Melitta coffee machine 3 years old, faced with a £600 repair bill

FizzyBobble

I liked my Melitta machine - although the quality of the coffee was not quite on par with basic manual espresso machines, the convenience of having a cappuccino at the touch of a button was the key selling point. 

However it is a bit of a leap to call it "smart" - the app is terribly limited and flaky, and it does not work over the internet or link to any smart home systems. There's no real advantage to having it at all.

After purchasing my new machine I asked Melitta customer service some questions about the machine and the app, it took weeks to get a boilerplate response that was entirely unrelated to the questions I asked. After a second polite email for clarification, I just got a rude "no" as an answer. They have made no effort to improve the app or fix the bugs and limitations. This experience set the scene really for what was to come in future.

The first major problem was when the machine broke down after about a year. My usage is typically 1-2 drinks a day, not heavy at all. It is quite demanding on all the cleaning processes that need doing, even so I used the correct products and followed the maintenance procedures as recommended by the manufacturer. Under the warranty, I was instructed to send the machine away to be repaired. Although I returned it in its original box, when it came back it was packaged badly in a box that was too large, this had resulted in considerable cosmetic damage to the machine which I was quite upset about. It's worth a note that I posted a review at that time - instead of contacting me to see if they could help to resolve their customer's dissatisfaction, Melitta simply had the review removed!

Anyway I had 2 more years of light use out of it before it broke down again. I followed advice online about cleaning it and resetting it, but to no avail. No one would touch the machine other than the one repair company endorsed by Melitta, "Coffee Classics". Now it's no longer under warranty, you have to pay £30 to send it to them. It took 3 weeks for them to look at the machine - now I have a quote they are saying basically every main component is broken and needs to be replaced. The total bill will be over £600. If I don't go ahead with the repair, I will still have to pay again to get the broken machine back (I guess they hope I won't, I only have their word for it that 4 different components all mysteriously failed at the same time... Draw your own conclusions on this?)

I am absolutely livid that such an expensive machine is so unreliable. You would expect for £1000 and from a "reputable" brand that it would last more than 3 years. I have experience with much cheaper machines that last decades without complaint. I certainly will not be parting with money for a Melitta machine again. 

Based on my story I do not hold out much hope that I could pursue this matter any further, but any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks!

DullGreyGuy

Your statutory rights are with the retailer, so did you buy the machine directly from them or via someone else? 

What have they stated is the cause of the breakdown? Certainly things like limescale can damage multiple major components at the same time if you are in a hard water area and is likely to be considered a maintenance issue.

Not sure which machine you have, their most expensive one today directly from them is £850 and notably cheaper from resellers. It's not a brand I'm aware of but assume they are fairly middle market given their prices against the likes of Sage and their non-smart versions are currently £500. 

Ultimately you would have to prove to the retailer that it isnt a user created problem and that 3 years isnt a reasonable life given the brand, its price point etc. If the retailer accepts this it's up to them on if to repair, replace or refund but note that a refund can be reduced to reflect the use to date. Whilst the law doesn't define how this should be calculated based on the methodology that the likes of John Lewis use it would be circa 50% refund depending on exactly how many months you had it. 

pinkshoes

FizzyBobble said:

I liked my Melitta machine - although the quality of the coffee was not quite on par with basic manual espresso machines, the convenience of having a cappuccino at the touch of a button was the key selling point. 

However it is a bit of a leap to call it "smart" - the app is terribly limited and flaky, and it does not work over the internet or link to any smart home systems. There's no real advantage to having it at all.

After purchasing my new machine I asked Melitta customer service some questions about the machine and the app, it took weeks to get a boilerplate response that was entirely unrelated to the questions I asked. After a second polite email for clarification, I just got a rude "no" as an answer. They have made no effort to improve the app or fix the bugs and limitations. This experience set the scene really for what was to come in future.

The first major problem was when the machine broke down after about a year. My usage is typically 1-2 drinks a day, not heavy at all. It is quite demanding on all the cleaning processes that need doing, even so I used the correct products and followed the maintenance procedures as recommended by the manufacturer. Under the warranty, I was instructed to send the machine away to be repaired. Although I returned it in its original box, when it came back it was packaged badly in a box that was too large, this had resulted in considerable cosmetic damage to the machine which I was quite upset about. It's worth a note that I posted a review at that time - instead of contacting me to see if they could help to resolve their customer's dissatisfaction, Melitta simply had the review removed!

Anyway I had 2 more years of light use out of it before it broke down again. I followed advice online about cleaning it and resetting it, but to no avail. No one would touch the machine other than the one repair company endorsed by Melitta, "Coffee Classics". Now it's no longer under warranty, you have to pay £30 to send it to them. It took 3 weeks for them to look at the machine - now I have a quote they are saying basically every main component is broken and needs to be replaced. The total bill will be over £600. If I don't go ahead with the repair, I will still have to pay again to get the broken machine back (I guess they hope I won't, I only have their word for it that 4 different components all mysteriously failed at the same time... Draw your own conclusions on this?)

I am absolutely livid that such an expensive machine is so unreliable. You would expect for £1000 and from a "reputable" brand that it would last more than 3 years. I have experience with much cheaper machines that last decades without complaint. I certainly will not be parting with money for a Melitta machine again. 

Based on my story I do not hold out much hope that I could pursue this matter any further, but any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks!

I would get "Coffee Classics" to put their findings in writing and ask them to suggest why it has failed in this way. You can then send this information to Melitta (I'm assuming here you bought direct from them? If not, your consumer rights are with the retailer) and claim under the 2015 Consumer Rights act that you have a report showing that the machine has failed due to an inherent fault/poor design (you need the report to say this, and basically say it hasn't failed due to mis-use) then ask Melitta to either pay for a repair, replace it, or give you a partial refund (reflecting the 3 years use you've had).