Washing machine renewal - insurance

workingboy

We have certain devices covered by Domestic and General.
The washing machine on its second visit for repairs of same fault.
If said the machine cannot be repaired due its age and a new machine is offered as a replacement.
Would we have the choice for like for like replacement through the repair insurance or is that left to them ?

grumpy_codger

Well, you pay for some 'insurance' and ask us what exactly you pay for. 
Read the T&C. IMHO, most 'insurances' of this sort are waste of money as they llke to deem an appliance being 'beond economical repair'  and then to pay only the residual value of the appliance. And after many years this value becomes very small.
It's not that I'm saying that D&G are like this - I don't know.

EssexExile

grumpy_codger said:

Well, you pay fore some 'insurance' and ask us what exactly you pay for. 
Read the T&C. IMHO, most 'insurances' of this sort are waste of money as they llke to deem an appliance being 'beond economical repair'  and then to pay only the residual value of the appliance. And after many years this value becomes very small.
It's not that I'm saying that D&G are like this - I don't know.

D&G always used to be very good, giving you a new machine if the old one was irreparable. I've no idea if they are still that good, as Grumpy says read the terms and conditions. They used to choose what they replaced it with but that was many years ago so things may be different now, again read the terms and conditions.

DullGreyGuy

workingboy said:

We have certain devices covered by Domestic and General.
The washing machine on its second visit for repairs of same fault.
If said the machine cannot be repaired due its age and a new machine is offered as a replacement.
Would we have the choice for like for like replacement through the repair insurance or is that left to them ?

If the same machine still exists then it's likely to be the identical machine. If it's not then their system used to suggest what the closest matching model was and also a couple of other similar alternatives. As long as their wholesale price was the same they didnt care which you went for. They also had the option for you to choose a higher model but then you pay the difference in retail price between their suggested model and the one you want. 

Dont know if their processes are still the same but would guess they are.

IsitorIsitnot

I'm currently into my second week of no washing machine as I have an AO care plan. The wait for an engineer is a lot longer than if I'd just requested a non plan visit (could have been the next day!) but it costs £150. It seems that the longer you have the plan the more they do to make you give up trying to get it fixed by them under the plan! Guess they think you're so fed up waiting you'll just pay out to get a new one. I've been paying into it for nearly five years now and it seems each time I try and book an engineer it gets longer and I can no longer book on line I have to call them. Is it really worth taking out a plan or should I just save the £5 monthly fee ready for when I need it? Really not happy with the service it was supposed to provide!!

EssexExile

Whether it's worth having a care plan or not is very personal. Some people seem to have a lot of trouble with domestic appliances so can get their money's worth out of a care plan. Others rarely have problems so it would not be worth it for them.

If AO make you wait weeks I'd definitely look elsewhere for cover if you need it. When I worked in that field we'd be there within a couple of days and even if parts needed to be ordered it was normally less than a week. Even then we got moaned at for taking so long!

casper_gutman

I've never bothered with the repair plans, personally. If you put a fiver a month (per appliance) into a savings account that would go a long towards dealing with any issues as and when they arise, and it always seems to be easier to get a visit from a company when they're hoping you'll pay them afterwards than when you've already paid them over the months or years previously.

The only time I did have a repair plan from D&G was when I used their fixed cost repair service for a dishwasher that I was pretty sure needed a new motherboard. I forget the exact details, but I think there was nothing to pay if they couldn't repair it and they allowed you to choose whether the payment you'd made was a one-off payment for the repair or an up-front payment for 6 or 12 months of their repair plan. It seemed like a no-brainer. 

In the event they repaired it very thoroughly - including sorting a cosmetic crack in a panel and addressing an unrelated issue I'd happily been living with for years! I still let it lapse at the end of the 'free' period, though. The savings account has enough in it for a new dishwasher.

Bigphil1474

We had a range cooker on a D&G plan in our old house. Think we paid more for the plan than we got out but we took it out because we found it difficult to find any local trades to do repair work on it when it needed it. We always got someone out from D&G to do the repairs in a couple of days though.

The deal was always that they would exchange an unfixable appliance new for old, and to the same spec if the same model wasn't available. They don't usually offer to give you the money, and I doubt they keep appliances in a warehouse in case they need them, so it has to be a new appliance when needed.