A limited number of brands offer a range of integrated kitchen products. These are supplied with a modified front facing design without the final finished kitchen facing. This enables the bespoke kitchen designer to use the same panels as the rest of the adjoining cabinetry, IE to make the appliance disappear into the seamless design, integrate with of all the kitchen cabinets.
The extent of common sizing with competitors (EG Liebheer) might need some research to verify. A bold assumption is that the European manufacturers will have a commonly agreed set of dimensions, as they tend to do for most things.
I too wonder if there is not some external issue with @frednumber11 kitchen install, other than the brand of the product chosen. Is it possible the surrounding cabinets do not provide adequate ventilation? It would seem likely that if others with similar bespoke kitchens based on Miele products had issues it would be more commonly reported?
I have also had quite bad experiences with Miele after sales service. Like everyone else, they always have a three to four week wait time, and this has been over the past decade, so nothing is changing there.
They have quoted me a very high rate to repair a pump in a dishwasher (almost as much as the dishwasher itself) but then told me if I buy a new dishwasher from them they will credit the cost of the service callout fee. So I’d say selling new boxes is their priority, not fixing them.
I also take issue with their marketing — they advertise their washing machines as ‘tested to the equivalent of 20 years use’ or something like that, which to me creates a clear inference that the machine is designed to be reliable for 20 years. Yet, when they come to repair outside the manufacturer’s warranty period the techs won’t entertain any conversation about doing the work under consumer law warranty and just say that if you want them to do the work on the day you’ll have to pay, or otherwise they’ll leave and you can take it up with Miele management on the phone.
Overall, dealing with Miele has left a sour taste in my mouth, and I’ve owned two washing machines, two dryers and two dishwashers of theirs. I liked the design of the old appliances which had physical buttons and had a very minimalist, non-whizbang design, but the new models are all going touchscreen and I wince to think how much these will cost to repair when they inevitably prematurely fail.
And yet in both Perth and country WA I have had superb and timely after-sales service when needed from Miele - so much so that I always purchase Miele. I wonder whether current long waits are COVID iso-related?
We have experienced Miele at their most arrogant as well as their best for customer support.
As for the best, it took a scathing online review – Miele saw it and contacted me in response; a tech was sent out at no cost. He was brilliant and educational explaining the issues with the machine and how to avoid them for longer and ‘fix’ them if/when they recurred. Another 2 years on and it continues to operate fine with my ‘enhanced’ appreciation for the issues and how to avoid them. A condenser dryer…
Much as I think single anecdotes are not a good guide to corporate behaviour if you get enough they start to add up. The problem is they are self-selected reports so bad results tend to be reported more than good.
I don’t have much Miele just a fridge-freezer pair. They have worked well for years with no trouble. But, there had to be a but, after about 5 years of use part of the handle to the fridge (which is opened much more often) broke.
I contacted them to get a replacement outside warranty and was told they are available. I forget the exact price but it was not trivial - something like $200. I pointed out that this was not user error but a design flaw. Each time the handle is pulled it strains the bracket that it is connected to. The bracket is made of diecast (zinc I think) and after enough flexion it cracks. I said this was not what I expected from a top price model. They agreed and posted a new one out free. This took a few days of to and fro but I can’t say the delay was excessive.
Miele has investigated anything and everything in order to find that it was I that caused the problems, had their own electrician check the power supply, and did everything just to prove it was my doing.
Alas, they failed, it was Miele’s products that were not up to standards, faulty, to a fault (to coin a fraise)
I was never given a, or any report of the faults, and to even suggest that to remodel my kitchen at 50 - 75 k is excessive, you don’t know what my kitchen is, let alone my circumstances
Just faulty miele appliances, that’s all there is.
Now all are out of warranty and I am stuck with the lot
Warranty period does not determine if they are still covered by your Australian Consumer Law rights. They could be well out of warranty but you may still have a case using your ACL rights, particularly if they are expensive items for which a user would expect a more durable and long lasting product.
A warranty is a voluntary promise offered by the person or business who sold the product or service to you. Once you buy the product or service, the promise becomes a right that can be enforced under the ACL.
Warranties are separate from your automatic consumer guarantees. The consumer guarantees which apply regardless of any warranties suppliers sell or give to you, apply for a reasonable time depending on the nature of the goods or services. This means consumer guarantees may continue to apply after the time period for the warranty has expired."
You could get free legal advice about what further steps you could take at this time, if you haven’t already attempted this. There are many Consumer Legal Advice Centres that can provide support. We list some on this site and these can be found at Free Legal Advice Centres.
For things like ovens, fridges and similar the periods that the ACL would consider reasonable can be many years. In particular if a product is sold on the basis that it is superior or of very high quality this can increase the length of time considered to be reasonable.
In my more limited experience than @frednumber11, with only a few Miele products, I can attest they can be a difficult company to deal with, case dependent.
True. When someone posts a problem all we can do is offer our best advice based on what has been posted, including what if’s and hope it helps the member.
Miele may have a vested interest in putting it on you if there is even a 1% chance they could, or they may be genuine in an inability to find anything systemically wrong affecting their products. Venting for the major appliances is an easy one to confirm while quality of electrical supply less so. The only commonality, noting
is the electrical supply which is why I look to it as a probable contributor. If there is something else in common across the appliances beyond the appliances all being Miele products it would be helpful to include it.
Considering the cost of your appliances, if it has not been done by Miele as part of ‘anything and everything’, engaging a sparky to do so or if knowledgeable and confident, having a current and voltage data logger for some weeks might be the only way to rule the electrical supply in or out. Many of them only sample to 1 second intervals but more complex ($$$) ones can be triggered to record on demand from any line abnormality (such as a subsecond transient/spike).
