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Honestly Dave, this isn’t an issue with DAG they’re a good company to work for in general and few of us have any truck with them at all.
The issue here is that the actual manufacturer that is supposed to be providing the service on your appliance to the level that you desire cannot do so, therefore DAG are forced into looking elsewhere to get some form of better service for their customers. Trust me, many an insurer wouldn’t have even bothered to go that far!
But getting technical information from an “in-house” operation like Merloni is a nightmare and that’s just the start of the issues, as they won’t even give a lot of it to us in the trade let alone the public. You also have to bear in mind that Merloni had, about two years ago, a network of independent repairers and they were cast aside almost overnight when they bought Hotpoint in favour of employed engineers. The standard in this industry is a 30 day or three month notice of termination and I know that some of the people that were doing service are still fighting to return stock or get credit on returned stock almost two years later. This shows how volatile the industry is, especially service and also how unstable it is as things can change quite literally overnight.
What I’m trying to say is that you asked the wrong question really, DAG just have to deal with a situation of the manufacturer’s making. The question that you should be asking is why can Hotpoint/Merloni not provide the service in the first place? If they could then the issue with DAG would never have existed and, in the end, DAG rely on Merloni to provide that service on their appliances, which they have obviously failed to do.
Many manufacturers are faced with a shortage of engineers, it’s just the way of things these days I’m afraid and the rates of pay on offer do not allow re-investment in training new engineers. In some cases it doesn’t even pay for the expected level of service by customers now.
Recommending a manufacturer or a warranty company that will offer the best of both worlds right now is pretty much a nightmare as you could be in a position where, with a 5 year spares warranty, you are forced to use manufacturer’s own service. With a pukka extended warranty the service route on year 2 and onward may be different from year 1 and this can change dependent on who you buy the warranty from or even which store you chose to buy in.
K.
Hi,
If you contact MFI Extracare on 0845 7959 722 they should be able to sort that out for you. 😉
K.
Re: Domestic & General Warranty on a Hotpoint
Yes David and, as Kevin points out quite rightly Hotpoint’s owners, Merloni, haven’t exactly won friends within the independents over the past few years by antics such as those described by Kevin and much more besides that.
I sympathise with the customers, such as yourself, that are left for weeks with an appliance that you bought in good faith and expected a decent service should it fail. But please remember that Hotpoint/Merloni provide their own service with their own employed engineers and all that D&G are trying to do is minimise the inconvience by looking outside of that organisation for a better service, there is no other reason.
As Kevin has rightly pointed out though, this is a short-term measure by DAG and, as such, we also treat it with some hesitation especially in the likes of stockholding as we’re hardly liable to invest in stock etc. when the work could and probably will be whipped away at any moment. Merloni have also done this in the past to a lot of the guys, as well as recently offering ridiculously low fees with no security to try to get the independent repairers to help out but as they say, once bitten…
K.
Re: Teba/gunkol built-in oven. Manual required. Model A02004
Anna/Mik
We do not have any instruction books, they can generally only be obtained from the manufacturer as they are often copyrighted and we do not have permission to reproduce them.
Richard has suggested that you call the Teba hotline who can hopefully help you and he should know, trust me.
However, this is always a danger with reconditioned products as you have no idea of the age or if the instructions will even be available should you require them. The only thing I could suggest is to contact the number as above or return to the seller and see if they can provide instructions.
K.
Re: Domestic & General Warranty on a Hotpoint
Yes, but there are certain criteria in place to repair under contract and not all repairers are equal. Much like not all car servicing garages are equal, some are good and some are bad, generally D&G weed out the bad and accept only the good.
There are also a lot of repairers out there with absolutely no interest in carrying out contract work so they can offer a premier service and, ultimately, charge more for it.
K.
Re: Christmas Bash 2004
Heh, I made breakfast just fine… someone didn’t though. 😉
Pictures are now available in the gallery as well since we don’t mess about here. 😆
And yes, there was a “knicker incident”… again! 😀
K.
Re: Domestic & General Warranty on a Hotpoint
Hi Dave,
This isn’t a D&G problem persay, it’s an industry one.
There is a severe shortage of engineers, full stop. No-one wants to invest in engineers or in training new ones and this leads to inevitable delays, added to which customers want appliances for next to nothing then expect premier service on them. I know that’s perhaps not a politically correct way for one of us to talk to a customer but it is the sad truth of the matter.
The mere fact that both Merloni (who now own Hotpoint) and employ their own engineering force and an independent repairer have long lead times only highlights this fact.
Let me ask you a simple question or two…
In an appliance costing circa £2-300 where’s the money to get an emergency service, bearing in mind the cost of a plumber to visit and he’d be there… sometime.
How much do you pay to get a car serviced? Yet you have to arrange to take the vehicle to the garage, at your expense and wait till they’re done with it, often a day or more later.
We get paid a lot less than either example given due to the financial constraints placed by, in effect, customers wishing cheaper and cheaper appliances yet we are expected by customer to give a better service. Can you see the problem? The two goals are diametrically opposed to one another.
I know it’s not politically correct by any stretch but I find customers accept the truth far better than a line from the public relations handbook.
K.
Almost certainly a sign that the compressor is on it’s way out, could last two minutes or it could last two years Jaded there’s no way to know as it’s a sealed unit. If it does go you’d be looking at ~£150-200 to replace the compressor so not economically viable I’d say. It’s not a DIY job by any stretch, you need specialist tools and equipment.
K.
Yeah we need more reviews and more reviews of current appliances for that P. Even a few to kick it off would be good and get people thinking on the machines.
Repairs@ will be supremely promoted. I fully intend making a meal of that one and making it into something pretty special. I have some other irons in the fire so to speak on how to promote that as well.
In the end it baffles me that there’s been such a low level of interest in it. I bet if I offered them free £20 notes there woould be more interest.
It’s so sad that some people with access to this forum haven’t even bothered their arse to do it! I can’t guess what people do and don’t want to do, you have to tell me.
K.
Indeed, totally agreed and hence the reason for the post. Often others either come up with a better idea or inspire more balanced thinking on a subject.
K.
Oh and do you honestly think I’ll miss with the opportunity to promote e-Jobs once it’s up there? 😉
EVERY visitor to the site will be well aware of it, trust me.
K.
Insurers looking about wouldn’t surprise me, but if you think about it there’s hellish little places to look and any of the existing networks have huge crossovers. Add that to the diminishing number of engineers actually in the field and they’re pretty much fucked, especially in rural areas. Hell, even in some of the major cities there’s cover issues and, if there’s not, there’s often quality issues.
It’s about time we woke up to ourselves and realised it!
K.
Re: R U Ready
And this is why the small group that will be at Sibson suits and why I didn’t make a big deal of it after we’d discussed this.
This has to be kept pretty much under wraps and Kev and I have talked a bit on the subject touching on some pretty nifty little twists in this that we’ll discuss tomorrow.
And Dave, you’re getting as bad as me FFS! On occasion you need to shut down and stop thinking about all this stuff.
K.
To be fair it got us to the door of whatever the hotel’s name was. Pity the other one was built after the nav disc was produced, but again to be fair, you could easily have the same issue with a paper map.
K.
Re: Names!
Well, I dunno that’s what I thought of doing because it looks right next to Shop@ and Reviews@ which you’d find on the front page of the reviews. It just kinda stays with the theme if you like and the addition of the “@” symbol is largely associated with the internet these days so, to me, it makes sense,
But after all the whining the last time I did shit carte blanche (from Martin :lol:) I thought I’d ask. 😉
K.
