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Re: ISE Appliances cease trading-who deals with warranty cla
When in July 2014 Mr Watt suddenly cancelled the 10-year warranty on my W288 eco (bought new in Nov 2012 from a Glasgow retailer) on the grounds that this carefully selected dealer hadn’t passed on to him my payment, I queried the warranty cover with the fund provider named on the iseappliances website. I cited the relevant website paragraph:
‘Our provision funds are lodged with Sterling Assurance who are a trading name of Zurich Assurance (company number 02395416) and is fully regulated and authorised by the FSA. Our fund is account number W523411 and the money for the provision of the 10 year guarantee on all ISE applicances purchased since launch is held in that fund’.
On 6th August 2014 Sterling replied:
Sterling Assurance and Sterling ISA Managers have no knowledge of, or involvement in, the provision of any warranties whether relating to domestic appliances or otherwise. We are not an ‘insurance’ company, we are an ‘assurance’ company – the difference being that we offer an element of life cover with some of our investments, and we do not offer cover for material items. . . .I can completely understand that as our company name has been made available on the ISE Appliances website linked to their warranty, you may feel this infers we have a responsibility in this respect. However until you made us aware of the information ISE Appliances have placed in the public domain on their website, we were completely unaware of the situation.
— So, from my reading of this reply it would appear that there never was a repair warranty covered by Sterling.
My machine required (another) repair shorty after summary removal by Mr Watt of the warranty. Since the repairers he previously sent out were wholly unfamiliar with the W288 eco machine and/or failed to take time to diagnose the cause of the problem (imbalance during spin) it occurs to me that other former purchasers may now similarly be on their own. Since the machine is basically a more-or-less customised high-end Asko brand, I can only suggest that owners might try, as I eventually did, Youtube for repair advice re Asko washing machines. I was able myself to replace the four-strut shock-absorber assembly using common sense and reassurance from a Youtube ‘Asko’ video. — Not ideal practice, of course, but what else to do?. Throw the machine away? Sell it for maybe £20(no warranty, unfamiliar brand)? . . . There seems, however, to be no ready means of identifying how to reset or repair the ‘unbalance sensor’ itself, which failed long ago. So keep an eye on the machine during spin cycles, or it may attempt to self-distruct.
Re: ISE 10 Year Warranty
In his recent comment of 22nd September 2014, Mr Watt writes: ‘I have no clue what was paid for this machine, who to or when.’ I was the purchaser of this machine in 2012 from one of ISE’s selected (Scottish) retailers – so it was not bought off the back of a lorry, or second hand off eBay. I paid the then standard fixed price for the W288 eco of £1,009. The machine was installed by ISE’s selected (Glasgow) retailer (elsewhere on this site Mr Watt writes: ‘we have no idea who installed the machine’). The “ISE 10” Guarantee Certificate that I received direct from ISE on 1st December 2012, complete with its covering letter signed by Mr Watt himself, gives the name, address, & phone number of the Glasgow retailer from whom I bought the machine, here named as ‘Repair Agent’, and with the exact date of purchase (21/11/2012) also given. So does Mr Watt really not have access to the information given on his own guarantee certificate? Does he keep no records of issued warranties?
Elsewhere on this ukwhitegoods site, Mr Watt states that my comments concerning inadequate, uninformed repair by his selected repairers are “somewhat exaggerated and extremely misleading”. I simply tell it as it is – the selected repairers whom ISE chose to send out proved in three cases out of four to be incompetent and unfamiliar with the brand. (No, I did not think to ask ISE prior to purchase if my ‘remote’ location was unsuitable for the provision of an ISE washing machine . . . perhaps the ISE site should list all those areas that it considers to be ‘no go’.) Not one of the selected repairers (not even the more competent fourth) thought to investigate why the outer casing was being fouled by the drum’s dangerously excessive movement during the spin cycle; they simply replaced or reseated springs, then left. Mr Watt has stated that my criticisms can be construed as ‘libellous’. If by this he means that I am making false and defamatory statements, let him demonstrate which of my statements is untrue. I assert that everything that I have written is wholly true and is not, as Mr Watt insinuates, motivated by misplaced revenge. I continue to believe that I have a warranty (not a retailer’s warranty, but ISE’s own) that should be honoured – for all the reasons that I have set out in previous communications.
