Washer dryer broken down 4 times, any advice?

holidaychicken

hi, hope someone can offer some advice and sorry for the long post.

i had a washer dryer delivered under a domestic and general insurance policy as a 'free' replacement as my old one couldnt be repaired, although this still cost me nearly £100?? but anyway i chose a hoover machine which was delivered direct from hoover uk and this was when the problems started. i will try and summarise.

first machine delivered had cracked heat shield on door so rejected
second machine delivered without heat shield at all but didnt notice as my girlfriend was around my house to sign as i was away.
told hoover who at first said it wasn't on all machines but i argued the point and spoke to someone else who said it definately did need one and eventually sent one out for me to fit myself. the machine is in fact very dangerous to operate without it, due to the temparature the glass gets up to, supposing the tumble dryer actually works.

2 months later dryer packed up only used very infrequently as mid summer
engineer visited said part needed and eventually after approx 4 weeks another engineer arrived to fit

machine broke down again in a couple of weeks of infrequent use.
another engineer called and repaired and also put a big rip in my lino!!
machine broke down within a week
another engineer visited and repaired
machine broken down again, still same fault of tumble dryer not working so engineer booked again for this week.

my point is that so far i have to be indoors for 9 half days for them to deliver or repair one item, that includes three appointments that they didnt even show up for.

i spoke to consumer direct who said the problem i have is i didnt buy the machine off a seller so my rights as a buyer dont apply.

the machine still has approx 6 months of guarantee left but surely i dont have to put up with them keep calling to repair it.
i asked them to replace it and start my guarantee again but they refused and said they will keep repairing it until the engineer says it isnt repairable.

the problem is, the tumble dryer is overheating for some reason and they reset the trip switch everytime they visit, replace some small part which isnt faulty and clear off untill i ring again in a couple of days.

how long do i have to put up with them repairing the same fault. their guarantee just says they will repair the machine and replace any parts free of charge for a year, but surely i have more rights to complain.

could i charge them a call out everytime i have to be at home?

as i say, sorry for the long post, but any help would be really appreciated.

many thanks

holidaychicken

i am replying to my own post here, amazingly after i posted this, i had a phone call to say the engineer was off sick and was cancelling my appointment until next week, problem is, i have been off sick for 8 weeks so all the callouts havent been too much of a problem but now i cant afford any time off for visits. i argued and argued with the service department who said they wouldnt replace the machine so i asked to speak to the md whose name i had already got from their email enquiry page.

anyway spoke to customer services as he wasnt available , explained all that had gone on and straight away they are sending a brand new better machine out next week, and even installing it. didnt even need to argue my point.

maybe the answer is if anyone is having similar problems is speak to customer services, not the service department.

mumOf2wonderfulkids

i have had similar problems wiith my hoover washing machine,

their service department are absolutely useless! my w/machine is only 8 months old and has broken down countless times!

i'm hopefully getting a replacement different machine over the weekend hopefully, no matter how much i tried with hoover i had no luck so well done on that front!:T

i had to go back to Dixons to get my exchange, just hoping i dont get the same problems from hotpoint

holidaychicken

i know what you mean there, i had 3 missed appointments and only one phone call to say the engineer wouldnt turn up, but that was the day after he should have turned up, customer services were brilliant and the problem was sorted in minutes.

if anyone else wants the useful number its 08443 712755

thanks for the reply and good luck with the machine, hopefully mine and yours will behave now

smcaul

I dont think anyone makes a durable washer drier any more!!!!! We had our old one for over 10 years, then about 2 years ago we decided that it really was past it's best, was going through brushes on the motor every 6 months. So we got a Hotpoint (old one was a HP as well), after 1 month and 3 call outs it was replaced by the better HP model.

After another 10 months that one went faulty, engineer out 3 times to it, got Sainsburys (DRL) to replace the machine as not durable and unfit for purpose. That got replaced last February by an Indesit, 2 weeks ago that failed as well!!!!! After 2 engineer visits Indesit have agreed to replace the machine with a new one and start a new 12 month warranty with it!

So in the last 2 years we will have had 4 new machines, and they only get normal family use, nothing heavy!!

They just don't make em like they used to!!!!

holidaychicken

i know exactly what you mean, on a slightly different topic, i bought a belling microwave, being a great british name, made in china i found out, 1 month and the light bulb blew, tried to get a new one but no parts avaialble so swapped it for another one, few weeks later, same thing, swapped it for a better one and paid more as the old one wasnt avaialble, few weeks, went pop and blew the fuses in my house, changed to a different make, cant remember what. but when i unpacked it, everything was identical to the belling, packaging , plate etc, turns out it was from the same factory in china, didnt even last a month.

i got my money back and bought a panasonic which is made in the uk and so far 2 years old and perfect still.

it just doesn't seem economical to buy in all this cheap cr*p from china

cheers for reply

holidaychicken

got my new machine today, the delivery guys said all they seem to do is pick up broken down hoover candy machines, shall i run a poll on how long do you think this machine will last until it breaks down????????

someone told me it costs hoover £30 to make these machines abroad!!

it has already cost me 10 x half days to sit in and wait for someone to either deliver or fix my machines or not to turn up at all.