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Well, I’d kinda hoped I’d never had to write such a post, but I think it is important to share experiences which might help others, so here goes.
July 2021, I brought a Miele WEG665 for £1449. The promotional 10 year warranty, along with their reputation for faultless engineering in mind, really sealed the deal. It was very pricey but for a one time cost I’ve got a working machine for 10 years plus, can’t argue with that.
September 2021, the machine started sounding like a misfiring moped when it was washing. Slightly peterbed, I book an engineer. To their credit, he came the next day and said my machine has a service bulletin for faulty shocks. He changed them and suddenly, all was quiet again. Bliss.
Sept 2021 – May 2023, no issues to report, working perfectly.
May 2023, the machine was running and suddenly a massive (and I mean MASSIVE) bang occured, followed 2 seconds later by a crash and a cloud of plaster dust emanating from the utility room. Ran in to find the washing machine basically decimated (The report from Miele makes for some interesting reading) and the kitchen unit next to it smashed to buggery. A call to Miele later and an engineer came the next day again. The cause? One of the bolts holding one of the iron counterweight sheared off, cascading the lump of metal though the side of the machine as the drum was spinning at 1400rpm. Fun. A report was made to Miele saying the machine was unfixable, you don’t say! Told to expect a call the next day to get a replacement delivered. A week later and having rebuilt my kitchen, Miele rang. They won’t pay for any damages and seemed rather disinterested in any further conversation. Told the new machine will arrive the following day.
New machine comes, the delivery company fit it and leave. I go to run a machine clean before first use, it’s dead. Completely dead. Again, call Miele, got told an engineer can’t come for another week and it will be a service partner from an independent that subs to them. Not like I had a choice.
Day of engineer, no call, no show. Call Miele again. Told there’s a slot for the following day. Next day, no call and no show. I manage to get the name of the company from Miele and call them. They have no service booking for me at all. Back to Miele. They book a Miele engineer for the next day. Guess what, noone comes. I call 5 mins before they close to be told the engineer had called in sick. Thanks for telling me.
Next day, an engineer arrives unannouced as I was leaving for work. I let him get on, he leaves unable to diagnose. Get a call that afternoon saying they are sending another machine, but it will be a lesser model as the one I had was out of stock. I got a WWG360 instead. Fine.
Machine arrives, working okay or so it seems, except when it spins it violently shakes the floor, your dental work and the contents of every cupboard in the house. Checked it was balanced, still the same issue. Called Miele again. Told ‘It’s normal for vibration to occour’. That’s it. Funnily enough the previous one didn’t shake my bones to dust. If I want an engineer to come out, it is £160 for the callout. Asked what happened to the warranty. Told that it’s not transferable. I read the service certificate out which specifically says if the machine is replaced by Miele, the remainder of the warranty and service certificate will be transferred to the new machine. They ask me to email them a copy of the certificate that they sent me. That was nearly 8 weeks ago. I’ve repeatedly emailed and recieved radio silence.
So, here’s my takeaway. They have moved the contact center from Oxford to India, and since then their customer support has diminished rapidly. They can only work on a script and if you deviate from it, they have no clue how to deal with you. They don’t communicate unless you call them for the most part even when they promise to arrange a callback, emails go unanswered, warranty is now vaporware and I’ve had a very nasty experience that has cost me numerous hours of phone calls and no solutions.
I’m not saying their machines are junk, but there appears to be a serious issue with either quality control or transportation. My experience might be a outlier, many people are very happy with their Miele’s, but I’m pretty fed up and I don’t think anyone in my shoes would be much more impressed than me. I’ve taken all the correspondance to Guardians Consumer Champions and to CAB with a hope to force a resolution or some kind of financial smoothing for this whole cock up.
On a better note, I still had £300 on a gift card from John Lewis from a cashback promotion, went into one of their branches and they had a Zanussi 9kg model then and there down from £449 to £300. It came a few days ago, blissful quiet spinning and clean clothes that don’t require yet another trip to the laundrette. If it lasts out the two year warranty then I’ll be very happy, if not I’ll go on the hunt again.
Thanks for that post, I like your fatalistic yet humourous writing style! Well what a piss around, a truly outstandingly bad experience. You do not generally get folk write in about Miele disasters as they usually keep pretty quiet about problems, in particular machine terminal disasters but whether that is because there are few (but I doubt that is the case in reality) to start with or the problem is sorted out well before things get out of hand which I suspect is normally the case.
Don on this forum usually gets into a wax lyrical mode over Miele (which I am well known for not doing so but that also goes for Bosch and especially Siemens) so if he sees this hopefully he might like to comment. Over to you Don.
“They have moved the contact center from Oxford (Abingdon is their HQ) to India” Didn`t know that and I am surprised if that is the case based on most other companies bad experiences of doing so. Perhaps they are toying with the idea of a collapse in consumer satisfaction…..or more likely cutting costs which usually backfires?
