Miele After Sales Service

Thought I’d post a cautionary tale regarding my near new you beaut premium Miele front loader (Choice recommended).

In early March it stopped responding to controls in accordance with the instructions.

Called Miele and after the inevitable ‘long wait…high demand blah blah’ recording that seems to be increasingly common of late I explained the issue. Their solution was for me to empty the water (easy but inconvenient and messy, and you need to be able bodied) which should unlock the door and I could then reset and just carry on using the machine. The fact that it wasn’t working correctly appeared lost on them to the point that they appeared to not want to know, and only when I insisted on getting a technician was I transferred to another recorded message loop harping on about ‘long wait…high demand’ etc.

Eventually I was able to book a visit from a technician in…THREE WEEKS!
Who goes without a washing machine for that long?! It’s not like I can just go and buy another one to tide me over or drive 20 min to a friends place twice a week for three weeks to do an hour or so of washing before or after work. Luckily there are no small kids in the house. Then came the helpful suggestion that I could organise my own appointment, at my cost, with an independent service technician for a machine that’s under warranty. Miele wouldn’t give any indication of time until, late yesterday afternoon two days (!) before the technician is due, I get an sms. Unfortunately it’s a time of day I can’t be home.

Not to worry though, the sms says I can go online to change the appointment so I try this but it simply tells me ‘the service visit is currently being prepared’ and there’s no option on the page other than to read this meaningless message. There’s a phone number but alas the page tells me it’s only staffed on weekdays. I try calling the number anyway and after ‘long wait…high demand’ etc the recorded message tells me the number is only staffed on weekdays…and Saturdays. Thanks Miele for your poorly maintained website. I eventually talk to someone who tells me they can see my appointment but can’t do anything to change it so someone will have to call me.

I ask if the service side is managed by Miele or a third party (which I expected) and to my surprise this is all Miele’s best work :face_vomiting:.

So that’s my long winded experience with the premium Miele brand’s aftersales service so far. Not only is it unhelpful, it’s an unhelpful circus. Or…aftersales service that isn’t.
May you all fare better :wink:.

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It looks like the after sales service for German brand appliances in inversely proportional to the prices.

Bosch. Cheapest with great after sales service.

Siemans. Middle with unknown after sales service.

Miele. Top price. After sales service not included.

Have you given them some well deserved feedback on Product Review?

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:rofl:

Seriously though I feel for people with young kids and anyone who had to really dig deep to find the money thinking it was worth it for a premium brand.

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You possibly have ground to claim costs back from Miele in relation to a repair not being carried out in a timely manner. The ACCC indicates:

If you chose to claim costs, you will need receipts, such as cost to use the local laundromat to do the washing. It may be very difficult to claim costs which can’t be easily demonstrate they have been incurred.

I would be approaching Miele and saying that under the Australian Consumer Law you are entitled to compensation for losses due to the failure of their product (assuming that it can’t be used at all). I would be saying that you need to use a local laundromat and will be claiming costs for laundromatting the clothes from Miele.

You won’t be able to claim time for example, as the time to wash at a laundromat could be considered similar time (or potentially less as they often wash a lot faster) to doing a wash at home.

It may be possible to claim mileage, but you need to negotiate this with Miele to determine what they need to verify such expenses and what will be reimbursed.

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I can’t stand those recorded messages, it is so hard to speak to a person anymore! Thanks for the warning- it goes to show that top price isn’t everything.

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Our Miele dish washer recently refused to start with a fault code on the front panel.

Miele after sales support.
I gave up waiting on the recorded call line after attempts over 3 days. As a comparison Telstra and the ATO are both easier to contact. CentreLink is the only service I’ve waited longer to get through to. Miele’s recording suggesting there are Covid delays because their staff are working from home. No further comment.

Miele do offer a very expensive add on service support package at the time of purchase. Perhaps that option not taken up is the way to short cut the long wait?

We are not in an urban service area, which always adds to time and cost. Self service.

I’ve resolved the fault for now by finding some hints and a copy of the relevant service manual on line. There is nothing on the Miele web site or in the user manual to advise what the fault code is telling the owner.

P.S.
The fault code and online commentary suggests the fault is a symptom of a common component failure. Typically towards the end of the 5 year standard warranty. Potential for a Statutory warranty claim, or does one save the pain and order the $120 part on line? Requires a sparky or restricted license to replace as it’s 230V.

