). Australs clothesline arms are different to Dayteks, even with my limited technical knowledge it's obvious the fault I had with the Daytek can't replicate with the Austral so yay for the eventual win!

Great - until it needs the line replacing! – After several years the line needs replacing and I'm not sure how to do this. Several enquiries to Austral via phone and email have not yielded an answer. No instructions available. Very poor after-sales service in this regard. Other brands supply information for replacement line, but not suitable for this make.