Haier America Defective Product, won't respond to emails, won't provide parts for own products ripoff business from hell New York New York

I purchased an all in one combo washer/dryer from a company. Haier is the manufacturer of the product. I made this purchase on Jan. 30, 2003. By the first week of April, it stopped working completely. Supposedly there is a 1 year warranty so I called Haier to obtain a number for their "authorized" service dealer in my area. I had assumed because of the company name that this was a German company.... until I called Haier.

It is a Chinese company and trying to speak to these people was an adventure in itself. If I would have known this was a Chinese product, I would never have spent $759 on this machine. The words Chinese made and quality do not fit in the same sentance for me. I was finally able to get the number and called their authorized service technician. The tech came out to the house a week later and told me point blank that Haier has not been an easy company to deal with since this is a new technology and the company has not provided their service techs with specs, training or any way to predict parts.

He told me he thought it was the timer and said it would take about a week to get the part. He told me they didn't have alot of experience with these machines but from what he's seen, the repair frequency is highest on machines that are 6 months old or newer.

After two weeks of waiting, I called the service dealer and the receptionist told me they are having problems getting parts from Haier. She said apparantly they didn't stock any parts at the two authorized parts locations in this country. She told me the parts were due in to Haier on May 14th. She said to allow a few days for the parts to get from Haier to their office and told me she would call me as soon as the parts arrived.

I received a call from the service technician telling me they would be out on 5/21. He arrived on 5/21 and the parts were not the parts did not work. He again told me dealing with them is a crap shoot because trying to figure out which are the correct parts is like taking a shot in the dark. I told him this had already taken over a month and I am not waiting another moth for a part to be received, especially when I have no guarantee that the part they send is actually the part that is needed. He told me he would try to put a rush on it.

I found Haier's website and sent them an email directly off their form on their website, telling them how dissatisfied I was with the quality of their product, their unwillingness to provide parts and their lack of customer service. I stated I either wanted this machine replaced with a new one or a full refund since the warranty would be expired by the time they figured out which was the correct part at the rate their going. I also threatened legal action, if needed. When the message was sent, a box came up and said a response would be received in 24 hours.

I never received a response to my email. On 5/29, I called the service technician and spoke to the owner of the company. He told me he has several Haier machines sitting there waiting for repairs and they can't do anything since there are no parts. He told me he has customers screaming and there is nothing he can do because Haier doesn't have any parts. He said they are at a point where they are conisdering no longer handling any Haier machines. He provided me with the phone number he had, which was different from the customer service number listed in their manual. I called that number and the number is strictly for dealers or service technicians but it did provide an email address for the company. I sent an email to the company and included my original email to them, my contact information including address and phone number and then told them that since their customer service is as poor a quality as the machines they make, I no longer want to deal with this company. I told them I want to return this washer/dryer and want a full refund. I requested a response by the end of the business day and threatened to report them for Consumer Fraud and potential legal action if this matter is not resolved. I put a reuturn recepit on the email and sent it. I received the return receipt about 15 minutes after sending the email however, I never received any kind of reply from them, not even an autoresponse.

From what I can see, the only recourse I have is to contact my credit card company and see if their buyers protection plan covers anything like this. I have never seen a company treat customers like this or not make any attempt to resolve a situation where they have sold a clearly defective product. Do not buy any Haier appliance. They do not stand behind their products!

Carol
Lombard, Illinois
U.S.A.