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I have a horror story to tell about the level of service received from ISE. Our washing machine broke down at the end of February this year and over a month and a half later is still not fixed. It has a had a new drum and then it leaked water and now the concrete block is broken. ISE has tried to ship this part twice to their local rep but on both occasions the psrt has arrived damaged (can this part not be sourced locally ?). Anyway have spent over £50 on washing clothes at the launderette. Don’t suppose ISE would consider refunding these costs as a goodwill gesture. It really should not take this long to fix a washing machine and if it does then perhaps a loan/replacement machine can be provided until the faulty machine is properly repaired. See no end in sight to this. Totally frustrated. Looking for some form of reassurance from ISE.
Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
Awaiting visit from ISE engineer…….more in hope than expectation that he will visit before the bank holiday weekend
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories ?
ruhiyan,
Your issue is being dealt with as quickly as possible and you have forgotten to mention that there have been at least two different issues in the timescale that you mentioned.
Whilst ISE or any other manufacturer can send the parts out and, quickly, they cannot guarantee 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} that they will arrive on time or undamaged due to couriers, that is completely beyond anyone’s control.
K.
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
I appreciate the fact that there are certain factors that are beyond the control of a manufacturer i.e. delivering parts intact etc but for a customer not have a working washing machine for nearly two months cannot be acceptable to any manufacturer, be it ISE, Hotpoint, Indesit. As a minimum I would have hoped that ISE would have offered a replacement machine as there appears to be numerous issues with the machine I have. Also I did mention the two different faults (drum and leaking water) in my opening post. Now there is the issue of a broken weight. Another point I would make is that throughout this whole saga it has been the customer (me) who has had to chase the manufacturer/ISE engineer for updates. Is this something that I as a customer should have to do ? Now i don’t know if this is normal practice within the domestic appliance industry or maybe I am just an unlucky customer who has had a bad experience ???
Re: ISE Problem
So far as I know the first issue was reported via email on Sunday 20th February. Parts were required and the repair completed on the 14th March.
A new call was reported on the 22nd March, which was a completely different issue, a leak.
This was resolved and another call was reported on 8th April for noise. Again, unrelated.
It is very unfortunate but it is actually different issues that have been resolved as they have arisen so far as I can see. And, at virtually every point that there has been something to inform you of either the repairing agent or ISE have been in touch with you, in fact I struggle to find an email that you have not had a response to, usually the same day.
However, as your machine was bought in December 2007 and covered by an insurance policy it is up to the insurers to decide on what action that they will take and not ISE therefore a replacement machine is not possible. Asides from which it would not and could not be replaced by an ISE machine now as ISE no longer have an equivalent machine available.
However the machine requires a concrete weight that costs about £14, the insurance company is hardly liable to write off a machine for a £14 part.
K.
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
From my perspective the experience of having these “different” faults has meant not having a washing machine that works. After each engineer visit a new problem arises which can only mean one of two things: 1. there is an underlying issue with the machine itself or 2. the work carried out has not been satisfactory and has lead to a new problem being created. I can certainly provide several emails to ISE which have not been answered and subsequently I have had to ring ISE on more than one ocassion to get an update. The cost of the part itself may not seem a lot but when you factor in the number of visits made by the engineer then surely these costs have escalated to the point where it becomes uneconomical to continue. Is ISE’s insurers aware of this or is it the case that no matter how old the machine is, ISE will just continue to send out an engineer ? I purchased this machine on the basis of a 5 year manufacturers warranty but am now being told that after 3 years, the machine is covered by an insurance policy ???
At the end of the day I just want the washing machine to be fixed and in good working order.
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
Advised by ISE that yet again the part required has arrived damaged. Don’t know how many times this has happened and clearly something is going wrong if parts are being shipped and arriving in a damaged state. Perhaps ISE can look at alternatives e.g. sourcing the part locally ? Also this having a negative impact on our household – 2 adults, a children and 2 OAPs
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
There is no alternative, they have to be shipped somehow I’m afraid.
Concrete weights, whilst attached to a machine are pretty stable but even then they can occasionally break, it’s certainly not unheard of at all. But, when they are out of a machine, they are actually very fragile things and even with heavy, heavy packing they can still be easily damaged if not handled correctly.
We’ve tried all sorts, strapping them up with wood, fixing them to pallets and all manners of different packing and they can still be damaged in transit, even from factory they often arrive smashed.
The insurer will just keep telling us to order a replacement, all the damages are claims against the carriers so they’re not footing the bill for the weights.