A Zanussi for 300 quid discounted from 449 you got a great deal there, they`re usually better than most and you can get spares easily should you need them..
Let us know how things develop.andyjawa wrote:Thanks for that post, I like your fatalistic yet humourous writing style! Well what a piss around, a truly outstandingly bad experience. You do not generally get folk write in about Miele disasters as they usually keep pretty quiet about problems, in particular machine terminal disasters but whether that is because there are few (but I doubt that is the case in reality) to start with or the problem is sorted out well before things get out of hand which I suspect is normally the case.
Don on this forum usually gets into a wax lyrical mode over Miele (which I am well known for not doing so but that also goes for Bosch and especially Siemens) so if he sees this hopefully he might like to comment. Over to you Don.
“They have moved the contact center from Oxford (Abingdon is their HQ) to India” Didn`t know that and I am surprised if that is the case based on most other companies bad experiences of doing so. Perhaps they are toying with the idea of a collapse in consumer satisfaction…..or more likely cutting costs which usually backfires?
A Zanussi for 300 quid discounted from 449 you got a great deal there, they`re usually better than most and you can get spares easily should you need them..
Let us know how things develop.Thank you for your kind words and I’m glad I could inject some humour into a rather p*** poor experience so far. In terms of their call centres, every time I’ve had a phone conversation with them, it gets routed offshore and I have not spoken to anyone within the UK with one single exception. I did manage to play the options menus and got though to someone within the UK HQ but they said they couldn’t deal with my query and transferred me to, you guessed it, India. From what I can glean, they based out of Delhi….aka I directly asked their call handler I was speaking to who said they were in Delhi. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a case of xenophobia but this new call handling system seems to have absolutely no clue how to deal with issues that go beyond the norm.
The vibrating kitchenware nightmare machine is now wrapped in palletwrap and sat in my shed, until they either fix it, refund me or some up with something. Frankly, I’m over it, and how a machine that cost 1/5 of the cost is currently humming away in my utility room without making my insides turn into pate is beyond my understanding.
As you said, some people wax absolute lyrical of Miele, but this experience sharply brought into focus how if things go wrong, they seem completely incapable of just dealing with it. By comparison, I have a Miele heat pump tumble dryer and a Miele dishwasher that have been completely trouble free in the 3 years I’ve owned them (and I really hope they stay that way, I could do without a stomach ulcer!) but the washing machine is not giving me any piece of mind whatsoever. My mother in law has a Miele washing machine, one of the £2000 WPS Passion machines, and hers has been written off in the last year for a leaking twindos system that corroded the frame and sump. It’s been replaced by them, but theres now videos of the same fault on Youtube, so I think we are starting to see a theme of quality dramatically falling off a cliff. Hopefully taking my machine away in the fallout!
I have a Miele heat pump tumble dryer and a Miele dishwasher that have been completely trouble free in the 3 years I’ve owned them (and I really hope they stay that way, I could do without a stomach ulcer!)
I hope your appliances continue to work for many trouble free years to come.
For others readers.
Miele services charge/s is not for the faint hearted: 2 main chargeable systems in place as far as I can tell (there are others depending upon the model, most likely their major complex contraptions) 1) a fixed price repair is £269 incl VAT for THE REPORTED fault/s**, so presumably if the pcb fails you would pay £269, not a bad price considering how expensive the part would be but then you would have little choice since apparently they do not like selling parts directly to customers or the trade – less than useful if you know what is wrong and therefore what part you need and so that would be as much use as a chocolate fireguard. OR option 2) the costs of parts plus labour / callout charge of £160 but if the job took over an hour you would be charged an extra £110 with an unknown charge of 6 mins in increments after that 2nd hour. So if your drum bearings failed (a long old job usually fraught with possible alarming surprises) expect a painfully big bill; at least 3 boxes of Kleenex tissues for the tears !.
The point is you would not choose option 2 for bearing failure but if you choose option 1 for that fault you might get charged £269 and a written off machine presumably depending upon how trashed it was (knowing customers of old it could could well be trashed because it was thrashed into obivilion). That 269 quid then gives you money off a new Miele, but then you might not want another Miele or you might not want to pay that spons at an undiscounted machine price from them because all you know a Miele might cost 1000 quid from Curry`s but the same model direct from Miele might be £1269 so you save nothing = using the Kleenex Scale of Woe that is also 3 boxes !** so does that mean that an unreported fault / extra found fault becomes: Oh look your belt is also worn out that`s 55 quid extra or could it also be, Oh look can you hear that weird noise from the pump bearing….£200 for a new pump too please! You could racket up a massive bill. No idea what happens in reality just saying it`s a point.
