The dishwasher that just wouldn’t wash the dishes
TEN weeks, and not a dish washed!
That’s what Sheila Ireland had to go through when she had a new kitchen installed.
The Hotpoint dishwasher she bought from Tesco Direct was fitted on Friday, April 15.
It had lots of fancy wash programmes, so that evening Sheila selected Cycle No. 6, which promised an express wash.
The machine decided for itself to abandon the express wash idea and selected Eco Programme 1 for a few moments, then gave up the whole idea of washing dishes and just proceeded to pump out water.
It continued to pump water all weekend, but not applying any of it to the dirty dishes, obviously having forgotten it had been tasked to do an express wash.
Concerned that the motor might burn out, Sheila called in her own plumber. He reckoned the machine had a serious fault and switched it off at the mains.
Sheila phoned Tesco Direct on the Monday but she was passed on to Hotpoint as she had purchased its extended warranty.
Despite the “quick, professional service” promised in the sales blurb, there was no engineer available that week.
Then Sheila went on holiday for 10 days, so it took until May 4 to get a Hotpoint operative in to have a look.
The engineer stayed for an hour, said he’d fixed the problem and left.
That evening Sheila tried Wash Cycle No. 8.
The machine didn’t like that programme any more than it had liked No. 6 and reverted to its old habit of pumping water through itself.
After several frustrating hours trying to negotiate Hotpoint’s phone maze, Sheila arranged for another technician to call on May 16.
This engineer also worked on the machine for a while and then declared it “fixed”.
But Sheila had been through this before. She demanded he attempt Wash Cycle No. 8 before leaving.
The machine, true to form, just pumped water through itself.
The engineer declared it was a faulty machine.
He left, although without giving Sheila any paperwork.
Sheila quite rightly contacted Tesco Direct as her contract was with that firm.
Tesco and Hotpoint then began wrangling over what was to be done.
After seven weeks with a dishwasher that was little better than an ornament, and having been nothing but patient and polite at all times, Sheila had had enough and contacted Raw Deal.
The Raw Deal team is similarly always polite, but not quite so patient.
Hotpoint has now delivered and plumbed in a new washing machine for Sheila and taken away the temperamental one.
After 10 weeks, Sheila can at last get the dishes done!