Poor Indesit Customer Care

Ralphonthepiano

I wonder if anyone could evaluate my right to complain.

My washing machine broke on Friday, 4 years old, had a look underneath and the motherboard/circuit board was burnt out underneath. Cost £100 for me to source part and fit it after trawling internet. Thought if I took it to look shop it would be £100 for new board plus labour. Had offer of £6 month cover from approved company but had 30 day wait for cover to begin and machine had to be in working order. Decided to take up£14.99 month cover from indesit (maker) with promise of new machine if unfixable and also 12 months continual instant cover. Rang them, told them it had a burnt out board, offered part number they said "No need, engineer carries all major parts for machine number you've given us".

Today, Following Tuesday, Engineer arrives looks at machine says "it's the motherboard, I don't have one". Not engineers fault, the only information he'd been given was that machine was tripping out the electrics. So now I have to take another day off of work to wait in again for another engineer and there is no guarantees that there isn't something else that has caused the motherboard to blow.

When I complained to Indesit they said that the people on the phones aren't engineers-I argued that I wasn't an engineer but looking underneath a black sooty thing with a fan and chips etc indicated to me that it was likely a motherboard and that information should be supplied to the engineer and wasn't. They argued that the engineer would first have to come and diagnose problem with his laptop-I replied that he just looked underneath as I did, saw motherboard and decided that was it, his laptop never went near it.

My complaint is not with taking today off work (I'm self employed) as I know that is a necessary evil to have a repair visit your home, but that it is a waste of time, I'm no further on than I was Friday, I have to take another day off work for engineer to revisit, none of the information I provided was passed on. No compromise or compensation offered.

Do I have grounds for complaint or should I just suck it up and get over it?

As a newbie would appreciate any help.

Chunks

If I understand correctly, you got cover from Indesit on a machine that was already broken for a fraction of the cost of the new board, which may be only part of the problem? Annoying that details of your conversation wasn't passed on but overall sounds like a steal to me....

Ralphonthepiano

Hi Chunks,

A genuine thanks for your reply. On the surface it does sound like a steal but it is costing me £14.99 x 12 months which is £179.88, plus I've been unable to work today which has cost me £70-80. I may be able to get that money back through working longer days, more travelling, but it is unlikely that taking another day off next Monday for the machine to be fixed is going to help in that regard.

So you' re looking at Min £250 and you can buy a new washer dryer for that, which I knew before I picked which avenue to walk down to get the machine repaired, but I tried to avoid today being pointless and I'm not confident that next Monday isn't going to be pointless as well.

Do you still think the same way?

Regards
Ralph

Chunks

Sorry, misread your post (thought you bought cover for a month = total outlay £14.99 which is a blinding deal)!

On reflection, I think I would be p!ssed off too. Do they have a complaints proceedure set out in the agreement? You could have a moan anyway (I always do ) and see how you get on.

Good luck.

cubanbetty

do you know what - i bought an idesit washing machine and after two months:mad: it broke - they would only send someone out if i agreed that if they found it to be my fault i would pay £120 - this is as much as the machine cost (almost) so i wasnt taking the chance!

i tried to repair it myself and if it had been successful it would have cost me £20 but the original fault had casued water to get into the fuses etc and i dont do electrics and i wasnt spending any more money on it! So i bought a new one... needless to say its not indesit!!
basically they are useless at the call centre - as vague as possible - tell you they arent engineers because they arent they are just out to get money off you and will charge you for a call out if there is any remote sniff of a chance! If i had the time I'd have complained to trading standards but as it happens i didnt have the time and the machine went to the tip!

do you get the feeling i dont like indesit?! :rotfl:

i did spend a long time complaining before i tried to fix it myself but they are far too ignorant and dismissive of the customers needs!
they also had the cheek to ring me up a year later to ask how i was getting on with my washing machine - when i told them what happened they were very sheepish and quick to get off the phone! lol!

my advice - 4 years is actually quite good for white goods - buy yourself a new washing machine but just make sure its not indesit!!!!!!!!

iwilldoitthistime

the problem with indesit is that they also make Hotpoint and Zanussi - all terrible! I had a hotpoint and took the cover with D&G - and they refused to pay out on the 'unfixable machine' because they said it was repairable - they just didnt stock the parts anymore! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

kwatt

Indesit make Hotpoint but not Zanussi.

Indesit owned brands are listed here.

Zanussi are owned by Electrolux, you can find all their brands listed here.

They do both, as far as I know, use the same system however through Domestic & General.

K.

soolin

I have a Hotpoint- so one of the 'associated makes' and agree with the comments that these machines are awful. I was with Domestic and general paying around £11 a month and my machine broke approx 4 times a year. each time the first call out was always just a diagnostic - so I would wait all day just to get someone say 'yep it's broke - re book an appointment and i'll bring parts next time'.

Every repair therefore took two day sof me waiting in.

I finally cancelled my insurance last November having seen how relatively cheap a new machine would be, and my machine broke yesterday so am now shopping for another one- anything made by any other company!

ormus

on a 4 yr old WM, just buy another one at say 200 quid ish.
and keep well away from dubious warranty schemes such as D&G.

at 120 quid per annum, you could buy a new machine every 2 yrs!

Dipak

Hi all,

Be careful when reading taking out these policies with D&G, I was tricked into taking it out and sold saying if they couldnt repair the machine first time and the same fault occurred again then they would give my a new machine. This didn't happen and I lost out so be careful.

D

Nile

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