All I do know is the trade, in my opinion based on 40 years, is racked with inflated repair costs whether a machine costs 250 quid (some…no, most are actually fairly expensive to get fixed relative to their purchase price) or 1250 quid (when you would expect it to be expensive to fix) the difference is, should worse come to the worst, it is better to come a total cropper at 8 years old and scrap a machine that cost 250 quid than have to scrap at 10 years at 1250 quid, a case of being caught by the short ones = too expensive to get repaired verses age but too expensive a machine to scrap verses age too based on a premium priced machine i.e. your caught usually happens in a recession inbetween jobs with a mortgage rate at 7{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} just to rub salt into the wound. Miele charges copied off their site on 06/08/2023. Neither set of charges covers all of their types or models of appliances so see their site if that, or you think that, applies to you. Either way do not expect any over the phone tech help even if they will sell you a part whether trade or otherwise as I understand it. May be Miele would like to clarify this………but of course they won`t. [h=1]Fixed Price Repair[/h] our fixed price repair brings peace of mind to any service visit.There are no hidden charges or additional costs.
The repair service includes:
- All call out, labour and parts charges for the reported faults
- 12 month guarantee against the parts used and labour
- For any appliance that is beyond repair the cost of your Fixed Price Repair can be used against purchasing a replacement product directly from Miele
Products excluded from Fixed Price Repair:
• Mastercool Refrigeration Range
• Range Cookers
• Dialog OvensPlease note fixed price repair option cannot be requested through the online service booking. Our Contact Centre Advisors can take your booking on 0330 160 6600.
From £269.00* Incl. VAT, *Fixed Price Repair can only be offered via a Miele Technician re
Standard Labour Call Out(Includes the first hour of labour)
Any spare parts required are charged separately.
Additional hours are charged at £110.00 per subsequent hour.
All subsequent hours are charged in 6 minute increments..
In some locations we may use an authorised Miele Service Partner to undertake the repair in your home. They receive the same Miele training as our own technicians and are equally committed to delivering a premium customer experience.
From £160.00 Incl. VAT
andyjawa wrote:I have a Miele heat pump tumble dryer and a Miele dishwasher that have been completely trouble free in the 3 years I’ve owned them (and I really hope they stay that way, I could do without a stomach ulcer!)
I hope your appliances continue to work for many trouble free years to come.
For others readers.
Miele services charge/s is not for the faint hearted: 2 main chargeable systems in place as far as I can tell (there are others depending upon the model, most likely their major complex contraptions) 1) a fixed price repair is £269 incl VAT for THE REPORTED fault/s**, so presumably if the pcb fails you would pay £269, not a bad price considering how expensive the part would be but then you would have little choice since apparently they do not like selling parts directly to customers or the trade – less than useful if you know what is wrong and therefore what part you need and so that would be as much use as a chocolate fireguard. OR option 2) the costs of parts plus labour / callout charge of £160 but if the job took over an hour you would be charged an extra £110 with an unknown charge of 6 mins in increments after that 2nd hour. So if your drum bearings failed (a long old job usually fraught with possible alarming surprises) expect a painfully big bill; at least 3 boxes of Kleenex tissues for the tears !.
The point is you would not choose option 2 for bearing failure but if you choose option 1 for that fault you might get charged £269 and a written off machine presumably depending upon how trashed it was (knowing customers of old it could could well be trashed because it was thrashed into obivilion). That 269 quid then gives you money off a new Miele, but then you might not want another Miele or you might not want to pay that spons at an undiscounted machine price from them because all you know a Miele might cost 1000 quid from Curry`s but the same model direct from Miele might be £1269 so you save nothing = using the Kleenex Scale of Woe that is also 3 boxes !** so does that mean that an unreported fault / extra found fault becomes: Oh look your belt is also worn out that`s 55 quid extra or could it also be, Oh look can you hear that weird noise from the pump bearing….£200 for a new pump too please! You could racket up a massive bill. No idea what happens in reality just saying it`s a point.
All I do know is the trade, in my opinion based on 40 years, is racked with inflated repair costs whether a machine costs 250 quid (some…no, most are actually fairly expensive to get fixed relative to their purchase price) or 1250 quid (when you would expect it to be expensive to fix) the difference is, should worse come to the worst, it is better to come a total cropper at 8 years old and scrap a machine that cost 250 quid than have to scrap at 10 years at 1250 quid, a case of being caught by the short ones = too expensive to get repaired verses age but too expensive a machine to scrap verses age too based on a premium priced machine i.e. your caught usually happens in a recession inbetween jobs with a mortgage rate at 7{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} just to rub salt into the wound. Miele charges copied off their site on 06/08/2023. Neither set of charges covers all of their types or models of appliances so see their site if that, or you think that, applies to you. Either way do not expect any over the phone tech help even if they will sell you a part whether trade or otherwise as I understand it. May be Miele would like to clarify this………but of course they won`t. [h=1]Fixed Price Repair[/h] our fixed price repair brings peace of mind to any service visit.There are no hidden charges or additional costs.
