At IFA this year, not much happened, so don’t worry if you missed it, but Miele has stated that it’s committed to what it calls “circularity projects.” These projects involve reuse, repairability, and so on, but is it all just hype?
It is said that Miele is Miele’s committed to sustainability and resource conservation.
Among the projects is Miele, with a partner in the Netherlands, selling refurbished washing machines. And we’ve no issue with that other than we don’t know how well people will accept it given that we’d expect a refurbished Miele machine to cost way more than a brand new budget machine costs down it Argos or wherever. In other words, can Miele escape the gravitational pull of a buyer looking at a new or used for the same money, we don’t think they can.
This is the very thing that has all but killed any market for second-hand appliances of all flavours.
In another project apparently across five countries, Miele is testing consumer acceptance of reconditioned electronic modules as an alternative to new spare parts for repairs. Reporterd initial results are positive, with a good level of acceptance for this.
But then, given the prices of new modules (or any parts for a Miele), that’s not even remotely surprising!
Miele part prices are, will we say, high!
They’ve also got some vac made from recyclable stuff and with the potential offer of refurbished parts etc that seems to have gone over well in Germany at least.
So is it all just hype?
No, we don’t think it is. We do think that Miele is actually trying to do some positive stuff here but, at the same time, they are one of the most restrictive companies we know of when it comes to service and spares, as well as accessories.
Miele famously will not allow “unauthorised” repairers to access any servicing information, technical documentation or in a great many cases even buy a spare part as we’ve pointed out on here many, many times. Now, they even restrict who can’t or cannot buy bags, filters and other consumables with it restricted to certain dealers meeting whatever criteria Miele sees fit to impose.
On the one hand, they appear to be trying to do positive things in the area and, on the other, restricting what can and cannot be done, as well as pricing etc, from what we can see.
So there are positives and negatives in all this; it’s up to buyers to work that out for themselves, but don’t trust everything you read in a press release as always.
