Making waves with the washing machine..............

You know how you take things for granted until they are gone? Well, a week ago my washing machine stopped working, and all of you out there responsible for keeping the clothes clean share my pain I am sure. Let me also share some interesting facts we learned on the jouney to repairing said washer...

History first...We purchased the Maytag Neptune brand washer brand new just over three years ago. Not only was it expensive, it was suppose to be top of the line, best machine, and yes, I was slightly mifted that it broke down after such a short time.

(my) Mister called a repair place for me and found out that it would be eighty dollars($80.00) just to have someone come out and diagnose the problem (when able, they were already scheduling into Monday, four days away), and then the cost would rack up from there for parts and labor. Slightly more mifted, and boy did I go into the wrong business.

(my) Mister called me back a short time later, and told me he had found a repair manual that he could purchase from Sears to diagnose and possibly fix the problem himself for only thirty dollars ($30.00), a full fifty dollars less than having the guy come out, and it could be here in less than twenty-four hours. Another reason I am blessed to be married to him. I never even knew such a thing existed, but even if I had it would have done me no go. I guess it does pay for him to have all that electronics junk in his work room, but it is still a mess down there.

Anyway, we decided to go that route, and that is when the real story begins. The repair manual arrives, and (my) Mister starts taking things apart and checking out the machine. For the next twelve hours or so all of our conversations consisted of, "Find out what's wrong with it yet?" "Not yet." "Sigh" "Sigh" In his defense I will say that he did attempt to share what he was learning, but how a washing machine works is definitely low on my list of things I want to understand. My concern is much more about the fact that it DOES work, rather than HOW it works.

Phase two of machine repair was HOURS (and I can hear him saying, "It wasn't that long," even as I type) on the computer trying to figure out I am not sure what, again my fault...I just want to wash clothes okay? As it turns out, we were not the only people who's washer quit when it was still quite new. In fact, there had been two class action law suits brought over the exact washing machine, for exactly the problem we were having. Interesting stuff, but it still wasn't enabling me to wash clothes without hauling them to the corner laundry.

To not bore you with more details, I will say that in the end we had to purchase both control panels, which is (from my limited understanding) about the same as buying all new guts, kind of like replacing a car engine to have a brand new car with an old body. The cost of these two boards was four hundred dollars ($400.00) plus shipping, and yes I know we saved a small fortune with (my) Mister doing the repair himself. We debated over simply taking the four hundred dollars and buying a cheap washer and running it to death since buying high end had served us so well, but the one we have is a stacked model so we would have had to still have the dead one around. Hang in there, the story is almost finished.

You know me, I can't leave anything alone, and I finally HAD to contact Maytag and tell them of my displeasure with their product. In doing so I found that had we had problems earlier, and contacted the company, they would have told us of the defect and we could have gotten in on the class action suit which would have paid for our parts. Since we did not initiate contact with them, they were not obligated to contact us so we might participate in the suit. The nice young lady on the phone then went on to explain that while she takes many, many calls a day for the same exact thing she would love to help me, but was unable to. And just for kicks, I ask her what kind of washing machine she owns, and surprise! it WASN'T a Maytag. Isn't that interesting? I thanked her for her time, and ask to speak to someone who could help me.

I next spoke to a very nice young man that told me he would also love to help me, but unfortunately the in the terms of the settlement the judge forbade Maytag from paying for anymore parts for this particular brand of washing machine. Nasty old judge, how dare he keep these nice people from helping folks like myself, when that is exactly what they wanted to do. Ya! Right!

I told this young man that I understood that legally Maytag was in the right to not compensate me monatarily, but just because they were legally right, did that make them morally right? I went on to say that I was fine with the fact that I had been screwed over regarding repair costs to a product that they had legally admitted was defective, but would still like them to take a moral stance and adress the problem with their customers. I went into my "I might be only one customer, but I have a big mouth, and have been known to stop strangers on the street and warn them not to purchase crap" speech, but I will spare you that whole thing. I finished by telling him that I for one would be thrilled to receive a letter from the company taking responsibility for the problem, and offering me condolances for having to have gone through the trouble we were experiencing, and that doing this would only cost them the price of a piece of stationary and a stamp, but would go a long way in my book towards keeping my future business. When I finished with that last line, there was truly shock in his voice when he replied, No one has ever suggested that before."

That is because we live in a society that has become depersonalized. These companies are not dealing with people like small, family owned businesses did back in the day. They are dealing with marketing companies, and lobbiest groups. They don't need to look a real live person in the eye and tell them, "I am really sorry that you have another six months to pay on the washer, if you want to use it you will have to come up with the money to fix it. As much as we would love to help you our hands are tied." (Yes! That was my plug for another reason not to use credit.)

Sorry to have gotten off on a tangent...Of course this young man could not help me, but happily put me through to someone whom he thought might be able to. After repeating my story for a third time, this lady's take on the matter was, "Sorry, but at the current time we don't have a program in place to write such letters." I told her that I wasn't concerned with the establishment of such a program, but was talking to her now, person to person, and asking for her to help me feel better about her company. She then told me she would contact the correspondance department (they need a whole department? Everyone just can't do their own corresponding I guess.) and see if they couldn't get said letter out to me.

So, here I sit, waiting to see if such a letter actually arrives, happily washing clothes again, thanks to (my) Mister's repair skills and knowledge of electronics. Better him than me!