Domestic Appliance Repairs

[AlanHo]

I have a 4 year old Panasonic combination oven microwave. It blew the magnetron at the beginning of June and needed repair.

I had bought it from an Internet supplier which is no longer in business - so phoned Panasonic for the address of their local repair agents. They advised a firm in West Bromwich to where I took the unit for repair.

A couple of weeks later the agents phoned me to quote a price and get clearance to proceed - which I gave them.

I called them about 3 weeks later (being by now quite hungry) to be told they were awaiting parts from Panasonic. Another 2 weeks - same story. Another 2 weeks same story so I demanded to be given their order details on Panasonic to have a go at them myself - which I did. Panasonic told me the parts were on the way and would be in the UK within 2 weeks. By now it was the middle of August.

Another 2 weeks go by and the local agent phones me to advise that the microwave is a discontinued model and parts are no longer available - I need to buy a new one for which they would offer a suitable discount.

When I came down off the ceiling I called Panasonic UK and demanded to talk to their C.R. manager who was very sympathetic but could not see what he could do. I asked him to give me the contact details for Panasonic in Japan - insisting that I would not let the matter go without making known my feelings about Panasonic and their sales support. He promised to call me back within a few minutes - which he did - but not to give me the info requested but to tell me that they had located the required spares in Indonesia and would arrange to have them sent by air straight away - which they duly did. 10 days later I collected the repaired unit which had taken more than 3 months to get repaired.

I realise we live in a throw away society - but am I unreasonable in expecting an expensive kitchen appliance from a reputable manufacturer to be supported with spares for a reasonable period. Furthermore - I was disappointed that Panasonic UK and their local agents failed to tackle the problem of their own volition - they were only spurred into action when I was so persistent.

Anyone else with similar experiences...?

[catgate]

Yes. We bought a new Sharp combination microwave/fan oven/grill. Just about a week after the expiry of the guarantee the electronic control panel went "off". I went to the Sharp appointed repairer in York and explained the situation. He advised me to contact Sharp and explain how it was just out of g/tee. because they had had quite a number with this fault, with this machine, at about this life span. They replaced the control panel under g/tee and all was well, for about six weeks, when a nasty rattling started. This of course was not under g/tee, and it turned out to be the fan motor bearings. After this was fixed it lasted a couple of months until an all mighty pop signalled the end of the magnatrons term of office. Additionally the door hinges were originally mal-fixed in such a way that the bottom corner of the door had rubbed its way through the finish coating, due to vibration, and had started arcing.

We decided that we liked the machine and probably had got a Friday afternoon jobby (Isn't it surprising how many things are produced on Friday afternoon?).

We bought a new one, because the cost of repairing the old one was almost the price of a new one.

We had that for about six months and suddenly we got rattlings again. This time it turned out to be the flap door for the fan (so the man at Sharp C S said). he told me to take it to another official appointee and it would be repaired. And it was.

However ever since then the control panel read out does not display exactly what it should display according to the manual, as it did originally.

Further phone calls and emails to and from Sharp C S, and a return visit to the official appointee, have resulted only in being patronised and fobbed by politely being told that I do not know what I am talking about, and being told that the photographic evidence, that I have sent to Sharp C S , illustrating the panel "read out" could not possibly occur.

They are now aware that Sharp will not be sell us another thing.

I find it sad, because I have in front of me as I type, a Sharp Elsimate EL-8146 pocket calculator, that I bought shortly prior to July 1976 and it is still working ON THE SAME BATTERY.

Is it possible to grill my bacon on a pocket calculator?

[AlanHo]

I had a Sharp combination oven when I lived in Bahrain - it spent more time at the repairers than in my kitchen. Undaunted, I bought a Sharp TV with similar results and have vowed never to by Sharp stuff again.

I have had a number of Panasonic items including cameras, TV's , VCR's, Ovens, Vacuum cleaners, DVD recorders etc over the past 15 years and have enjoyed excellent reliability and performance.

3 years ago the vacuum cleaner motor burned out after 2 years use (misuse actually - the bag was only emptied by management when the motor groaned loudly) - but was replaced by Panasonic FOC. This experience with the combination oven is the only other time I have had a Panasonic item repaired - but the lack of spares for such a young item is worrying.

During the recent saga I purchased a new 42" HD TV - a Toshiba. I cannot be sure how much my frustration with Panasonic affected my decision but it is rare for me to buy other makes.

[catgate]

I am convinced that manufacturers are no longer interested in manufacturing products with longevity and are solely concerned with disposability and discontinuation of any kind of after sales service.

I recently had a problem with our petrol hedgecutter. It was one we bought from B&Q about 5 years ago. It has not done a great deal of work because a local farmer cuts all the top and outside of our hedges with his tractor mounted monster. So all in all it had probably done ten hours work in total.

One day in late September management was trimming part of the hedge and wanting a cup of tea stopped it. When she went back to it it would not start. So it was given to me to sort out. After about half an hours messing about with plugs, wire, spanners and a multimeter it was obvious that the problem was within the electronic ignition unit. There is nothing one can do with these things the coil, the condenser and the diode/transistor or whatever is being use for a trigger, are all potted up in a polystyrene resin and are "non-servicable".

The machine was one made by "Electrolux Outdoor Products" (nearly all the highstreet names are under this Groups umbrella).

I remembered having a similar problem about three years ago with a strimmer belonging to our neighbour,and that was an identical unit and was also E O P ... McConnel. Obtaining a spare part for that involved me eventually in writing to the CEO of Elecrolux in Sweden, because the local McConnel dealer could just not be bothered and had told the neighbour that the cost of the spare would be exorbitant and he should buy another (despite the fact it was still in it first summer of use). The letter to Sweden resulted in the local dealer ringing my neighbour to tell him he would have the require ignition system in two days time.

So...I searched the internet and found E O P site (B & Q had told me to contact a local repairer). After a few of weeks of non answered emails , following a fruitless search for spare parts on their site, I wrote to the same chap in Sweden again. This resulted in a very nice high powered young lady executive, from somewhere in the NE of England, telling me that they had found just the ignition unit I wanted and it should be with me the following day by post..gratis...which it was.

Make of this tale what you will. To me it says that the man at the top does not want to appear to be sitting on a pile of you know what...whilst everyone else does not want to be bothered about anything else but selling new machines....so why make them repairable.

In fact I called in at a dealers in Harrogate asking whether he stocked or could get hold of an ignition system for me. He just laughed and said that really all these things were disposable items. "Buy a new hedge cutter".

[andsome]

It would take far too long to tell some of the tales of my experiences with manufacturers and suppliers. I have lost count of the number of times that I have got within one or two days of a county court hearing before they have caved in. Panasonic was one of the companies concerned.