Customers expected their washing machines to last for 12 yea

Re: Customers expected their washing machines to last for 12

What is life without hope? We all hope above our expectations when we buy something. Who can say if a 250 quid Hotpoint can’t manage 12 yrs? A slick salesman will say yes and a smart arsed engineer will disagree.

Re: Customers expected their washing machines to last for 12

Can I just point out a few things?

First is, repairers only ever see broken ones.

Second is, they don’t see the broken one’s that just get tossed without any consideration of a repair.

Third is, repairer’s do not see those broken that people either repair or attempt to repair themselves. Often dumping it if the attempt fails.

The point being, as a repairer you will only see a very specific set, that is the ones that break and that the owner entertains the notion of a repair but doesn’t bother to have a go themselves or, does and it all goes horribly wrong

In other words, without the evidence to back it up either way, it’s all hearsay and theory really.

I don’t disagree at all Martin, £250 is less than many people spend down the shopping centre some months on clothes so, to expect a mechanical device to outlast the clothing being washed in it, for a fraction of the cost is completely unreasonable but then, a lot of people are completely unreasonable on that count.

All the more so when you take off HMRC’s cut of 20{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}, the margin of the retailer, the manufacturer, the shipping costs and so on and quickly realise that, at best, it’s really about a £100’s worth of machine.

And, at the same time it has to wash a gazzilion Kg’s using next to no energy and a spit of detergent that is of course either “eco-friendly” to save the polar bears or, is the cheapest in the store it was bought from. In all probability more the latter than former.

Then they stuff them to the gills with the expensive (often designer) clothes they bought at the shopping centre and expect it to “just work” with the cheapo detergent they used as they were too tight to buy decent detergent. But then, nobody sees the label on that I guess or, the washing machine.

Come to think on it, a lot of people will spend more on eating out over a month or two or paying for their car every month than they will on a washing machine, cooker or any other appliance. Or, spend less on detergent for a month or two than they spend on a bottle of wine to guzzle of a weekday evening.

But, it is all expected to last longer and operate without error for years, even decades and in spite of often not being used correctly as well.

Go figure.

Is it really any wonder it often all goes horribly wrong though?

I’ve no doubt that there are people that can’t afford to splash out on doing this stuff right but I can’t get past that, economically, most people get it back ways front and upside down a lot of the time. Many don’t care, cannot or more often will not take the time to understand and think that the ability to have an Evoque or whatever on their drive is far more important than them having clean clothes might be.

Or indeed having the £250 worth of clothes last longer than a season or two as, many modern ones will not if you don’t wash them properly.

Then because they’re financially maxed out every month, when it does all go wrong and stuff breaks, they need to get someone else to pick up the tab or blame as it can’t be their fault of course. Don’t worry though, the consumer protection brigade will ride to the rescue with the SoGA, Section 75 and other straw clutching ideas.

Owning the Evoque and eating out every week is much more important and pleasurable to, I suspect, the majority of people. Sod the basics, they should be mandatory and free.

Modern life, gotta love it.

K.

Re: Customers expected their washing machines to last for 12

I’m sure there’s a statistic somewhere that will show that the average Joe Public spends these days on a washer is £300. And that all Joe Public wants is another washer (2nd generation). The choice is plentiful and many come with a 2 yr guarantee. Their choosing will last around 6 years before they enter the world of their 3rd generation purchase. Each subsequent actually lasting half as many years as their previous.

By and by their expectations grow less and less to a point where, as long as it sees the guarantee out, they are happy to purchase based on rock bottom pricing.

So Twixies heading of the Which? Magazine and it’s 12 yr expectation has to be referring to those 2nd generation purchasers. Hope breeds eternal misery from there on in, we deal with it on a daily basis after all.

What I’d like to know though is, of the mass of Joe Publics out there what proportion are persuaded into spending £1000 on a machine, some £700 more than they were planning to shell out? If I were a betting man I’d say less than a quarter of 1 percent would be convinced that the white box, that looks the same as all the other white boxes, will last longer.

Oh, and the guy with the BMW in the drive is up to his eyes in debt. 2.5 kids and a demanding wife. Mortgaged up to the eyeballs and the car is on a 3 yr lease and he’s got to to return it next week. That’s why there’s a Beko in the utility room and that makes him the quintessential Mr Joe Public. 😉