Whirlpool - misinformation led to me paying!

indiegirl_2

I moved into a new build property in January last year. Unfortunately for me, there was a built-in Whirlpool oven installed.

It went bang on 31st May this year, some 16months after moving in.

Rang Whirlpool, was put through to their service centre, and was told that I could get my appliance repaired under the second year of the guarantee that they offer on properties which are new builds. "Excellent, that's a nice and generous bonus" thought I.

Then came the catch: "please let us know the name of your builders". They're not one of the "big" builders, so I rattled off their name and umbrella company names, to be met with "oh, they're not on my list, so you might have to pay. If you get the name of the installation team, I can make sure that the second year of the guarantee kicks in. As it's a new build you shouldn't have to pay". OK, so let's book a date for the repair. "we only have one on X date" - which happened to be 9 days away! So much for Whirlpool's "2 day pledge" (on their guarantee booklet)...

Off I go, ringing around to find the installer's name. I call Whirlpool back with this information, but I still don't have the magic words to utter to them. I am told to speak to Customer Services about the situation, as I'm only 4months out of my warranty and "we'd hope that we can fix it under the two year new build guarantee".

Now, for those that have had the misfortune, there is one gentleman on the CS line for Whirlpool who is an arrogant, pompous buffoon who seemed to greatly enjoy talking down to me. He refused to acknowledge that 9 days to wait for a repair was out of Whirlpool's 2 day pledge, and also disagreed that 16 months was unacceptable for the service life of an oven. (he would, after all - he was employed by them!)

At this point, I was getting very irritated by his condescending manner (simplifying his words and speaking s l o w l y to get through to me), and tried to play my trump card: "Mine is the third of this batch of ovens in my block of flats to have failed in the last year. This questions the durability and the quality of the batch installed in the property, in my opinion" I said.

"Madam, I would suggest that there is a supply problem with your electricity and that's causing parts to blow and ovens to fail" he came out of the blue with.

Erm, and exactly how would that happen? I spoke to the electrical contractors who laughed at the suggestion. I have a basic knowledge of electrical engineering and I know that electrical surges are nigh on impossible. At the very least, if I had electrical surges one of two things would happen:
1) my fusebox breaker would trip, stopping the surge getting through
2) or, anything else that was on at the time (TV, Computer, washing machine) would also go pop.

I also managed to extract from him that Whirlpool only give guarantees to the "big" builders; which in my opinion penalises unfairly. I am unable to control or help who builds my property! The most irritating part was that the Service Centre were adamant that I shouldn't pay for the repair... Customer Services seemed to think otherwise!

Anyway, the long and short of it is that 9 days after reporting it, Whirlpool decided to send an engineer, who fixed my oven and charged me £164 for the privilege. I have written a complaint letter to them, detailing the condescending b*s*a*d on the telephone, his appalling 'service' and to ask for compensation for the lifespan of an appliance which I feel should be slightly more than 16 months!!

We shall see if Whirlpool bother replying. If necessary, I'll get my electrical engineer Uncle to test the building for me and verify the electrical supply.

Is there anywhere else I can take this? Would Trading Standards get involved??

Thanks in advance (apologies for the longwinded read!)