To warn you not to buy a £900 washing machine from Miele...

[Moominmammaatsea]

...because when it goes wrong (less than a week later) you will spend aeons of your life and develop wrinkles before your eyes trying to get through to the laughably-misnomered Customer Care Line.

Am now mourning the loss of my 13-year-old non-Miele washer I stupidly traded in for this worthless lump of steel.

You have to go in armed with the Consumer Rights Act 2015. We got our Beko dishwasher fully refunded a couple of months before the 2yr warranty ran out because they couldn't fix it in a timely manner (six weeks without a dishwasher). Once I started quoting the act to them, the retailer gave me a full refund and came and collected it. I just had to wrap it in bubble wrap.

However I have a Miele washer dryer and despite a problem in the first week, JL and Miele were a joy to deal with and the engineer came out in 24hrs, did a firmware upgrade, rang me later in the day to check it was running the cycle correctly, and it's been fine for the last 2 years.

You may find that that complaining about the lack of customer care on Twitter will illicit a quick reply.

I got a £250 machine from Argos. Brilliant. Does the job.

Now you’re just rubbing it in, Neshoma 😁

Your complaint is with the retailer, not the manufacturer.

Fairly recently Miele revamped their website and their customer service system, and communications are awful or non-existent. From being Which's supplier of the year on a regular basis, at the last survey they're top of the complained-about list.

I called emailed them about a website problem not letting me register my oven, and they telephoned to explain, very apologetically, about the problems, and they'd registered my oven as I gave them the details required. I got the impression the lady I spoke to was even more frustrated than I was as she was dealing with it every day.

My new house (a new build) had five Zanussi appliances fitted by the builder, the oven, hob, dishwasher, fridge/freezer and cooker hood, and they're all crap. So far I've replaced the oven and dishwasher with Miele because of my experience with my Miele vacuum cleaners (the first vc lasted 20 years) and washing machine. The fridge/freezer is next on the list to be replaced by a bigger freezer and a smaller fridge. Miele is my first choice, Bosch second. I have equally good experiences with Bosch products.

But for a faulty product supplied, it's the retailer's responsibility.

I’ll never buy Miele again. They are double the price of anything else. Had a new Miele dishwasher stop working after 6 years and was uneconomical to repair. I now buy Bosch or Siemens. Perfectly good and when time comes to repair it won’t break the bank to replace & recycle if uneconomical to fix it.

I got a £250 machine from Argos. Brilliant. Does the job

This is what I do, now I’ve learned my expensive lesson. I buy the cheapest one that has all the functions I need and at least 4/5 in reviews. Usually it’ll be the 2nd or 3rd cheapest option.

Just get your money back from JL and start again.

i would go back to JL as that is who the contract sits with. JL are known to say that companies such as miele will repair/replace an item in order to sell it.

I don't know about Miele but a lot of Bosch stuff is made elsewhere, Mexico for one. We have Miele, on the second washing machine in over 30 years! When we no power to it at all they were very helpful, started to organise for a technician to come out but then said Turn all the power off then on to the house and see if it works. Lo and behold it did, don't know why but it saved us a fair few pounds.

John Lewis will refund you, no question.

@tillytrotter1

Your comment intrigued me into checking my Miele vac, oven, dishwasher and washing machine. The data plates on all four state 'Made in Germany'.

@figural They are made in a German factory and there is a log of every person who has touched the appliance on their systems :)

I can recommend AEG for washing machines.

I'll never spend a lot of money on a washing machine again. I spent £850 on an LG washing machine and it was a lemon right from the start. I had to spend a fortune getting someone out to fix it as only the LG mechanics would touch the damn thing. No one else would touch it with a bargepole.

Instead I bought a cheap Zannusi Lindo which was the same price as the callout fee to fix the other machine. it's been great so far and if it breaks I'm just going to ditch it rather than wasting money on repairs as it's cheaper to buy a new machine.

Terrible waste, but that's what our disposable culture has brought me too.

Purpleapple

That's amazing. It's easy to track who's done what with electronic records but that seems to be going to the nth degree. Miele have always been a family owned firm, 120 years old next year, so they must have an awful lot invested in family pride and tradition.

@Figural indeed they do, I work within the company and it is such a lovely company to be part of :)

I love my Samsung, its brilliant.

I'd be surprised if John Lewis were unresponsive to such a complaint.

Absolute opposite experience here

I think their customer service is awesome

And their products - best out there

Watching. Had a Miele dishwasher for over 10 years and loved it. Just moved house so need new kitchen & appliances. LG washing machine is still going well after 7 years.

Glad to see that Miele is sticking to Germany, probably Rheda Wiedenbrueck where our first one came from. When we ordered it it was delivered to us straight from the factory, unpacked and installed. Certainly Bosch are not all built in Germany and it's showing.

Had two amazing candy washers. In our last house the builder included appliances so had a whirlpool. When I moved in her I bought a new candy but it’s not half as good.

My parents have bought plenty of machines over the years for rental property, however their own Bosch must be over 20 years old. Their general rule is £100 per year of expected life - so a £200 machine should last 2 years and a 1k machine 10 years - obviously this is a very rough rule of thumb. My first Bosch lasted 10 years, the next 5 years and the last only 3 years.
We bought a highly rated LG this time.... hopefully at £400 it'll last the 4 years I am hoping for.
A Bosch engineer told me recently that "they don't build them to the same quality as they used to!" I have noticed that £300 will buy you the same sort machine it would have done 10 years ago - so today's £300 machine will inevitably be of poorer quality.
OP - I would go back to John Lewis and escalate. Use social media if needs be.
As much as I love JL, I think they're also going down the pan quality wise. Their customer service used to be excellent, if you search online reviews - their call centres now have poor ratings etc. They have also had poor financial results and will be looking to make cuts.