Bosch 2 yr guarantee -worthless?

GS131

Last January (2004) I bought a Bosch washing machine with a 2 year guarantee. On Sunday it stopped filling with water, after cleaning the filters as per manual, nothing was improved so on Monday I telephoned the repair centre.
Firstly I was told that the first available date was 2 weeks hence, March 2nd but in the assistants opinion this was not acceptable and she would contact Swindon, our nearest centre to see if she could get 'the slot' bought forward, some one would phone me by the end of the day. Nothing.

Tuesday I was told it could take 48 hours for Swindon to respond and I should wait. Today I was told they would only come early if they had a cancellation.

There are four adults here - a 2 week delay is far too long for us to be without a washing machine - not only is this delay unacceptable (as a member of their own staff volunteered) but it leads to me to wonder if this guarantee has any value at all ! On top of that three different call centre assistants have told me three different things !

PS Where did this sig come from - its not mine - help !

aliasojo

Sorry you're having such a rough time with the machine. Our washing machine is more needed than some of the family menbers, so I sympathise.

Can't make your washing situation any better for you....but I can help with the sig. If you click on 'user CP' which is just above on the bar above the thread, you will see a page with options on the left. Click on 'edit signature' and delete what's there. You can either leave the box blank or write a new sig yourself.

(When the new site went live, there were a few hiccups....one of them being mixed up and multiple copies of the same sig.)

Bossyboots

How I sympathise with this. We took out an extended guarantee with Comet on our washing machine. We had to wait two weeks before they would even come and look at it. When the engineer did come he then said it needed a new motor and he would be back to fit it in two weeks time!!

In actual fact, the machine only needed new brushes. My hubby still had some brushes from our original machine. A little bit of jiggery pokery and he got the machine going. We had to make sure we changed the brushes back before both visits from the engineer though. I ended up being without my machine for about five days until hubby sorted it out but between my mum and mother-in-law we managed to keep on top of the clothes. I did however end up with a months worth of towels and bed linen from four of us as we gave priority to clothes in case the brushes failed or something else went wrong meantime.

Thanks for the info about the sig. I had wondered where mine had suddenly come from.

MarkyMarkD

Bossyboots wrote:

How I sympathise with this. We took out an extended guarantee with Comet on our washing machine. We had to wait two weeks before they would even come and look at it. When the engineer did come he then said it needed a new motor and he would be back to fit it in two weeks time!!

In actual fact, the machine only needed new brushes. My hubby still had some brushes from our original machine. A little bit of jiggery pokery and he got the machine going. We had to make sure we changed the brushes back before both visits from the engineer though. I ended up being without my machine for about five days until hubby sorted it out but between my mum and mother-in-law we managed to keep on top of the clothes. I did however end up with a months worth of towels and bed linen from four of us as we gave priority to clothes in case the brushes failed or something else went wrong meantime.

Thanks for the info about the sig. I had wondered where mine had suddenly come from.

I can't believe you bought an extended warranty when you have a husband who is clearly more handy that the average Comet engineer!

RedOnRed

This is a bit concerning. I got a new Bosch washing machine last September with a two year guarantee, which I extended to 5 at quite a competitive rate.

I'm a computer engineer and am fully aware that any support is almost worthless if you don't have a clear indication of response times and SLA's (service level agreements). Otherwise it basically means they can just come out when they like.

It's a situation that tends to arise a lot in the domestic PC service market. In a corporate environment there are clearly defined response times which is what you want at home too, and if those aren't met there can be penalties and recourse.

rygon

couldnt you get compensation off them as the item is not fit for purpose (and under warrenty) maybe charge them for the cost of getting someone to clean the stuff for you seems reasonable

Bossyboots

MarkyMarkD wrote:

I can't believe you bought an extended warranty when you have a husband who is clearly more handy that the average Comet engineer!

We milked the situation though and with a bit of careful timing we have had the machine overhauled and new parts fitted. We worked it out with the price of parts we paid less for the warranty than the parts we had changed. Once we caught on to the length of time between call out and someone coming we made sure we got our money's worth. It was only the price of the parts that persuaded us to take out the warranty. We used to have a little shop near us that we would get spare parts from and then it was better to do it ourselves. We should get another five years out of the machine now at which time we would get rid of it anyway if it went wrong again. My hubby would tell the engineer what parts he wanted changed to solve any "problems" and it seemed they were so pleased at not having to make the diagnosis themselves, they would go along with it.

GS131

Is anyone aware of any recommended timescale for these things ? Or is there any validity in the 'not fit for the purpose' route ?

It just cost me £47 for a load sent to the local Ironing Lady, who washed it as well, that didn't include underwear, towels or bedding either........OK that was rather excessive but my time is valuable too - I just can't sit in a launderette for hours......

I am also concerned that if I send for a local repair guy I will invalidate the guarantee

Davidboy

We have a Zanussi w/m, damn thing has always been trouble. Took out insurance with Domestic and General, that was 5 years ago, since then have had the drum replaced twice, motor once, programmer once, door seal twice. Just had to ring D&G, they gave me no. for local shop, always came within two days and fixed on spot each time.....brilliant. Always amazes me why they keep repairing it, as it is a new for old policy. The repair man we know by name now, says if we call him again he will push for new machine.

Well done D&G. Thumbs down for Zanussi.