Bosch, excellence does not come as standard

[admin]

We have a Bosch WTL6300 tumble drier which cost £400 a couple of years ago.
It was chosen because of the “perceived” quality over and above other cheaper brands.
2 weeks ago it broke down (the switches stopped working)
I spoke to Bosch who said they would pay for the parts if I paid for labour
at £49 for the first 12 mins then £6.50 per 10mins thereafter.
I was not happy with this offer and searched the web and found “flying toolbox” who had an offer where you pay £79.00 to Domestic and General, get the repair done and a further 12 month warrenty.
I thought this would be a good deal even though the terms stated that if the repair cost more than £150.00 they would not carry it out and would refund the £79.00.
I took up the offer and an engineer cam from Bosch to fix the machine.
After making the repair the engineer then informed my wife that as it had cost £216.00 he would have to “un fix” the machine.
I cannot blame Domestic and General one bit for this.

I then decided to speak to the MD at Bosch and got his PA; after explaining the problem I was called back by the Manager of the service centre who offered to send the engineer back and fix the machine for £100.00. I ended up agreeing to pay £80.
Bosch would not move on this even though the fault was supposedly “very rare” and would not entertain a free of charge repair.
I would have expected this for good customer relations but no chance.

So do you get what you pay for? a 2 year old £400 machine that needs a £216 repair. I dont think so. You can buy a good machine for less than this repair charge!!!

Next time I will buy a cheaper brand and if this goes wrong throw it away!!

[kwatt]

Re: Bosch, excellence does not come as standard

Hi Paul,

I take your points and agree to some extent that Bosch perhaps may have been able to do better in this instance but in fairness, irrespective of the price paid for an appliance in the end it’s a machine and machines will break down. They may do that in two days or twenty years, who’s to say? And even a £60,000 Mercedes Benz can suffer a mechanical failure and you can bet your shirt they would not go as far as Bosch have done in terms of meeting the cost. At least Bosch have made some concession and how long should they, after the initial warranty, resonably offer this? From a commercial perspective I think they’ve been pretty reasonable in all honesty.

I think you did the right thing in buying a better quality product and it’s a real shame that didn’t quite go to plan in this case, but these things happen as they say. 🙁

And trust me, some of the cheaper products may well not have lasted two years and you’d have gotten no concession whatsoever from many manufacturers in this industry.

K.

[admin]

Re: Bosch, excellence does not come as standard

I would also say that your experience with the Bosch service centre is at least more speedy than that offered by the Merloni-owned Hotpoint. The Hotpoint Service Centre does not seem able to coordinate engineer visits and spare parts, and their levels of service are characterised by their slowness and their inaccuracy.

[Martin]

Re: Bosch, excellence does not come as standard

paulmben wrote:So do you get what you pay for? a 2 year old £400 machine that needs a £216 repair. I dont think so. You can buy a good machine for less than this repair charge!!!

Paul,

I must say that I am intrigued by this case. I am an independant repairer of Bosch appliances and find their products extremely good, reliable and long lasting. Like Bosch commented, failure like this is “very rare”, but I am curious as to what exactly was the fault and what was replaced???

I wonder if you could enlighten us?

Regards

Martin

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