A while ago, we purchased a new washing machine and dishwasher made by Whirlpool. We decided to take out a 10-year parts guarantee with them and when we purchased them from Comet we took out a 5-year labour guarantee.

We have had a number of fairly minor faults over time where we have had to have engineers out to fix the fault and had never had a problem until the last time.

Lets give you a bit of history first that will explain why I am so frustrated, A short while ago we had a burst water pipe in our kitchen, when the plumber was moving the washing machine to get to the pipe, he ripped the lino, he explained that as the lino was wet it ripped easily, but not to worry as the household insurance would cover it. On this occasion as there was water everywhere I had no problems calling my household insurers and they had no problems in covering the cost of repairs.

So here I am with my gleaming new kitchen floor when the washing machine goes wrong again. No problem I thought just phone Whirlpool they will come and sort it out. I phoned up and booked the appointment and the Whirlpool engineer turned up on the day he was supposed to. We explained to him that we had just had a new floor and could he put something under the washing machine before he moved it so he didn?t damage the floor and then left him to it.

When he shouted to say he had finished, I checked the machine was working and then said goodbye. I then went back into the kitchen and picked up the wet towels he had left on the floor (I assumed to soak up the water that had come out of the machine while he was fixing it) only to find a large rip in my nice new lino.

So I got on to the phone to Whirlpool Customer Services and spoke to someone giving them all the details, She said ?that is our senior engineer for the area I am sure he didn?t know he had damaged the floor otherwise he would have said something?, they then put me on hold while they called the engineer
. Apparently the engineer denied he had caused any damage to our floor. I suggested they get the engineer to come back so I could show him the damage as it certainly was not there when he arrived, the operator said he was on his way to another job so he couldn?t. Even though the engineer had said he didn?t do it the operator said to get 2 quotes for replacing the floor and to post it into them with a letter detailing what happened.

So after ringing round lots of companies and several visits and even having to pay a £30 charge for producing insurance quotes, I posted off my letter along with 2 quotes. Just over a week later I get a letter back saying they had spoken to the engineer who denied he had caused any damage (I have heard this before somewhere) so they were not going to fix my floor.

I was obviously upset by this so I tried to speak to the person who had written the letter, but after a number of phone calls and emails I had still not managed to speak to the lady dealing with my claim, or with the customer service manager as they were never available and I left a message every time I called they were never returned.

When I did eventually speak to the Customer Service Manager he basically said tough, they are disputing liability in this case and there is no place for an appeal or complaint in the company. I am now in the situation where I am going to have to go back to my household insurers again to repair a floor damaged by a Whirlpool engineer.

The reason for writing this opinion is to warn any potential purchasers of Whirlpool and the other makes they look after including Bauknecht and Ignis equipment. The Customer Service Department appear to have no idea of the concept of Customer Care.

I phoned to report the problem, they had already decided that it was not there fault, but they made me go out and waste time getting quotes anyway.

No concept of the customer is always right; their Engineer sa
id he didn?t do it so basically tough on the poor customer.

No one returned my calls or emails; I had to keep phoning over several days before I got to speak to someone.

Then the attitude was basically tough.

I do not have a problem with either appliance, but the after care service is absolutely dreadful. I will certainly never buy a Whirlpool appliance again, neither will any of my friends after I explained this story to them, and I advise you to look for another manufacturer as well