Posted by Kim
We bought this washer/dryer for my daughter from Appliance Online Three months later it failed with an F02 error. My daughter called the phone number that accompanied the error and was lied to about the meaning of the error. She was told that is was a blockage which was not covered by the guarantee and was pressurised into purchasing the extended warranty to avoid paying £100 for the engineer to come out. Furthermore there was no engineer available for 10 days even with the extended warranty. My daughter was eight and half months pregnant with a toddler so it was totally unacceptable to be without a washer/dryer for this length of time.
When my daughter checked on the internet about the error, she found out that she had been given false information and that in fact the error related to a motor circuit fault. She immediately cancelled the extended warranty. With the help of AO.com we tried to get an earlier date for the engineer to come out and after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing they brought the date forward by 2 days.
When the engineer arrived he confirmed that the fault was what my daughter had thought it was - a motor circuit fault and that a new part would need to be ordered. This would take another 8 days to arrive. This was 2 days before my daughter's baby was due.
We felt that after spending £450 on an appliance that broke down after 3 months, Hotpoint should have replaced it immediately but they were totally inflexible, unhelpful and unsympathetic. On the other hand they were extremely helpful and did everything they could but to no avail.
In the end my daughter was left without a washer/dryer for two and a half weeks. I have always chosen Hotpoint for washing machines, dishwasher and ever their cooker in the past. After this dreadful experience and non-existent after care I will never purchase any of their products again