Another poster has a thread about being given the hard sell for an extended warranty on kitchen appliances and it got me thinking about our recent crap experience with Miele.
We have been fans of their products since we bought a Miele dishwasher back in the late nineties. Since then we have pretty much exclusively bought Miele products, including washing machine & tumble dryer in 2000, full kitchen in 2002, another full kitchen and utility products in second home in 2007, and more recently another new set of appliances when we rebuilt our house 3 years ago. We currently own 4 Miele ovens, 2 combi-microwave ovens, 2 coffee machines, 1 steam oven, 2 warming drawers, 4 dishwashers, 6 (!) fridges, 2 washing machines, 2 tumble dryers, 2 rotary irons, an extractor fan and a vacuum cleaner. All appliances were top of the range when purchased. Miele only used to offer individual extended warranties (that may have changed now) which quite clearly would add up to an astronomical amount for that lot, plus Miele are supposed to be known for their quality so I have not taken them up on that.
The latest batch of white goods has been very far from trouble free however; one of the dishwashers had a leaky salt dispenser which corroded the tiled floor underneath (no compensation from Miele for that), the washing machine has had a fault, the coffee machine needed a major repair and most recently the lock went on the oven shortly after the 2 year manufacturer's warranty period, resulting in an almost £300 repair. The engineer said it was an engineering failure in the unit that contains the lock and he very rarely comes across that problem, i.e. it shouldn't fail. The lock is only needed when the pyrolytic function is used, i.e. every few months in my case (prepared to be flamed on my cleaning!) and you cannot use the pyrolytic function without the lock working.
When they came to repair it I wasn't happy as I thought it was making a funny noise afterwards (having pulled the whole oven out) and they said that they would send another engineer out & would discuss the bill with me then. He was rather confused regarding the bill, as he said there was nothing he could do about it, so I asked to speak to a manager. He said he would get someone to call me.
I have since tried without success to speak to someone who has any real authority, but have continued to receive demanding letters for the amount due. The most recent said that I would no longer be eligible for support from Miele should any other appliances go wrong.
At this point it is not about the money, but the principle. I really think that a part that isn't in day-to-day use should not fail so soon (and only just outside the warranty period). Just exactly how many products do we have to purchase before some sort of customer loyalty benefit is given?!
Many apologies for the long rant post; just needed to get that lot off my chest! "Immer besser"? I think not!