We bought a Maytag Washer and Dryer (top load) here in TV after owning a pair up north for more than 30 years with barely a problem. Now after only 15months the washer started making the loudest sounds when agitating and we called a local appliance repair man...he said it may be the motor but advised me to call maytag for it could still be under warranty. Well I called a maytag repair guy (Orlando)and they told me it would cost $90 service call plus $15 per 15 minutes to diagonse the problem and if it was the motor it would be covered by warranty but have to be ordered...BUT we still pay all the service call, work time and travel time involved which would be close to $200. I said wait a minute....$200 to fix a 15 month machine that only cost me $399!!!! Now this machine is only been used for 15 months and its not like we wash for a family of 6 every day. The earlier discussion of planned obselence in 5 years was starting to sound good to me...I mean thats 3 1/2 years longer than I am getting!
So I wrote a letter to MAYTAG and expalined my situation and they did make arrangements for a MAYTAG repair man to come to the hosue at their expense. WHen the reapir guy showed up he told me that MAytag was having alot of problems with this particular machine (Bought from Home Depot) and that it was not the motor but the entire balancing system supporting the drum. He had to order the parts and would call us in approx 5 days to finish the repair. In the mean time we could still use the washer but it would be loud.
I give Maytag (Now Whirilpool) credit for accocomodating our concerns and cover the costs for labor and parts but most likely they did this because they knew they had problems with the particular model we bought. NOt certain I would buy another MAytag but at least we had better than expected luck in dealing with the company in asking for repairs..and I just wonder if I will ever make the 5 year mark before something else happens.
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