I do appreciate your frustration and it is just as annoying for the people in ISE and the repairer when things like this happen as they’ve got to deal with all the stuff behind the scenes and try to sort it out. Trust me, they don’t just sit about not bothering but with this they are completely at the mercy of couriers.
The most local you can often get a spare part these days is “in the UK”. Most regional spares distribution outlets started to vanish a decade or more ago.
K.
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
Well given that I have paid for the insurance/warranty (£500 for the washing machine etc) can I ask that the wgt not be sent by courier and instead be driven via taxi ? At least this would ensure it arrives intact as clearly sending it by courier is not a viable option
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
That’s not possible unless of course you want to pay for the taxi?
K.
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
So at what point will ISE accept that shipping the part via courier is no longer viable i.e. how many times does the part have to break ? all the while the customer (me) is still without a working washing machine ?
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
It really doesn’t matter in this case what ISE thinks, it’s what the insurer thinks that’s relevant.
It’s not lost that it’s a hassle and that you have had a run of bad luck but there’s really not much more that anyone can do within reason.
We can push for the machine to be written off by the insurer, that’s no problem to do but, it will take time, often a week or more by the time they send it to underwriters, get the info back and let us know what the outcome is. Then, as the machine cannot be replaced like-for-like they are liable to offer you a cash settlement which will be considerably less than you originally paid, just the same way car or any other similar insurance works as it isn’t new-for-old.
If you wish to go down that road please advice as soon as possible as we would have to cancel the service call and halt it all until we get answers from the insurer on what they will do.
I’m sorry, I know that’s not ideal and we’re as constrained by the system as anyone, part of the reason ISE moved away from this way of doing things as it limits what can be done as they have to play by the rules.
K.
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
Looks like I am at the mercy of ISE and its insurers. It appears that neither wants to help the customer. Anyone reading this thread will see how much of a horror story this has turned into. It cannot be any worse than the tales on the other thread.
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
ISE are trying to help you by getting the part required to you as quickly as they possibly can. You would appear to be holding ISE to account for the courier being unable to follow the words “FRAGILE WITH CARE” stuck across a box.
But I would point out that no appliance is automatically exchanged and that even the one that does has a 28 day policy in that, the appliance has to be broken for over 28 consecutive days before an exchange is considered. They are not kettles or toasters and are not exchanged on the same basis.
It is more like cars, there has to be a major, major fault or a very good reason to swap them as the cost to swap out an appliance is completely disproportionate to the cost of the machine itself. It’s not unusual for the cost to swap an appliance out to be greater than the cost of the machine these days, it’s much cheaper to repair in situ.
I know that’s not what people want to hear but it’s the sad truth of the way that this industry and many others operate these days.
It’s like your suggestion to use a taxi to get the part to you. A taxi from a distribution point would probably cost upwards of £200, is it “reasonable” to expect that level of service on a machine that cost £450? Then, on top have to pay for the actual repair? The insurer or manufacturer would be cheaper to just send you a cheque for a couple of hundred pounds and be done with it.
Again, I know it’s not what anyone wants to hear but it is the reality of this industry. The machines, even the most expensive, are so cheap that to expect that sort of service is pretty unrealistic IMO.
To get guaranteed uptimes it’s like the IT industry, you can get it, but you pay for it and you move into the realms of commercial machines and, even then you can still get delays on service and spares deliveries.
There are a number of systems in place to make sure that things would normally be done as quickly as possible in terms of spares distribution for any appliance manufacturer and, for 99.9{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the time it all works and there’s no problem. There are occasions though that things don’t work out the way anyone expects or wants. And, it’s all fine until something, somewhere goes wrong.
All this is probably not going to help you much but it’s the truth of the situation that a lot of people find themselves in, not just with ISE or any one retailer or manufacturer, but it’s virtually universal.
There’s not much more that ISE can do than they have already within reason.
K.
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories2 ?
How much money has ISE and its insurers spent thus far on trying to fix my machine ? Calculate this from when I first reported the fault on 20th Feb and add in all the costs for the engineers visits, spare parts, courier costs etc. I have spent over £500 on an ISE machine and in return have recieved nothing but stress/hassle. For £500 I could have easily bought two machines from Comet and run these. Its no good advertising a 5 year or 10 year warranty on a washing machine but not providing an adequate level of customer care/service to back this up. If this how the washing machine industry operates then really it is not worth taking these warranties on.
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