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Answers on a post card.
Just been to a Hotpoint WF440P. The machine is in a Social Services residential home ( displaced men on hard times type of residents). I did the installation on this machine just over 3 months ago. When I pulled the machine out it looked like a builders yard floor underneath. The front lower balance weight had ripped completely off the drum and the top balance weight was very loose and had severely damaged the top mounting lugs and top concrete weight. One problem is that the machine is a large cellar of this rambling mansion so no one would have heard it running. Although it is not under domestic use, the place only has 14 residents and 2 washing machines. Checking the model number reveals that it is a Comet exclusive and the Warden is sure they negotiated some sort of contract with ‘someone’. That will please the local Comet store. 🙂 It will need complete outer drum & top weight.
I have read one report on this forum, of WMA top weight lugs snapping off, but to be honest this is the first time I have had any problems with WMA type weight fixings. It may well be that someone has altered the torque settings for the mounting bolts, oh what joy. 😥
Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
How long is a piece of string?
My problem with ‘Hotpoint’ is the deception (authors views).
The general public still like Hotpoint as a brand, and still think it’s British. I reckon at one time, 80{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of our repairs were on Hotpoints. All those family’s with ’95**’ machines will be looking at their brown aged creature, and thinking ‘It’s about time I got a new Hotpoint’.
They’re going to get a nasty surprise if they think it will be like their old one.
I’d put one of my re-con 95’s or WM’s, up against a WF anyday. Reliablity test! Till the death!
Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
Goatboy you are spot on about the deception.
Manufacturers should not be allowed by law to continue to use brand names that they have aquired without making it clear to the consumer that they are not buying what they think they are buying. IMO, the only reason that they are able continue this practice is because these multi-national companies are so powerful that they have considerable influence on government policies (ie. corruption).
If you or I pulled a stunt like this we would be down the Trading standards / advertising authorities office so quick our feet would’nt touch the ground – so whats the difference?
Andy 😥
Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
Easy on the ‘Brand Names’ guys. No company (not even Indesit) would allow themselves open to being accused of deception? Currently if one was to buy a Hotpoint for example then a Hotpoint is what one gets.
Now on the issue of acquisition of brand names? Again they do not hide anything from anyone, and after all it is just a name. What you really are getting at is brand recognition based on reputation’? Now that is a different thing altogether. And on that issue alone, unless the product comes up to the purchasers expectations albeit on brand name recognition alone, unless it fulfills their criteria, then in the big bad world of commerce and consumerism, only the good survive. 😉
Since Rolls Royce Motor Cars was taken over by BMW, they have increased their overall sales. Good quality has never slipped during that takeover at least. Had Indesit (a FIAT sponsored company by the way) bought Rolls Royce instead…who knows what would have transpired?
Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
I assume at the time then that Hotpoint were sponsored by Austin Rover? Would make sense in the light of what happened.
Chris.
Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
Talking of brand names selling. Bosch using Crosslee for some of their dryers.
Nothing wrong with white knight i have had one for 10 years but it aint no Bosch.Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
Nice lady to repairman – ‘I hate Candy, used to have a Candy, nothing but trouble’
Repairman to nice lady – ‘Would it interest madam to know that you have a Candy washing machine now’
Nice lady to repairman – No I hav’nt, my machines a Hoover’!
Repairman to nice lady – Sorry but it’s a Candy with a Hoover badge’
Nice lady to repairman – If I had known that I would never have bought it’!
No matter how you look at it this lady was decieved.
The quality of the product is irrelevent, she might be getting something better or worse but this does not change the fact that she was deceived.
I am not saying that these companies should not be allowed to use these aquired brand names but that the public should be fully informed about the product that they are buying. I don’t think this is too much to ask.
Andy 🙂
Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
andy2 wrote:I am not saying that these companies should not be allowed to use these aquired brand names but that the public should be fully informed about the product that they are buying. I don’t think this is too much to ask.
I don’t think the manufacturers actively decieve the public but they certainly don’t shout about all their “sub brands” either.
The retailers have a responsibilty here, it’s them that sell to the public, or is it just lack of pruduct/training knowledge ? 😉
Dave.
Ha, you ask in most of the shops who makes what and you’ll get a blank stare!
They can however tell you all about the extended warranty and why you should have it as well as the range of finance packages available.
Good honest product knowledge… no chance.
K.
Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
andy2 wrote:Repairman to nice lady – Sorry but it’s a Candy with a Hoover badge’
Perhaps for Repairman it would be more accurate to explain to Nice Lady that her genuine Hoover branded machine is remarkably similar to a Candy and made somewhere within the EU by the Hoover Candy Group of companies.
It is not a ‘rebadged’ machine in this case but 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} Hoover rubbish. And it would be unfair to associate it with Candy who have for many years before the acquisition of Hoover from Maytag in 1993 have been market leaders in the art of producing cheap shoddy products to the masses!
Very recently this established Italian culture caught the attention of the Merloni brothers who beat Candy S.p.a to the bidding and takeover of GDA Hotpoint. And in a mountaintop villa north of Milano the phone rang one evening during dinner telling Francesco and his brother Antonio they had successfully acquired GDA………”BELISIMO!”
…….the rest of the story is unfolding as I type :rotfl:
Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
The latest ‘rebadging’ will be Lec fridges now Glen Dimplex have the rights to the name.
Wait for the Lec stuff from China/Turkey etc.
Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
Well…
I actually don’t think that this is an issue in the end. Everyone knows that Daewoo is now a rebadged Chrysler or whatever and that Merc make, or have something to do with making, Swatch cars (no, not the A Class :lol:) and probably many others that I can’t recall.
The difference between that market and this one is that the information isn’t out there. There’s no point of reference for the customer other than the salesperson in-store and an engineer if/when he calls. There is no printed media out there or on the internet (except here) that will tell a customer all about this sort of thing.
Given the shocking lack of staff’s product knowledge in the chains is it really any wonder that it’ customers are so easily confused by branding? And, even we get confused over who made what from time to time, so what chance does a customer have?
I don’t think that the problem is going to go away either, if anything I think it’s going to get worse. What does irk me a bit is that many a good brand name has been totally devalued (IMO) by using cheap rubbish instead of what the customer thought they were buying, but customers aren’t entirely stupid and they do learn.
Just look at what happened to Philco and now Servis.
K.
Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
[What does irk me a bit is that many a good brand name has been totally devalued (IMO) by using cheap rubbish instead of what the customer thought they were buying]
Absolutely right and exactly the point I was making with regard to Lec.
Dont automatically beat up the poor salesman in the out of town shed though. They do not necessarily have the knowledge of who makes what and it may aid the purposes of the corporate suits to keep it that way because the cheap tat will normally make a better margin.
I would think that that the shed salespeople would sell most recognised brands with conviction and in good faith – but if they knew where they really came from…
Re: Can Hotpoint get any worse
aeronaut wrote:Dont automatically beat up the poor salesman in the out of town shed though.
Sorry, but I have no sympathy for them at all.
IMO, they don’t care about the customers needs at all. They just want to sell them something! If they cared, they would get product training and know something about the companies.
This is typical…
boro wrote:KGV fridge freezer 18 months old.
Customer complains that ice is building up in freezer. So instead of wasting my time and hers I ring her up to explain that this is not a frost free appliance. Only to have her say that the salesman in Comet/Currys or wherever told her it was. 😕
Ok fair enough, but she won’t take my word for it that it’s not she would rather believe the salesman’s rubbish, instead of believing me someone who has worked for Bosch for a long time now.
Do these muppets in the superstores get any training at all?. And why do customers believe them over engineers. 😕
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