In October we arrived back froom our holiday in Australia to discover that our deep freeze had broken down. We keep our freezer full. Everything was rotten and the smell was awful. Unfortunately it wasn’t only the freezer that was no longer working. The deep freeze had tripped a switch which serviced our fridge as well.
The deep freeze was in the garage, which was a bonus as it had caused a serious olfactory challenge! The fridge in the utility room was almost empty but it was black with mould which took a lot of scrubbing to remove. I still have an open bowl of bicarbonate of soda on a shelf to keep any residue smells at bay.
So my husband ordered a new freezer. A Miele. It was not cheep but apparently could cope with -C temperatures in the garage. The insurance paid out for the food loss but not the freezer. It was over thirty years old! We soon got the new freezer up to full capacity and life returned to normal. That was until three months later when our all singing all dancing Miele stopped. Dead. Never to go again.
My husband contacted the store where he had bought this highly rated deep freeze with an almost life time guarantee. It would certainly outlast us! The retailer told him that the contract was with Miele and they’d contact them. We managed, with the help of kind neighbours, to find homes for all our frozen food.
A week later we were still waiting for someone to contact us from Miele. Getting really frustrated my husband called an electrician who came out a few days later but, when we mentioned the guarantee, he wouldn’t touch it. Said it would invalidate the warranty so we were back to square one. My husband went back to the store for an update. There wasn’t one! Getting the phone number to contact Miele directly he impatiently spent an afternoon trying to speak to a human being. Everything does come to those who wait and he was given a date when an engineer would visit, three weeks later!
Feeling bad about asking neighbours to store our food there was no way that I was going to make a nuisance of myself by constantly knocking on their door to take food out of their freezers. This meant that menus had to be planned in advance and our weekly shop became much more precise. Manageable but not ideal!
Three weeks later the Miele engineer graced us with his presence. We had been without a freezer for a month. I was naive to think that he would exchange our broken one for a new one! A dodgy thermostat switch was the verdict. A replacement would have to be ordered from Germany. This could take up to four days.
Another week passed and we still hadn’t received a return date from Miele. I’d had enough! I rang the store. I told them that it was close to six weeks living without a freezer. I was going to cancel the credit card payment and buy a new one. It would be up to the store to resolve the issue with their bank. Louise, the women in the repairs and exchange department, appeared to be very understanding and apologetic. By now it was too little too late. She asked for an hour’s grace so that she could speak to her manager.
Within the hour I got a call back. Miele would return with the part in two week’s time. Louise’s manager offered a £200 cash discount if we would wait. That would be two months without a freezer! That same afternoon we bought another deep freeze, £300 cheaper than the Miele but with the same guarantees. It arrived within a couple of days.
So we had two deep freezers in our garage for another week before the store collected their useless Miele. When writing this we hadn’t received a refund but hopefully that will be winging its way to us within the next few days. It wasn’t the store’s fault that Miele were so useless but it’s not our fault either. And the customer is always king, or used to be in the good old days! Companies once cared about us and showed pride in their products, workmanship and their good names!
And no, I’m not going to blame covid! That excuse has passed its sell by date! 👠
Jenny Burrell 