Not today. Oh no. I am irritated. No wait. Angry. Gird your loins, because Imabout to tell you the saga of our broken then new then broken then not fixed for over one week washing machine.
My husband and I have been married for nine years. In that amount of time our former washing machine went from awesome to ten years old and not getting the job done. Then a little over one week ago it just stopped functioning. It would beep at us in protest. More like a "I just cannot drain and extract water from your clothing any more" kind of sound. So we investigated what it would take to repair said old girl. More money than we wanted to invest in the old machine. Off to giant store where washing machines are sold to invest our hard-earned dollars in a new one. Yes, we did our homework and researched brands/models for efficiency, reliability, etc. We went to giant store with several models in mind and discussed our options with the sales representative. Left giant store with a purchase in which we both felt confident. This is what we had selected, a Maytag Bravos XL HE Top Load Washer...
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| Don't be fooled by her good looks and charm.... |
I spent the next day at home awaiting delivery. The brand new Bravos arrived, the old girl departed. I read the manual like the good consumer I am. I ran the clean cycle first to "clean the machine of all residual grease from the manufacturing process." I then loaded in a small load of our son's t-shirts and pajamas. No problem until the end of the cycle. The Bravos wouldn't drain completely. Kept chirping at us. Husband was home for lunch so we looked through the troubleshooting portion of the manual and followed those instructions. No go.
I spent some time that afternoon on the phone with Maytag customer service-who at that time was very apologetic-and had us set up with an appliance service in our area for the following day. No biggie, I thought. I could go two days without a functioning washing machine. Fortunately I had all of my laundry done as well as our son's-I had even gotten our sheets, quilt and pillow shams through before our old washer had given out. It was my husband who was close to dire straits when it came to clean clothes. But two days-we were still okay.
A very friendly service technician arrived promptly the following afternoon (while I was drying my hair, of course). He tried multiple things to fix our ailing (brand new) machine. Nothing worked. He called back to his shop. He tried more things. He called Whirlpool service. Tried a few other things. Still a no go. Finally, the conclusion was made that the (brand new) machine needed a part that would have to be ordered. It was ordered; he apologized profusely for not having it in stock. Our appointment was now rescheduled for the next afternoon (the part was supposed to arrive the next morning), and then he bid me farewell.
One week later the part finally arrived. (yes, I said one week) We are now stinky. I caved and dropped a small amount of laundry off at the cleaners for a wash and fold. We didn't want to smell like cave people. The tech arrived back at our house, box in hand. He began to disassemble our (brand new) machine and put said part in place. Then I hear a groan. Whirlpool sent the wrong part. But he had no way of knowing because Whirlpool mislabeled the part.
Seriously?
Very nice service technician got on the phone with his boss and Whirlpool. Tries to get the correct part overnighted to us. The best they can do is Monday or Tuesday. People, it is Thursday. As in the Thursday one week after we purchased the brand new washing machine. This is crazy.
Now, I'm not mad at the appliance service company or our technician. They are at the mercy of Whirlpool. Nor am I mad at giant store who sold us the machine-no customer has ever had issues before like this. What blows my mind is that a brand new machine can so completely fail and the company (Whirlpool) who builds it cannot get their shit together to fix the problem in a timely fashion. Then when you contact their customer service (as we did) they treat you less that positively. Now the part won't be here until after August 10.
Enter angry blogger and social media.
I want to make the world, or at least my little corner of the world, aware of the absolutely horrific customer service we received from Whirlpool. I want you to proceed with caution when purchasing anything bearing the Maytag or Whirlpool label. I say this with a very heavy heart too, because the washer that sits broken in our laundry room was completely built in Ohio. I was proud to say we purchased our appliance locally. For a company to treat its customers in such a sad fashion is unconscionable. So here you go. My angry story-and it still has an open end. I promise to update you whenever the situation is remedied-no matter how far into the future it may be. Hopefully not too far off though, because our clothes may start standing up and walking around on their own in a form of revolt soon.
Phew.
