[Mrangry]

Re: Whirlpool American Fridge Freezer broken down – help!

Have also experienced some of the problems in this thread with our Whirlpool American Style fridge-freezer (Model S20BRSS31) which is now 5 years old (this cost almost £1,500 when new). It’s had both front and rear PCBs replaced while still under its first year of warranty. Because of the problems experienced previously, took out an extended warranty, so when the freezer alarm started flashing again just before Christmas (2007) called Whirlpool out. The engineer called after a week and without hesitation said appliance needed 2 new PCBs (again!). Said he’d order these and be back within 7 – 10 working days. It was inconvenient without a freezer over Xmas holiday period, but waitied patiently for a call back. Having heard nothing at all from Whirlpool by mid-January, called them again to enquire about the repair. Was then told the parts were out of stock and wouldn’t be available until Feb or even early March! Was extremely unhappy with this situation. However, Whirlpool called this week to say parts now in stock, so arranged for engineer to call today (21 Feb). This morning received call from Whirlpool to say engineer off sick and no one else available to come and repair the appliance. Whilst I understand that the engineer cannot help being ill, shouldn’t a company the size of Whirlpool be able to supply a backup person? (Although I believe they don’t actually use their own in-house engineers, but contract out). Not to mention the unacceptably long delay in obtaining the parts in the first place – was told they are made in Italy, but surely over 2 months is an excessively long time to wait for a simple repair? Have any others on these forums experienced bad/slow/indifferent/ service from Whirlpool, and why do their fridge-freezers break down so often? Is there anything we, as consumers, can do about this other than write to Watchdog? Have spoken to Whirlpool’s so-called ‘Customer Care’ departmnt who are, as someone else has mentioned, completely indifferent and fob you off with poor excuses. 👿 Also, is it true that John Lewis no longer stock Whirlpool products because of their poor reputation? There, that feels better: rant now over! Will post again if/when it ever gets fixed. Thanks.

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