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Ok, just so we know where things stand.
From day 1 (Dec 22nd) I have dealt with Hotpoint and there engineers, never called comet as theres a big sticker on the front of the machine saying
‘problems with your machine, then call hotpoint’
I have then been passed from pillar to post, promised an exchange twice (both refused), had 5 new modules, new motor, new heater (dryer), 2 new facias, new door lock, 1 new tube (from the dispenser draw), had the door seal removed and re-fitted, had the drum seal re-seated as it had come away from the drum.
Its only tonight that I have actually spoken to comet, and the lady assured me that if I present there engineer with the list of faults he will consider those as well.
At present, he does have a faulty machine to look at, as mentioned, the machine has now convinced itself that it can do both a wash cyle and dryer at the same time, not to mention the awful knocking noise when its spinning (the last engineer removed the concrete block from the top of the machine, hmmm). Whilst drying its in a continue spin as well, whilst filling and emptying water.
I spoke to D & G back in Feb and was promised the earth, call backs etc etc yet nothing ever came of it. I have a feeling they were trying to get rid of me. Well thats after the squabble between hotpoint and D & G about whos responsibility it was. The original fault was reported within 12 months, but the fault kept appearing after the 12 months so D & G were saying it was hotpoint who was to fix it, and hotpoint being hotpoint said no, its now out of warranty so you will need to go through D & G, arrggghhh!
I bought the extended warranty knowing full well this is what was going to happen (how many engineers would tut tut at the machine!) and i’ll be glad when that runs out so we can finally get rid of the machine.
Im going to save up for one of those nice new ISE machines, but its only in white, of course all the other applainces are in graphite (hotpoint eh) so I hope we get to see the new dishwasher soon (will there be a fridge one asks?)
Helo_75
Do I understand that you agree on calling comet out, and they may actually be able to do something about this even though this will be the first time comet have got involved? Is it worth the £30?
DH
Thanks for your words kwatt.
Yes we have an extended warranty with D&G.
I have spoken to Comet tonight regarding this, and they have been helpful (although they could be sending me round the houses). They have said if Im willing to pay the £30 they will send one of there engineers round to do a report and if its deemed necessary they will pursue this with Hotpoint directly.
They mentioned about a 6 year thingy, which im just looking up online now which they will stand by.
To be honest I wasn’t expecting this, as you say I thought they were going to push me over to Hotpoint to persue things, but hey.
So where do I go from here? D&G aren’t exactly helpful, been there already.
DH
Ok, i said i’d be back with an update on this so here goes.
Ok, the engineer finally arrived with the spare pipe about a week later, and hey presto it cured the 15 week wait. Even better the machine finally works, and it carried on working for a further 6 months (world record in this machines history, almost)
Thats the problem, 6 months later and guess what…….
The machine is leaking once again, but this time it took the module out (nice bang with an acrid smell, yuk). So onto hotpoint we go, and they send an engineer out. I take yet another day off from work, and eagerly await the engineer. He turns up and from my description his diagnosis is a new module (5th one in one year). Luckily, this engineer has the parts onboard and replaces it there and then (are things improving with hotpoint???) After he has finished replacing it he checks the machine to see where the leak was coming from, he does a wash cycle (with clothes this time), he cleans the outlet pump, checks it over and over, and guess what! No water leak. Now me being me, I know that this isn’t the end of it but what else can I do, hes checked, double checked, triple checked, yet no water leak so I reluctantly allow him to go.
Ok, wash number 1, great it works, wash number 2, great another successful wash, wash number 3…….
Whey hey, we’ve got another indoor swimming pool, but at least we’ve saved the module this time, errrrr
Another call to hotpoint, another day off of work (didn’t want to take a holiday this year anyway, much) and another engineer.
Explained that the machine is leaking but does seem to be working, so he starts to look where the leak is. Removes the top, checks all over, nothing there, then he removes the front panel, and hey presto, staring straight at us, the rubber sill to the drum had come away (remember how many checks the other engineer did?). Ok, the engineer says, easy fix, yeah right, how did I know how this was going to end up. He puts the seal back clips it back together, puts the machine back together. I explained that the leaks appeared after around 10 mins if use, so I made sure we did another load of washing.