The repair service includes:
- All call out, labour and parts charges for the reported faults
- 12 month guarantee against the parts used and labour
- For any appliance that is beyond repair the cost of your Fixed Price Repair can be used against purchasing a replacement product directly from Miele
Products excluded from Fixed Price Repair:
• Mastercool Refrigeration Range
• Range Cookers
• Dialog OvensPlease note fixed price repair option cannot be requested through the online service booking. Our Contact Centre Advisors can take your booking on 0330 160 6600.
From £269.00* Incl. VAT, *Fixed Price Repair can only be offered via a Miele Technician re
Standard Labour Call Out(Includes the first hour of labour)
Any spare parts required are charged separately.
Additional hours are charged at £110.00 per subsequent hour.
All subsequent hours are charged in 6 minute increments..
In some locations we may use an authorised Miele Service Partner to undertake the repair in your home. They receive the same Miele training as our own technicians and are equally committed to delivering a premium customer experience.
From £160.00 Incl. VAT
I have an update, but alas, not a great one. After some poking and prodding by CAB and a very snotty email from me, they sent an engineer as a ‘Goodwill Gesture’. He checked the machine and I have to give him some credit, he was distinctly unimpressed with the spring strength from the hangers and I quote “The tub assembly is wobbling around like the contents of a club thrown out at 3am”.
He decided to replace them and came back the next day with the correct parts. However, exactly the same issue. A report went to Miele technical with a video of the swaying drum assembly and when they came back, they said the movement was “Within normal specification” and working as intended. He said this is the first time he’s ever seen this model and was less than complimentary about the build quality on show, but said its likely to work okay providing I can put up with the vibration……which he said he couldn’t based on his own test of it.
So I’m stuck with it. Instead, I’ve decided to do something a little more useful. I’m going to stick with my Zanussi I brought and donated the Miele to the local dog rescue centre who appealled for a second hand machine on FB. I told them it’s vibrates like a tank on red bull but they don’t mind at all, as long as it worked they were very grateful and its currently jackhammering it’s way through a load of dog blankets in their outbuilding.
So that ends this little s***show, suffice to say, its given me some pause about buying any further appliances from them. Once bitten, twice shy I guess!
Thanks for the feedback, I hope many prospective Miele owners read all this post. A cautionary tale indeed.
Great idea giving it to doggy rescue. Nice of you to do that as with most folk it wouldn`t occur to them.Me too Rachellnouye. And you know what this sorry tale of woe really tells me? You`ll notice no one else least the trade has commented. You would of thought even Don who regularily jumps to defend Miele (because I presume he sells them) would at least have something to say….but alas ..nothing. Maybe people in the trade just do not want to make a comment due to fear of getting legally clobbered? Who knows?
For getting justice done Katie Morley of The Daily Telegraph has great success. The story should be told.not said much but have read and horrified by the lack of help from a major manufacturer. cant understand why there is no compensation for the kitchen.
Also cant help thinking you may have a case for compensation in the small claims court as it was there faulty appliance that caused itas for Don lets ask him
[USER=”125″]don[/USER] and comments
wish there was someone at miele that could see this post
you could try writing to miele as your more likley to get it read by someone who could do something
there were cases years ago with indesi and hoover i think where the badly made inner drums exploded on high spin so its not a new problem but never heard of it before with miele
Dave
I didn’t respond to the conversation as I felt I could not add anything new :rolleyes:
Wax lyrical!! It’s no secret I have been a fan of Miele and have been selling them for over thirty years as an authorised dealer. In that time the build quality of their washing machines has like all other brands diminished somewhat. Market pressures to sell at a price point, reduce quality of components, move your call centre offshore to reduce costs, while keeping shareholders happy. All these things sadly contribute.
This will not change while manufacturers insist on racing to the lowest price point they can. Rather than making a machine to a price someone needs to grab the bull by the horns and produce a machine and then put a price to it. Sadly it won’t happen, we will continue to buy sub standard machines on a regular basis rather than repairing them as we used to do in days gone by.
That said I have always found the Miele dishwashers, tumble dryes etc to be good. All the refrigeration is produced for them by Liebherr which are the best ( yes I was also a Liebherr stockist.)
There are lots of things I do not like about Miele but overall I still say they are very good.
As for the OP and his problem, I do sympathise. I would have returned to the supplier in the first instance as the contract of sale was with them, even later on when things were not going well with Miele I would have involved them. Probably the best and easiest free tool for any consumer which gets very good results is post on their social media sites. Virtually all manufacturers have F.book, X or Instagram pages.
Regards and Merry Christmas.
Wax Lyrical Don:D
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