Domestic & General Warranty on a Hotpoint

Re: Domestic & General Warranty on a Hotpoint

Hi Dave,

This isn’t a D&G problem persay, it’s an industry one.

There is a severe shortage of engineers, full stop. No-one wants to invest in engineers or in training new ones and this leads to inevitable delays, added to which customers want appliances for next to nothing then expect premier service on them. I know that’s perhaps not a politically correct way for one of us to talk to a customer but it is the sad truth of the matter.

The mere fact that both Merloni (who now own Hotpoint) and employ their own engineering force and an independent repairer have long lead times only highlights this fact.

Let me ask you a simple question or two…

In an appliance costing circa £2-300 where’s the money to get an emergency service, bearing in mind the cost of a plumber to visit and he’d be there… sometime.

How much do you pay to get a car serviced? Yet you have to arrange to take the vehicle to the garage, at your expense and wait till they’re done with it, often a day or more later.

We get paid a lot less than either example given due to the financial constraints placed by, in effect, customers wishing cheaper and cheaper appliances yet we are expected by customer to give a better service. Can you see the problem? The two goals are diametrically opposed to one another.

I know it’s not politically correct by any stretch but I find customers accept the truth far better than a line from the public relations handbook.

K.

Re: Domestic & General Warranty on a Hotpoint

Yes, but there are certain criteria in place to repair under contract and not all repairers are equal. Much like not all car servicing garages are equal, some are good and some are bad, generally D&G weed out the bad and accept only the good.

There are also a lot of repairers out there with absolutely no interest in carrying out contract work so they can offer a premier service and, ultimately, charge more for it.

K.

Re: Domestic & General Warranty on a Hotpoint

Yes David and, as Kevin points out quite rightly Hotpoint’s owners, Merloni, haven’t exactly won friends within the independents over the past few years by antics such as those described by Kevin and much more besides that.

I sympathise with the customers, such as yourself, that are left for weeks with an appliance that you bought in good faith and expected a decent service should it fail. But please remember that Hotpoint/Merloni provide their own service with their own employed engineers and all that D&G are trying to do is minimise the inconvience by looking outside of that organisation for a better service, there is no other reason.

As Kevin has rightly pointed out though, this is a short-term measure by DAG and, as such, we also treat it with some hesitation especially in the likes of stockholding as we’re hardly liable to invest in stock etc. when the work could and probably will be whipped away at any moment. Merloni have also done this in the past to a lot of the guys, as well as recently offering ridiculously low fees with no security to try to get the independent repairers to help out but as they say, once bitten…

K.

Honestly Dave, this isn’t an issue with DAG they’re a good company to work for in general and few of us have any truck with them at all.

The issue here is that the actual manufacturer that is supposed to be providing the service on your appliance to the level that you desire cannot do so, therefore DAG are forced into looking elsewhere to get some form of better service for their customers. Trust me, many an insurer wouldn’t have even bothered to go that far!

But getting technical information from an “in-house” operation like Merloni is a nightmare and that’s just the start of the issues, as they won’t even give a lot of it to us in the trade let alone the public. You also have to bear in mind that Merloni had, about two years ago, a network of independent repairers and they were cast aside almost overnight when they bought Hotpoint in favour of employed engineers. The standard in this industry is a 30 day or three month notice of termination and I know that some of the people that were doing service are still fighting to return stock or get credit on returned stock almost two years later. This shows how volatile the industry is, especially service and also how unstable it is as things can change quite literally overnight.

What I’m trying to say is that you asked the wrong question really, DAG just have to deal with a situation of the manufacturer’s making. The question that you should be asking is why can Hotpoint/Merloni not provide the service in the first place? If they could then the issue with DAG would never have existed and, in the end, DAG rely on Merloni to provide that service on their appliances, which they have obviously failed to do.

Many manufacturers are faced with a shortage of engineers, it’s just the way of things these days I’m afraid and the rates of pay on offer do not allow re-investment in training new engineers. In some cases it doesn’t even pay for the expected level of service by customers now.

Recommending a manufacturer or a warranty company that will offer the best of both worlds right now is pretty much a nightmare as you could be in a position where, with a 5 year spares warranty, you are forced to use manufacturer’s own service. With a pukka extended warranty the service route on year 2 and onward may be different from year 1 and this can change dependent on who you buy the warranty from or even which store you chose to buy in.

K.

I do work for DAG and have done for the past 15 years at least through various routes for various manufacturers but they do not in any way form a mainstay of my business. If they were no use I’d either tell the truth or turf them out as I have done with many other companies over the years. Others will also tell you that DAG are good to work for in the main as well and there’s really no issue with them at all, in fact they’re one of the better insurers in my opinion.

The problem is that call centre staff and, ourselves to a large extent, are either not really allowed or expected to comment on such situations and we get sick of repeating the same story time and time again.

I wish I was free, but we are in the busiest time of the year for our industry, another reason for the repsonse times you’ve been quoted no doubt. 😉

Do let us know how you get on as it’s always interesting to hear how the story pans out.

K.

Re: Domestic & General Warranty on a Hotpoint

hi dave,

sorry been working all day and have just caught up with the thread….I’ll ditto all kwatts points and also say that D&G are one of the best insurance companies to work for……but they do need to be strong at this time.

Good luck

Kevin