He said he needed to get to his next job but he would phone in around 15 mins to see how it went.
Ok, he never phoned back but the machine was working again, well sort of…..
This now brings us to today. The machine is a washer/dryer and for a long time we have only been using the washer as we cannot trust this machine any longer, but as its getting colder we decided to put it onto a wash/dryer cycle this time.
BIG MISTAKE….
Ok, the wash cycle was flawless, but this time the dryer cycle is playing up. To sum it up this machine has now manged to convince itself that its quite capable of doing a wash and dry cycle at the same, oh yes, what fun this one is. Its drying and filling with water, spinning (with a huge knocking sound) fans whirring, the lot. Even the lights on the front panel look like a disco now flashing backwards and forwards all over the place. Why do i get this feeling the module has packed up after all, crickey it lasted all of 75mins this time. Cue, module number 6 me thinks.
Funnily enough, whilst writing this the engineer has phoned me up to see how things are going, hmmmm.
Lets see the outcome of this one, and I’ll be back with the update.
Stay tuned folks…………….
Re: Domestic Appliance Horror Stories ?
As its been a while since this post has been updated, I thought i’d share our horror story regarding a Hotpoint WD640G washer dryer.
Having purchased a Hotpoint WD640 from comet in February 2006, and having 9 months of trouble free use I am very disappointed at what amounts to a very poor quality product (and its getting worse).
At the beginning of December 2006 water started to leak from the machine but seemed to stop after a couple of washes, then around the 18th December I walked into the kitchen to find one almighty flood and the machine was showing F-13 on the display. I called the Hotpoint customer service and an engineer was arranged for Jan 8th. So that amounted to almost 3 weeks of not being able to use the machine over Christmas. Ok, the engineer turned up and he said that the door seal was leaking and promptly removed the seal and put it back thinking this would cure the problem. He said that the F-13 error code was to do with the heater so he ordered a new one. He tested the machine and all seemed fine again other than the dryer not working. The engineer came about a week later and replaced the heater, and still things were ok and we were able to dry our clothes again.
However, one night when the machine was running, there was an awful noise come from the machine (like electricity arching) and we promptly shut the machine down, whilst discovering that the machine had dumped the whole load of water across the floor which has damaged the kick boards on the cupboards. Once again, we contact customer services to arrange another engineers visit, which was arranged for a couple of days later. When he turned up, he wasn’t really surprised (and in fact mentioned that this is common amongst these machines) and without doing much other than run a cycle on the machine and noticing the motor was no longer working, decided we needed a new motor, wiring harness and control module but will need to order these items and come back. About a week later I had a phone call to arrange the engineer to come and fit the new parts. He came on the day as arranged and fitted the parts and again tested the machine by running a program and also checking on his laptop connected to the machine, no problems. We were just grateful that the machine was at last back up and running, well for 1/2 an hour anyway. Half way through the wash the machine decided that it needed to fill up with water and decided that over 3/4 of a drum full of water was about right (can you see where im going). After filling with water the machine then decided that it needed to do a spin, uh uh, with almost a full drum of water. To make matters worse the spin it decided to do was a fast spin, but i don’t mean a fast spin as in 1400rpm, it decided that it now had a turbo motor fitted and promptly spun up to an estimated 2800rpm and in less than a second. Can you guess what happened next, oh yes at that sort of speed and a drum full of water the machine decided it was feeling poorly once again and promptly dumped the whole drum of water on the kitchen floor again. This is where the fun and games started, first there was a F-1 error code pop up, then the display went into a tizz and started blinking rapidly (sounds like the water got into the display one thinks) the display then returns to normal except the machine is now displaying error code F-12. Just to add insult to the whole thing I open the door to remove the washing and switch off the machine, but just before doing this the display then comes up with error code F-8. Just out of interest, what would be the error code for I haven’t got a clue what’s wrong with me? I have a feeling if you left it long enough every error code would pop up at some point.
