A COUPLE were so incensed when Chippenham's Powerhouse store failed to deliver their fridge they held a protest outside the shop.

Ron May, 64, and his 59-year-old wife Elizabeth, who both suffer ill health, ordered the American-style fridge in August before their planned move to Malta on November 26.

Unfortunately, the company went into receivership the day after the couple forked out £1,014 for the large fridge. However, they were assured it would not delay the delivery.

Three months later, after frequent telephone calls and letters, Mr and Mrs May, from The Butts, in Chippenham, finally lost their patience and gave the company an ultimatum, that if the fridge was not delivered by 3pm on November 6 they would demonstrate outside the store, in Hathaway Park.

Mr May's daughter Paula, 40, said: "My dad ordered the fridge because he is diabetic and he needs a fridge to store insulin.

"They were given no reason to believe it would not be delivered and they're both devastated.

"When they go into the store they can see the exact same model they ordered and they asked if they could they have that, but they were told no.

"Elizabeth suffers from emphysema, and they are both quite poorly and we don't know what they will be like in six months time, especially with this hanging over them.

"They are both on incapacity pensions and they just don't have the spare money to buy another one."

Powerhouse collapsed in August and went into receivership with millions of pounds of debt.

A spokesman for the receivers, accountancy firm Deloit, said she thought it was unlikely the couple would ever get their fridge, and if they were refunded it might not be for the full amount.

"It's a very unfortunate situation and I can understand how frustrating it must be for customers to see what they have ordered sitting in the store.

"Unfortunately this is what happens when companies go into receivership."

PRG Powerhouse Ltd took over the company in September, but a spokesman for the new company said it was under no legal obligation to refund customers who made purchases before the old company went into receivership.

But she added: "Although we are under no obligation, as a gesture of goodwill we have been trying to right some of the wrongs suffered by customers."