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We were the unfortunate victims of the infamous Miele T8823C dryer. Without going into the fault that should have, but did not, result in a recall:

  • a call to Miele at the 6 year mark resulted in an agent quoting the callout fee+any parts required. I passed since it was expensive and they would not guarantee they could fix it, and I was still able to ‘live with’ the fault.
  • another 2 years pass and the fault got more common and I was ready to bite the bullet and send it to the tip. I finally take the opportunity to write a bad post on productreview.
  • within days Miele contacts me, arranges a service tech at no cost (it did require 2~3 weeks to schedule at a convenient time). I had a case manager not a phone agent. It matters. There was even follow-up after the service call.
  • the tech was brilliant. He explained why the fault happens and showed me how to rectify it should (when) it starts happening again, and some undocumented ‘good care and operational’ instructions that defies why they are not included in the manuals. Nothing needed but knowing what the real problem is (not a misleading fault light), a screwdriver, some assorted bottle brushes, and 20 minutes time. I’ll probably need to have a go doing it solo in 2023.

I had to edit my review to acknowledge they took care of it and give credit where due; post service the dryer worked virtually as new and continues to do so > a year later.

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Fore warned and armed. If or when the fault returns. :+1:

In difference to some of the earlier posts that suggest the service is better with the cheaper brands. We’ve had a Bosch DW 5yrs of 2x daily family use from new that was still going great when we moved out and a Miele DW with similar family use for much longer in a previous property. For the current Miele DW 5+ years old it was a toss up price wise between Bosch and Miele for similar products. That was until Miele had one of it’s special sales.

As a comparison experience with LG going back to the early 2000’s. Cheaper DW product (at less than half the price), great service if 3 similar failures over 4 years is a guide? The first failure LG paid for in full, the second parts only, the third time we didn’t bother. Whether ACL and a statutory warranty claim would have provided an effective remedy back then?

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I’ve also got a Miele DW but it’s 12 years old and goes like a swiss watch. I don’t mind so much that stuff breaks, within reason, but it’s how the company rectifies the situation that determines brand loyalty. They’ve worked out that once caught the fish is on the line whether it likes the deal or not, and the revolving door strategy where customers go between banks/appliance brands/telcos is well established. Should said customer be persistent and cannot be shaken, obfuscate and deploy barriers.

Companies once wanted to be the best, now they’ve mastered the art of doing only as much as they have to and the only way to find that out is push the boundaries. And if they’re all rubbish…we’ve got no choice but to buy the ‘least bad’.

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Miele…keeps giving. To recap, after a 3 week wait they sent me an sms late Friday to say the service tech would be here Mon 0830-1100. I couldn’t rejig my calendar with such short notice so I called Customer Care ( :joy:) on Sat. They undertook to have someone call first thing today (Monday) to sort things out.

Unsurprisingly the technician arrives at 0830 but of course I’m not home, also I’m in a rural area so it’s not like he could just drive 5 min to the next job. And also unsurprisingly no one called. So that’s 2 hours of a tech’s time blown, x 2 for the follow up visit to do the job. Not a cheap mistake. Great work Miele!

I call Miele and after 30 min on hold it appears they’ve been ‘experiencing a large number of calls’ for over a month now so there must be a lot of problems with Miele :wink:

Finally I get through to someone in General Enquiries and say I want to make a complaint. They say they have to transfer me to a Team Leader in Customer Care, which answers quite quickly, but it’s not a TL. So I ask to speak to a TL and the non TL asks somewhat incredulously why, if the previous person suggested I speak to a TL, they didn’t put me through to one. I say I really have no idea maybe they should ask their colleague. What do I want to talk to the TL about, they ask. I reply that the service call from Miele has been a debacle. How, they ask? I say I’m calling to talk to the TL about that. They say they need to tell the TL what it’s about. I say don’t want to explain it twice (thinking to myself that I don’t want them to try and just fix it, I want to register a complaint) and after a few go’ rounds they put me through to the TL. 45 min and counting so far.

The TL experience was very good if measured on an inverse scale of customer satisfaction. An ongoing stream of condescending platitudes, excuses (oh it’s just the way we do it…um yes but it doesn’t work…oh thank you for your feedback), insincere apologies and when I further pointed out how their system was broken I was simply further ‘thanked for my feedback’ with no sign of that feedback being recorded. Absolutely no evidence of genuine appreciation of the situation, underpinned by a layer cake of amateurish verbal judo. I say OK, can we rebook but maybe not in another 3 weeks? Oh we’re very busy at the moment (of course, but it can only be due to problems with Miele products) and I’ll have to put you through the the Service Department. I’m thinking at this stage that I’m indeed fortunate to be talking to so many nice and different people at Miele.