Ok, so i phone customer services once again, but as its late on Friday evening the engineer could not get back until Monday. I arranged for a friend to be in this time as i was using up my holiday for what could be described as a complete farce. The engineer turns up and says that the module is faulty and he needs to order a new one (queue, dejevue time). Ok, he orders the new module and the very next day i receive a phone call to say the module isn’t in stock and they will let me know when one is in stock.
I was phoned a couple of days later to say the engineer would be visiting on the 28th Feb, so I arranged to take the day off yet again. Come the day of the visit no-one had turned up by 4.00pm so I phoned Hotpoint to see what was happening and was told that he was on his way. 6.00pm comes and still no visit, so I call again and told to wait until 7.00pm and to phone back if he hadn’t turned up by then. 7.00pm comes and still no engineer so I phone again only to be told the engineer had left the company that day and wouldn’t be coming. As there was nothing she could do, she said she would get back to me which someone did the next day to apologise for the engineer not turning up and to re-arrange another visit.
This was booked in for the following Wednesday, so I took another day off looking forward to machine that hasn’t worked for 11 weeks to be finally fixed. Yeah right, how did I guess something was going to go wrong. At 9.30am on the Wednesday I had a phone call to say that the engineer won’t be coming as the part was out of stock (AGAIN). But hang on a mo, a week ago the parts were in stock, so where has it gone in that week, did another customer get it? That’s ok, I’ve now only waited 12 weeks to get this machine fixed, so there you go another wasted holiday. I’m now awaiting for another engineer to be booked, yeah right. In the meantime I have spoken to both Domestic & General about this, who promised to get back to me, never did (indesit by any chance?), have spoken to countless people trying to get this sorted and even spoke to someone called Kath in customer services who said she sent an email to see if we could get the machine exchanged. She promised someone would get back to me within 48hrs, hey guess what, its now a week later, no word from kath or anyone else to that matter, were now up to 13 weeks without a washing machine.
Were now onto week 14 and the engineer has been (yippee, he turned up). This engineer is the first to actually take the fault seriously and actually stripped the machine down to see what was happening. He has finally found the problem which we first phoned about on the 22nd December, great except for one thing. He doesn’t have the part on board and will need to come back. Ok, at least he has actually found the problem at last but he did a quick repair job so we could actually use the machine finally. The plastic tube leading from the soap drawer down to the drum has a hole in it (yes a hole) and in the meantime he has plugged the hole with silicon temporarily. Great we can use it to do the mountain of washing we have, so in goes the washing, switch it on and……………………………….. It works!!!!! Well, it worked for around 1hr 7mins (world record so far by about 7mins). Things then deteriorate rapidly from this point onwards when the washing machine yet again floods the kitchen and to make sure its done a proper job this time it shorts out something on the inside to produce this almighty bang and a spectacular blue light display (hmm, and what damages would I have been able to claim if electrocuted) followed by the shut down of the machine. Ok, here we are back to square one with regards to the fault which we reported on the 22nd December except this time it really has decided enough is enough and after hearing and seeing the spectacular show in the kitchen I’m going to hazard a guess at its going to need a whole new load of parts (mostly the ones already replaced, that actually didn’t need replacing it would seem in the first place, hmmmmm).
We have spoken to various people both in Hotpoint and Domestic & General, with both companies saying its not there fault. Hotpoint staff are saying its not there problem as its out of warranty and Domestic & General are saying its not there problem as the original fault (still not fixed) which was reported on the 22nd December was within the warranty period.
Great customer service Hotpoint (indesit), you really know how to keep a customer happy and we look forward to purchasing hotpoint again the future (not!).
Sorry it goes on and on and on, but its just the same for us when we haven’t been able to use the machine for 14 weeks (15 when the engineer next visits).
Yes i know this is a rant at Hotpoint, but i’d like this to be left in this post also as im not requesting help from anyone, just wanted it known what a horror story this has turned into.
