Fire hazard with warranty not fit for purpose
1/5
The very first time I used this appliance it cut out and exploded lifting itself off the ground allowing a flash flame to shoot out the bottom, tripped the electrics and emitted an acrid stench of electrical burning. This appliance was a clear fire hazard yet had been allowed to leave the Whirlpool/Indesit factory.
Indesit washing machines have a ridiculous new fangled door locking system which relies on the machine being plugged in and fully working to open the door. In turn that means when it breaks down the only way to retrieve your belongings from inside is to force the door as there is no manual override.
The warranty on this is quite unfit for purpose.
BEWARE that if things go wrong with Indesit (or any products manufactured by Whirlpool UK) out of business hours there is noone to call for assistance and if you call out a local person or make safe yourself, they negate the warranty. Despite a fire hazard I had to wait 12 hours before I could call anyone.
When I did call AO.Com brought manufacturer's representatives into a 3 way call - they were atrociously bad. They insisted on sending one of their engineers, which could take days, weeks or even months, and at that time there was nothing they could do as they had no engineers available! ?
Also they refused to allow me to force the door to retrieve my belongings from inside., effectively expecting me to forfeit some £700 plus worth of clothing that would be ruined.
I was later informed that their policy is to book an engineer from some third party company and if there is a safety concern they ask the engineering company to arrange an urgent call out 48 HOURS later - hardly taking safety concerns or the safety of customers seriously!!
At the point of me becoming distressed having aggravated an injury trying to make it safe, AO.Com did step in and take over - they agreed to bear the cost of replacement and allowed me to force the door and retrieve my clothes.
I have since complained to Whirlpool UK/Indesit asking them to look at safety protocols and design faults - the complaints handler I spoke to has since warped, twisted and misrepresented my complaint into some personal injury claim which it was not. I suspect the root of this lies in unconscious bias towards disability.
However since this women has manipulated the complaint I have been subjected to a barrage of bullying and intimidation from their Claims Department, and have been subjected to false allegations and dishonesty. It is my belief that they are behaving this way to make the bullying so unpleasant that it shuts the customer down and makes them go away, then they can avoid the expense of safety investigations and potential product recall risk. The treatment I have received from Whirlpool UK has been atrocious and their warranty that comes with this product is not fit for purpose.
