Our old Bosch dishwasher recently stopped working properly so I called Bosch, which informed me that it would send an engineer but at a cost of £95. I gave the model’s serial number and asked the staff to make sure parts were still available as I did not want to waste their time and my £95. They confirmed that parts were available and on that basis I agreed to the visit.
But when the engineer arrived he said the heating element had failed and that the part was not kept by the firm. I wrote to Bosch to say I had been misled and to ask for my £95 to be refunded.
It has refused and instead has offered me a 50% refund but only against the cost of a new Bosch -dishwasher. This is unfair. Needing to resolve the -matter quickly, I bought a Beko instead. What do you think of my treatment? RP, Loughborough
Bosch is another one of those -companies that is at risk of throwing away an -excellent reputation with this sort of behaviour. We agree you have been badly treated. To add to your -frustration, we suspected that the heating element for your dishwasher was still available – and so it proved. A 20-second Google search found several being sold by online parts firms – in one case, Partmaster.co.uk wanted £65 for it.
A spokeswoman for Bosch said: “Due to the longevity of Bosch appliances we continue to stock major components for 10 years after production ends; in many cases it is much longer than this. The appliance in question was over 20 years old and while we do still have parts for this model, unfortunately the -particular component was not available at the time. We were disappointed to learn that RP was less than satisfied with his experience. As a goodwill gesture the callout fee has been refunded.”
The moral of the tale is to take -anything big companies tell you about the availability of parts with a pinch of salt. Boiler insurance companies will often tell customers parts are not -available when it is simply that they have not chosen to stock them. It’s always worth doing an internet search for a part before consigning an -appliance to the scrapheap.
Equally, given that new Bosch -dishwashers start at £250, you have to wonder whether it’s worth spending £95 on an engineer and £65 on a part. A local plumbing independent would likely have been cheaper to call out and would have probably found the part.
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