The wonders of Hotpoint

[ffutures]

I have a Hotpoint washer dryer which went wrong a couple of weeks ago. No problem, I thought, I've got a service contract. They're usually OK...

So far the sequence has been:

• Thursday 28th April. Call in problem - earliest engineer available is Wednesday 4th May. Agree, rather grumpily.
  
• Wednesday 4th May. Wait in all day. Nobody turns up - it eventually turns out that the engineer was told to go to the flat below (they also have a contract and their surname begins earlier in the alphabet, so I can see this sort of idiot mistake happening), tried to contact them but got no reply because their contact was at work with phone switched off. After nearly an hour of calls get through to someone who arranges for an engineer to call the following Monday, 9th May.
  
• Monday 9th May. Engineer turns up, eventually says he's fixed a dodgy connection. Machine seems OK. Three hours later it turns out that it isn't OK, it's stopped working at the start of the spin cycle, full of wet clothes. Another half hour gets me another appointment for today.
  
• Wednesday 11th May. Engineer turns up, eventually says it needs a new motor and controller board. Needless to say he doesn't have them in the van. They'll call me to set up another appointment, probably next week.

I am waiting to see how long this takes, and if it isn't completely fixed on the next visit I am going to demand a replacement machine. And if it is, at service contract renewal time they are going to be told exactly why I want a VERY large discount!

Comments

[coth.livejournal.com]

We have one of those. And had one of these.

I think we had four calls in all, maybe five, and by the time we were done we didn't need a new machine: we had a new motor, and new controller and a new drum. The machine has worked perfectly ever since.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I've been through something like this before, but the previous one was three visits to get it fixed, this is now headed for four. I really wish I had room for a separate dryer, I'm sure separate machines are a LOT more reliable.

[coth.livejournal.com]

I think you're probably right. Good luck for the fourth visit.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

We went through that at our apartment building. At one point the washing machine was locked up with a load of my wet clothes inside it. Fortunately I discovered that unplugging it and plugging it in again caused it to reset, before the clothes had time to mildew. I'm not sure what was wrong with it, but eventually the building owner replaced it with an older and less sophisticated model that seems to be somewhat more reliable.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Tried that, didn't help.

[robby.livejournal.com]

When my dryer failed, it turned out to be the safety switch associated with the door. I bypassed it with a bit of wire, and so used it until I actually replaced the switch.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

This is apparently the motor overheating or something.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Apparently they've been swamped for the last 2 months because one of their popular models of driers turned out to haev a slight problem with inadvertently setting fire to peoples houses. So they've been dealing with a very high number of complaints and repair requests. And don't seem to have been able to scale up their system to cope with it.

A friend of mine has been trying to get their hotpoint washing machine fixed for about 3 months now.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yes, every time you phone the first thing is you get asked about three times if you're phoning about a drier. A bit annoying if you aren't...