help with Hotpoint EW85 smashed doors and Merloni complaints

[mikeg]

We bought a Hotpoint EW85SS (serial 22 1 00133) in November 2003 – it has two ovens and both external doors are largely glass (as well as having glass linings on the inside).
My daughter tripped in the kitchen last night and banged into the door handles, wherupon both doors smashed – it seems the glass was largely the structural element of the doors.
I think this is a product deficiency – after all, she didn’t hit the glass itself and didn’t really hit the handles with any real force.
I have gone back to the supplier (Curry’s) who suggest calling Hotpoint (Merloni) and I just get put through the ‘Customer Services’ and end up waiting ad nauseam and can’t get through.
My questions:

1) Is my view that this cooker is not ‘fit for purpose’ acceptable?
2) Does anyone know the direct numbers for Gordon Wedgwood or Franco Secchi at Merloni so I can complain about their ‘customer service’
3) I don’t believe Hotpoint cover ‘accidents’ in their 5-yr guarantee – is this correct (hence use house insurnace?)

Any views gratefully received!!

[kwatt]

Re: help with Hotpoint EW85 smashed doors and Merloni compla

Sorry about the accident, but to answer in order.

1) No because the use does not involve applying an external force of any nature to the appliance however it happens. That’s a bit like telling a car manufacturer that you’re hacked off because the windscreen shattered when a stone hit it.

2) No, for some strange reason they don’t want to talk to us. 😉

However there are one or two Merloni employees that do have some influence and do read these forums (as well as other manufacturers) and they do note the points made I’m sure.

3) As a general rule that is correct. Any warranty will cover electro-mechanical failure but not cosmetic, accidental or failure through customer misue of the appliance. Some extended warranties do offer accidental cover, Curry’s one does IIRC, so if you did take their warranty it should cover it.

Hope that helps a bit.

K.

[mikeg]

Re: help with Hotpoint EW85 smashed doors and Merloni compla

K,

Thanks indeed for the swift reply – I understand about the ‘fit for purpose’ but was surprised how easily both doors smashed with relatively little impact on the handles- maybe the Merloni employees who read the forum might assess if there’s a specific weak point in the design when the handles are jolted?

Similarly, I get really annoyed when I’m told by any switchboard that there’s ‘always a delay answering customer service queries because there’s always a queue’ but they’ll get answered eventually.

Given that Gordon Wedgwood is quoted on the Internet (peterborough News?) as follows:-

Mr Wedgwood is also in charge of customer complaints, which the company is keen to keep to a minimum.

He said: “We have simplified our automated telephone system to use interactive voice recognition to try and route people to the right department to speak to someone who can help immediately.

“The very nature of our work means because we are a service industry we are dealing with a percentage of appliances that have broken down which can prompt complaints but we have a very low figure of breakdowns considering the size of our market share.

“It’s important to listen to what the staff and customers are telling us about our business”

Well – I am suggesting changing the queuing system to at least give an indication of place in the queue and offering either a message leaving service, (call back) or an e-mail address.

I was also told by the switchboard that to reach Messrs Wedgwood or Secchi I would still have to wait in the queue – I suggested that if I was a family member then surely I would be put throuh to them on a separate line but was still told this was not the case – I am staggered if this is true and suggest it is merely to avoid a significant number of complaints reaching the senior management.

It would be really useful to have a system that worked instead of having to hang on listening to crap music and obviously erroneous messages for (literally) hours on end – messages suggesting they care about the customers that is.

All in all a poor service and I suspect I’m far from the only unhappy chappie!!

(and I’ve still got the joy of trying to get it fixed to come!)

Thanks again and sorry for the rant

[mikeg]

Re: help with Hotpoint EW85 smashed doors and Merloni compla

Well what a sorry saga.

Firstly, Hotpoint agreed to pay for the parts but not the Engineer

I was called back on Friday 7th Jan by a nice chap who said he would arrange for an engineer to call on Tuesday 11th to fix the problem – what a result!?

So I duly waited on Tuesday and no one turned up but I did get a call from Hotpoint during the day to say that the Engineer would not be turning up at all because nobody had ordered any parts!

So I ranted a little about:

1) Why did the nice chap not reaise I needed parts?
2) Why couldn’t somebody have called prior to the Tuesday when I stayed home to see the alledged engineer?

Anyway, I was told the lower door was in stock but the upper one was not in stock but would be available in three weeks when an Engineer woul call me to arrange fitting

3 weeks after Jan 11th is 1st Feb – no call received but a message on
14th to say “bottom door in stock but top door out of stock, expected 3 weeks, do I still want to keep the order?”

Called back to ask why original 3 weeks is now 5 weeks and they expect another 3 week delay (minimum) so we’re now talking 8 weeks – response was that we need to wait and see.

I shal call again and ask what’s going on!!

[hottothepoint]

Re: help with Hotpoint EW85 smashed doors and Merloni compla

Hi , I have the same problem with my Hotpoint EW85 EW85SS Double Oven. I’ve had exactly the same thing happen with the lower outer door, the outer door handle- part of the door structure is very thin metal – so the door is in effect uses the glass to form the door structure.

I was trying to re-position the oven shelf – which requires the door fully open to about an angle of 110 degrees. Normally the oven door does not need to be opened past an angle of 90 degrees. On opening the oven door the handle was partly obstructed by the leg of the kitchen table , with pressure being applied to the edge of the door to hold it open, so the shelf could be removed – the door handle about 2” from the hinge ‘flexed against this’ and shattered. The door with the shattered glass has very little holding it together now, and the metal has distorted.

It is definitely a bad design and in my opinion not fit for purpose. They have used the least amount of structural materials to keep the cost down.
I’ll try Hotpoint as there is another documented case.

[Author]

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