On the positive side, the TL gets back to me at 47:54 and says the tech can visit Thursday.

And they reckon AI is a threat…?!

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Maybe a time for and email to the German-based Head Office. Time to shake up the Aussie layabout stores.

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Beware if you live anywhere rural. I stopped buying Miele after one washing machine. It failed regularly, but the annoying thing was the constant line of ‘we don’t do your area’, an area only 60 km from Brisbane CBD. Even, it seems, for warranty work. Gave me a service agent 50 km away, who also wasn’t interested in our area. When we went back to Miele they found one of their technicians lived only 20 km away and got him to come out. However, he’s moved on, and I see a constant stream of local FB group queries from people seeking Miele service solutions. One of whom was told their local service person is in a town 120 km away, twice as far as Brisbane.

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Obviously Miele is sharing the joy, I’m not the only one who’s lucky.

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My experience also, with both a dishwasher barely out of two year warranty, and front loader just over 6 years old. I’ve been blabbing on to Choice about it for years, but Miele still keep getting the most reliable tag. We worked out our annual costs for these failed machines would have been close to $400 per annum, excluding power.

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Choice reliability ‘tags’ are determined by responses to Choice member surveys. It is probably weighted as is the population re service, and is not inclusive of all customers re faults

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We had a Miele dishwasher (recommended by Choice) which developed a leak around the door seal. Logged service calls a number of times to get it fixed - unsuccessfully, one of the suggestions was to use half a dish washing tablet instead of a whole one.

Eventually we got rid of it and replaced with a cheaper Bosch dishwasher recommended by Choice - so far it has been fine. There once was a time when when Miele was worth paying a bit extra for but those days were over quite a while ago as far as I’m concerned. In fact I would now be inclined to avoid the brand.

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I had a recent experience like this. While very happy with my miele products, my front loading washing machine broke down and I had to wait weeks to get an appointment. When the technician came it was going to cost over $700 to repair the fault. After spending far too many hot summer days in a laundromat, I figured I didn’t want to go through that again and as my machine was 13 years old already and had served a family of 6 well, I decided to get a new one. I went for Miele again and, fingers crossed, will have no need to call anybody for another 13 years. They definitely need more technicians!

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Is it time for Uber to open ‘Uber-Tech’, a name I now place into … well Forbes has used it as a generic term, along with others?

Something needs to change?

The other challenge is the cost of replacement parts. Possibly ‘Uber-Parts’ or is this a field best left to Amazon?

With the larger portion of Australia’s consumers concentrated around 3 greater urban centres - would it be more efficient for Miele et al to use a courier to pick up their products for return to a central service and repair centre?

Nearly every in home service costs two call out fees with two return trips, a single use vehicle, and a tradie service tech who is possibly the world’s highest paid van driver for most of the day? A courier is always in your area, hence the transport and time costs are shared. There is only a single trip each way, not two. In a central service centre the time to repair can be managed with call centre like precision. By the minute to fault find. If the part needs to be sourced, the time stops until it can be supplied.

One obvious benefit is that management will be well aware of the failure rates based on the number of units clogging up the service centre, more so if there is a lack of parts or a common fault.

The gold plus service might even provide a quality loaner replacement. Only highly reliable product manufacturers should apply. Is Miele one?

Note:
No system is perfect. The more we ask the less perfect they seem to become.

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There is an old adage that has been proven, that the more reliable any system (or product) is, the more reliable it has to be for the user (consumer) to be satisfied with it.

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Yes. Also the reliability duck quacks a bit differently to the aftersales service duck. A survey question on whether something has broken down or not doesn’t capture what the process was like to get it fixed, whether it started breaking just out of warranty, or how hard it was to get it fixed out of warranty (independent techs find some manufacturers very hard to deal with and sometimes prefer not to service a particular brand, then there’s the question of parts availability). This leaves a lot of important info hidden. @BrendanMays maybe Choice could consider some after sales service questions in future surveys.

:rofl:

I think most folks are happy with ‘good or very good’ in terms of their expectations, and just expect to get what they pay for. Unfortunately ‘barely adequate’ too often seems to be the new ‘good’ and ‘adequate’ the new ‘very good’. Maybe we ask more because we’re better informed, and hence see issues or potential issues more easily and with greater clarity. For example I’m not trade qualified but have a solid enough knowledge base to make some tradies very, very nervous and often decline to quote.

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