@frednumber11 would be well served by having his own dossier of all communications with Miele in writing, including copies of the reports from Miele’s investigations.
As Miele have apparently replaced many of the appliances numerous times and have not accepted it is their appliances, it would likely go to xCAT. If Miele has records of investigating ‘anything and everything’ and the customer has only repeatedly failing appliances it would be interesting to know who would be more convincing considering the weight of evidence each can bring to the table.
We have a Miele dishwasher which is an excellent machine. The appliance model is G6727 SCU XXL CLST.
The machine failed in mid-March as it kept stopping after a few minutes. It was not letting water into the machine.
We booked a service online. As Miele could not service it until 8 April, they gave a list of local electricians who could do the job. We booked in GSS electrical on the Miele website.
The supplier was hard to contact but when we did, he could only book in for 5 April (not much earlier than Miele).
He rang late on 5th April to apologise for not turning up but deferred until the next day. The tradesman was told not to come down the driveway as we are having renovations done. He ignored that and came down causing much inconvenience to our builder.
He rang the next day to state that the machine was not registering water input (which he had thought would be the problem). He said the part was a common one and cost $54, but they had none in stock. Why not if it is common and inexpensive?
There have been delays in getting stock and the machine was eventually repaired on 10th May. However, the tradesman couldn’t refit the machine! Showing the same urgency, it took a week before they came and fixed it.
Throughout this process, we sent several emails to Miele, but they did not respond to any!
We were about to buy a Miele washing machine and drier partly based on reliability and good service. However, we have changed our mind after this poor service and will not buy any of their appliances in future.
We believe consumers need to be aware of the low levels of service from Miele if anything goes wrong with their appliances.
The display panel on the machine usually shows a fault code when this happens. The Miele service manual includes a fault finding guide for each code, which the service person will follow.
Did Miele ask which code was being displayed?
Was the service and repair free?
It’s typical for a service person to arrive without share parts, earning two call-outs for the one repair. If the part required was typically the solution and relatively low cost, the only winner in this is the service person’s business. Either the customer of Miele pay the cost of the extra call for not having a $54 part time hand.
The more pressing concern is to ask why Miele has a frequent failure of that part, if the service person’s comment is to be accepted. How old is your DW?
P.S.
Many appliance service manuals can be located by searching online. I’ve found several I need on
‘https://www.manualslib.com/
The Miele service manual fault finding guides include a range of basic checks can help to identify minor issues that do not require a service call. Worth a look.
@Oatley it might be worth using the ‘quote’ function when responding as it provides context. Otherwise it gets hard to tell what you’re responding to if it’s something 3 or 4 posts previous. Apologies if you already know how to use the quote function but just highlight the text in the post you’re responding to and click on ‘Quote’ and it should automatically go into the response box.
In 2020 I purchased a coffee machine as a Mother’s Day present for my wife from the Southport, Gold Coast Miele Shop.
This machine was sold to us with a 3 year extended warranty. Approximately one month after owning the machine, we realised that the extended warranty didn’t exist. After an argument with the store Manager and threatening legal action we were refunded our money.
My wife was so upset with what happened at the Miele shop, that we decided to purchase a coffee machine online from Miele’s Head Office in Sydney.
The machine has since broken down, whilst still under warranty. I then spent 2 days on the phone trying to arrange for a repairman to come out to service the machine. When I was finally able to contact someone, we had to wait two weeks before they could come out.
When they finally came, after about an hour of looking at the machine, we were told that it needed a part and that this would take Miele about another 2 months to find.
NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, again will I recommend or purchase another Miele product. We are a newly retired couple, who are modernising our kitchen and laundy with part of our superannuation. You would think an expensive brand such as Miele would want to look after customers like us.
Do your research and shop around before spending your hard-earned money. You don’t realise how good or bad the after sale service is until you need it.
Hope this is of help to anyone out there in our position.
Hope your vacuum cleaner lasts longer than our coffee machine. Websites like this will, hopefully, get the message across that when you pay a premium price for a product you deserve premium service and nothing less.
Flip! Thanks for the advice! After sale service is so important when you spend good money on that is supposed to be a quality product. Think I’ll stay clear.
At Choice’s recommendation, I purchased the top rating Miele G 7319 SCU XXL dishwasher at the cost of almost $3000:
You can see my January review, and it’s a pretty good dishwasher all told. However, Miele Australia is a train-wreck in terms of customer support.
Some examples:
We recently have to log a service call. The first available technician was OVER A MONTH AWAY. When I phoned up Miele, I was told this was because the technician in my area was “very busy” and “only works Tuesday and Thursday”. When I explained, respectfully, that this was not my problem, but theirs as a premium brand to resolve, I was told there was nothing they could do. They did explain I could take the dishwasher into one of their “service partners” - hmmm. I didn’t quite see this as practical, given it’s installed into my kitchen!
Orders of Powerdiscs from Miele take an awful long time, sometimes weeks. They’re the only place you can buy them.
The order process was very difficult, and we waited months. Yes, there were supply chain issues, and COVID, so I do have some sympathy and did excuse this in my original post. However, neither really justify the above continuing problems.
I’ve had Westinghoiuse, Fisher and Paykel appliances and Aldi appliances. All companies could get a technician to me in under a week, two at the most. I don’t see why Miele, a supposedly premium brand selling a $3000 dishwasher, can’t. I also don’t think they should be trying to tell their customers that their inability to run a support organisation is the customer’s problem.
