In January 2021I called Nationwide Appliance Repairs and book a service call. I had told the service call centre the model of the machine and what was wrong. I did expect that the service man would have had the part on board. $154 for the service call, plus $128 for the part, $25 for postage and $80 for labour, plus GST - total $410.30. I was absolutely gobsmacked by the cost. The reason I went for a repair is that I am mindful of my footprint on the earth. The cost to repair a door latch was nearly half the cost of a new dishwasher.
To be fair to the company. I responded to their quotation in similar terms to above. A principal of the company telephoned me this morning (19/1/221) and I reiterated that at no time was I advised that the service technician would not have suitable parts on board to repair the dishwasher and that a second call would be required to repair the machine. I said I am aware of the capital costs involved in carrying parts, but that I thought there would be a āwarehouseā type facility in Adelaide that would carry the necessary parts. He offered to repair the dishwasher for the cost of the part. I told him it was too late because I had already gone out and bought a new machine and that people should be made aware that the technicians do not carry parts and a second call would be necessary if parts are required.
The principal of the company called me again today (21/1/21) and said that he had gone over the phone call with the call centre staff. He acknowledged that I had not been told that the service man would not be carrying parts on board. He will address this with the staff and said he would ask them to let future customers know that if the part is not on board with the service personnel, then a second call would be required with additional costs. Had I known that was the state of play, I would not have had the dishwasher repaired. I would have purchased a new one straight away. He did ask me if there was any other remedy - i.e. a refund of the cost of the call out. I said no, that the service man had done his job and I had paid as I expected to.
The company tried to get me to change my review on Google Reviews, but I said no, this is what happened and that the general public should be aware that the costs can escalate to a point where it is not economical to repairman appliance.
Thanks for posting your experience and warning others to ask āthe questionsā and be prepared.
It seems Nationwide was reponseive and tried to do the right thing by you.
As for your explicit experience, it is common that techs do not have all the parts in their truck for many reasons, some that you elaborated on. I had a dishwasher repaired a few years ago and the tech advised he had the most common parts on board for the make, model, and problem, but the manufacturer used many different versions of the same functional part (not interchangeable) and I was unlucky to have one of the less common. I believe he was genuine.
It is typical when they do not have the part the 2nd call-out is not charged, nor is postage for them obtaining the part although it may be hidden in their costing.
Call out fees usually include attendance and some time, often 15 or 30 minutes typically used for troubleshooting, with additional time metered in 15 minute increments. While you bill was obviously more than you anticipated using my local cost structures it seemed fair, although obviously unexpected.
My Asko dishwasher showed an F10 error (flow switch) and I called a local appliance repairman. I also researched dishwashers and it appears faults are very common in 5 year old appliances. My quote is;
Electronics $390, flow switch $62, labour $100, GST $55.20 - Total $607.20. I like my Asko and do not wish to add to land fill so will go ahead and have it repaired. When buying an appliance if we added in repair costs the true price of convenience will be much higher. PS single person using d/w twice a week purchased in 2017 $1859.
My Miele dishwasher was not draining, so I contacted my local repair person. I asked them to at the same time order a new bottom basket, as the one in my 8- year old dishwasher was perishing, with the plastic peeling off and the basket getting rusty.
I was informed that the price of a new basket was $525! Needless to say, I did not do any repairs, but got a new dishwasher, NOT a Miele!
Youāre not alone with this sort of experience. We had a Miele induction cooktop that lasted about 7 years and then stopped working. I was told the controller had failed, and a new part was needed.
The quote from Miele for the new part was ~$1800 (plus callout fee and whatever time it would have taken to do the work).
We dumped the Miele and got a new Bosch with similar functionality for around half the price of the Miele part.
Other people in the Choice Community have complained about Mieleās after-sales service (not just spare part prices) as well. Eg, see this topic:
I have found some manufactures will provide parts as goodwill when asked. It only applies when one calls their service, not a ālocal repair personā. My experiences were both years beyond warranty and in neither case did I need to argue the Australian Consumer Law.
My 6 year old SMEG oven recently had its fan element fail (error 5). I rang their excellent Victoria service agent who was known to me through an earlier warranty repair. They quoted their call-out fees and āplus partsā as expected. I asked if SMEG might be willing to cover or discount the part as goodwill considering the relatively short life of the oven. The agent contacted SMEG on my behalf and rang back a few hours later that SMEG agreed to cover the part. Although the repair could only be scheduled 3 days hence I was lucky - they had a cancellation and my oven was fixed the same day costing the minimal service call fee.
On another occasion I had a bad then good experience with Miele on one of their worst ever products. It should not have gone down as I described but the infamous dryer continues to provide good service 3 years on.
I āmade my mistakeā on a Siemens dishwasher repair. In hindsight if I had called Bosch service I might have gotten the expensive part discounted or provided under goodwill. The independent being arms length was a good repairer but was not interested in getting in the middle or suggesting I contact Bosch, only fixing the dishwasher and getting paid.
While I do not mean to disparage ālocal repairersā in any way, because of how manufacturers/importers might (not will) help, I now start by ringing manufacturers/importers and their service agents. Another data point is if the service agent cannot get to me in weeks and the local can come now or tomorrow that is a point of consideration and worth some potentially extra dollars in parts, sometimes offset by lower call out and hourly charges. And sometimes the manufacturer/imported remains disinterested so it is case by case, but worth considering.
I needed some rubber bumpers for my Miele cooktop. I expected Miele to ask top dollar and a bit so ordered them from a ādiscount appliance supplyā. After the fact I learned Miele sold them for $s less per unit and did free shipping! Seems a bit of a lotto how to source parts and get repairs.