Re: ISE 10 Year Warranty
Since Mr Watt has yet to reply to me by letter, some two weeks after acknowledging (only here) its receipt, and has responded (only here) through this ukwhitegoods website, some reply here from me the customer is perhaps appropriate. I have already made the point that according to the paperwork that I received my contract was with ISE. It was ISE that issued the 10-year warranty, provided on registration as an A4 certificate. And it was Mr K.Watt himself who provided a signed covering letter confirming my purchase. I was not to know that, particularly in the case of a small company such as this, the certificate and signed letter were supposedly issued ‘using an automated process’; and so I hold ISE responsible for not first establishing that it had received payment from their approved dealer before issuing the warranty. In its own ISE website information, under the heading ‘Long Warranties’, ISE states that, ‘Because we offer a long warranty the typical retailer has the ability to sell an additional warranty removed completely’. So whose is the warranty? It is ISE’s. Furthermore, ISE shows pride in stating, under the heading guarantees/fund-provision: ‘Our provision funds are lodged with Sterling Assurance who are a trading name of Zurich Assurance (company number 02395416) and is fully regulated and authorised by the FSA. Our fund is account number W523411 and the money for the provision of the 10 year guarantee on all ISE appliances purchased since launch is held in that fund’. Anybody considering buying a machine costing £1000 first does their research, and having read the ‘Which’ review, I then read through all the many pages of information provided by ISE on their business practice and commitment to warranty cover. So ISE’s warranty is now worthless to me, ‘Bob’ thinks I’ve got off lightly; and Mr Watt says ‘It’s really a win for the customer big time as opposed to having the bailiffs turn up . . . ‘ As I informed Mr Watt in my letter, the liquidators assured me that ISE has no claim on the machine at this late stage. The liquidators may be wrong, but that’s what I was told. As for me being let off lightly, I would add that the machine broke down again on 8th July, probably because (but what do I know, a mere customer, as Mr Watt will be quick to retort) the balance springs were (according to an engineer repairing the machine under the non-existent warranty) incorrectly fitted on delivery, and had then been incorrectly refitted by two other engineers before he arrived (from Kilmarnock). With a balance spring broken, I guess that the shock-absorber struts were over-exercised – much as if the machine were overloaded (which it has not been). So now the struts are all four leaking oil, and the front panel rubber surround has been dislodged owing to the excess vibration and drum movement during spin cycles. I therefore now have, after 20 months, a non-working ISE w288 eco, with no warranty, no local repairers with the wit to repair it, and an importer-Asko/Garanje WM70 customiser who tells me that I have won out ‘big time’ because the bailiffs are not breaking down the door. I don’t think so. ISE is a small company, of which both director and secretary are Mr Watt. It is in competition with the big boys such as Bosch. If Mr Watt valued his customer-relations profile he would take the ‘hit’ with this one machine (assuming that others in his network of dealerships are not similarly going into liquidation and thereby invalidating ISE warranties) and honour the warranty despite all. The consequence of not so doing is leaving this customer with no faith in the ISE brand and no grounds for ever again recommending ISE to anyone. Instead of holding true to the warranty commitment, Mr Watt is content to sacrifice my word-of-mouth recommendation for the next ten years and beyond. I again urge Mr Watt, as I did in my initial unanswered letter, to reinstate the warranty, if not solely out of honour (his signature, remember), then in the spirit of sheer pragmatism, in order to sustain some business reputation.
Re: ISE 10 Year Warranty
The issue is now in the public domain because, whereas it takes ISE only ten minutes to both compose and post a reply to my posting, it cannot reply within a week – by phone, email, or letter – to a letter posted 1st class on 26th June. My ‘woes’ are entirely justified: ISE has cancelled this customer’s warranty/guarantee (with over eight years still to run) without any notice. There is legislation under Trading Standards that covers breach of contract. According to the paperwork that I received, my contract is with ISE: theirs is the ten year guarantee/warranty, provided on registration as an A4 certificate; and theirs is the covering letter confirming my purchase. ISE’s problem with its retailer should be no concern of mine. I find it remarkable that ISE can thus terminate a warranty/guarantee some twenty months after I paid in full for the machine. I would suggest that, our respective viewpoints having been given in this forum for the benefit of present and prospective purchasers of ISE products, any future interchange should be in private correspondence and not publicly aired, with the danger of ad hominem abuse.
Re: ISE 10 Year Warranty
Unfortunately this warranty can apparently be cancelled without notice. I live in Scotland, only a county away from ISE’s Kilmarnock office. I registered online the purchase of a new ISE W288 eco washing machine in November 2012, that is to say, under two years ago. It is in domestic use only, and in use and repair (3 minor repairs to date) complies strictly with the guarantee terms. In return for registration I received the ISE 10 [Year] Guarantee Certificate and a covering letter from ISE referring to the enclosure of the ‘warranty’ certificate and formally acknowledging my purchase. In late June 2014 (a week ago) I received without any warning from ISE a letter stating that, because the retailer from whom in 2012 I had bought the machine had gone into liquidation before settling payment with ISE, the warranty was no longer valid, and that ISE had the legal right to recover the machine from me (a presumed right which they choose to waive). I have written to ISE conveying my dissatisfaction with their action in withdrawing the warranty. . . . I have a 10 Year guarantee from ISE (not from the retailer) and a letter from ISE thanking me for my purchase. It was reasonable of me to believe that ISE, in issuing the warranty and formally acknowledging my purchase, thereupon took responsibility for honouring the warranty for its full term, given proper observance by the customer of ISE’s terms and conditions. I shall press for the warranty to be fully reinstated. Meanwhile, caveat emptor!
