Status: Complete

Make halls responsible for Circuit washing machine repairs, not students.

Currently it is left up to students to ensure Circuit - the company who supply halls with washing and drying machine facilities - repair broken machines. This means students are left waiting for months on end expecting halls staff or maintainence staff to fix broken washers and dryers, without realising it is left to us students to take responsibility for calling the company for repairs. Please do not make students responsible for reporting machine breakage to Circuit, have staff make a weekly machine check for "out of order" messages or at least let us report it to reception.

Submitted on Monday 4th December 2017

Responses

Hi, thank you for your idea submission. I discussed your query with the University Residences team and this was their response: 

"It is the case that students are required to report issues directly to Circuit. This enables Circuit to discuss directly with the student about the issue, and allow issues – such as refunds being required – to be made in some cases immediately rather than there being a delay while the University report such an issue. Additionally, when there is more of maintenance type issue – clothes stuck in the machine etc – it is best for the student to report directly to be given the most immediate information too.

We do have routine visits by a Circuit engineer to check all machines and repair any that need repair, and in addition to this, we are introducing regular laundry checks by our own staff so we are aware more quickly of any faults. We will be reviewing our signage so the reporting information is [understandable] and while students would need to report directly to Circuit any faults with a machine they’ve used, it would be useful for students to report to Reception in addition so that we can organise out of order signs etc.

We are going to be looking at organising a Focus Group with Circuit to enable students to put their points across in an appropriate forum also in the future, so this should also allow students to have more of a voice."

I hope this helps. If not, please email me at vpwelfare@susu.org.

 

Kind regards, 

Sam Higman - Vice President Welfare

 

Tuesday 23rd Jan 2018 3:05pm

Actions

  • Forwarded to External Engagement
    Friday 8th Dec 2017 1:04pm

Comments

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  • This is a very serious and recurring issue in the halls. I fully agree that halls should regularly control the washing and drying machines and make sure they perform. I have had terrible experiences with reporting issues directly to Circuit. Moreover as stated in the initial comment above it should be the halls’ staff responsibility to report machine breakage to Circuit and follow-up all maintenance issues.  Halls should also make sure that Circuit maintains all machines at the expected standard. Students pay for this facility and they shouldn’t be expected to do part of Circuit’s job for them.   

    Submitted on Friday 8th December 2017 22:43 by Ioanna Galanaki