But I Smile Anyway…

Now, if you know me at all via this blog, you will also know I am a pretty calm, chilled, somewhat crazy person, but there are times when even the most cool of customers get heated… and I have to say right now is one of those times.

Have you heard about the safety issues regarding certain washers, dryers and other appliances by Hotpoint and Indesit from 2005-2014?

We hadn’t.

You can bet that there are a lot of appliances that were made in those years out there, and yet there hasn’t been as much publicity with regards to the faults.

Apparently, whatever this fault is, it means if you have an appliance that is affected, it could basically catch fire. Not such a big thing eh? Hell no!  It’s only a family’s home that could go up in flames, injuries or worse…

Well, guess what… it turns out we are one of the affected households.

And how very lovely of Hotpoint to make us aware of said issue, so it could be resolved!

What?

Oh, sorry, no, it wasn’t Hotpoint that let us know, it was an email from a company we bought the appliance from who thought it would be a good idea to let any of their customers who had bought Hotpoint from them know that there may be an issue.

So you are obviously bothered about things, eh Hotpoint!

Hubby Dearest rang them up, to see if we had been affected.  We were due to call them anyway, as it seems a yearly occurrence with the Tumble dryer. It decides to spew water out at us, rather than collect it nicely in the condenser, every December.

I think a little history would make sense now.  When we bought our house around 6 years ago, the kitchen was kitted out with Hotpoint Fridge Freezer, Washing Machine and Tumble Dryer. After about 2 years the dryer started leaking, and as I hadn’t gone for the extended warrantee it was cheaper to buy a new one. So we did.  It was replaced by a higher spec but similar model.

A year after having it installed, it started misbehaving like its predecessor, my kitchen floor left sopping after a load of clothes dried. As it was within warranty, I called an engineer out.  There was a part that had shrunk, and all the apparent causes of this shrinkage, like using tumble dryer sheets, or washing and drying clothes with petroleum based emollients on them, were not applicable to us.  After a couple of visits, and the part being ordered, it was all fixed.

Until exactly a year later, when the same thing happened.

This time I had the extended warranty, so I called up, and explained what had happened, and even told them not to send the engineer unless he had that specific part handy.  Around the same time, my dear washing machine was also doing things it shouldn’t have been.  An hour’s cycle was taking 3 hours.

I asked the dryer engineer, but he didn’t have a clue, yet, very helpfully, he called a washing machine colleague of his to get some info, and I was told my thermostat had gone, or the drum, or the bearings…. Anyway, it was going to be costly,  no matter what.  He suggested I get the discounted added warranty and wait a few weeks before getting an engineer to visit to check the machine.

This I did, and it took around 4 visits. Different engineers, different parts were tried, and finally they got from a 3 hour cycle to just over an hour.  Not perfect, but hey, I’m not fussy!

Thank you Hotpoint, I thought at that time.

Now fast forward to December 2015. Guess what happened ? The dryer started it’s annual spew mission, right on time! I had mentioned to Hubby Dearest that we may need another engineer visit, when he got this email from Appliances Online, where we bought the dryer from, stating their concern over an appliance fault.

A dryer like ours

After calling up the ‘customer service’ at Hotpoint, who were just an outsourced company, employed to deal with this unprecedented issue, we found out that yes, the dryer was one of the affected appliances. Oh and another gem from Hotpoint… it would take someone 5 weeks to get back to us, but don’t worry, use your fire hazard appliance with caution, it should be ok!

After a week, Hubby Dearest raised a complaint, and was called back by senior manager, who was all apologies. He checked our fridge and washing machine, and found that not only the dryer, but the washing machine was also a hazardous piece of equipment.

A washing machine likemours

We were offered a straight replacement of the units, with something newer and unaffected, or if we had the receipts, a full refund.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but my faith in Hotpoint had somewhat become rather dim, and we decided to opt for the refund.

All receipts and information were emailed to them the week before Christmas and an automated response told us that it would take 7 days to respond.  Now we understand with Christmas, and New Year in the mix, there can be an additional delay, but it had been a couple of weeks, and since Monday, Hubby Dearest has been on the phone, trying to chase things up, and at least get an answer from someone, regarding what is happening.  It is hard enough to get a proper phone number, to get through to someone who actually works at Hotpoint, not outsourced companies, and then when you do, it is the ‘wrong’ department, and someone will call you back.

4 times, last week he called them.

4 times he was promised a call back from a team leader or manager.

4 times no one called back.

Today, a Saturday, he called again, and the team who answered the phone could basically do NOTHING! They were diabolical, and initially the team leader refused to come to the phone.  Very professional. Then, and I could hear the whole call, very condescendingly we were ‘promised’ a call back on Monday by the department who we needed, who were, shock horror(!)’ closed today!

It has taken countless calls, many emails, and a whole lot of hours to come to this, which is still at the same place we were 3 weeks before Christmas!

And, looking online, and on Twitter, there are many others who are affected.

Doesn’t restore any faith!

So we are  still stuck with 2 hazardous appliances, which we can use with caution, apparently, and no further along the solving the issue route!

I am fuming!

More heated than Hotpoint anyway!

So here is my new hashtag for this issue

#notsohotpoint

I will tweet this post, and would appreciate some retweets… apparently we are more likely to get a response via Twitter, than from a phone call! Please use the hashtag above too, if you can!

I want to see these Hotpoint bigwigs get their fingers out, and actually clear this backlog of issues that occurred because of their own mistakes, and are now causing families to live in fear of exploding appliances!

Remember.. #notsohotpoint!

Peace out Peeps!