Grundig/Defy Customer Service - just an empty promise!!!

I am absolutely disgusted at how this company treats its customers. What I believed to be a premium brand when purchasing my washer/dryer machine, judging by the after sales service - how wrong was I!! It's pathetic and quite frankly insulting and unacceptable!!

I purchased a 9kg / 6kg washer dryer machine no more than 3 years ago. I have been in a relationship for a couple of years and am hardly ever at home (a few nights a week) so it's not like my machine is used very often at all or for a large family.

I went to do a load of washing, and having been working perfectly, the machine was lifeless. It wouldn't turn on - the display screen was completely dead. I obviously called Grundig's Customer Service Centre to lodge the problem (also at this point discovered that Grundig is actually Defy). I was told there would be a call out fee of R690 and that a technician would be in contact with me. I waited and waited and ended up calling the service centre again as heard nothing. Eventually after another week had passed, I got a call from a very nice guy called John who announced he was outside my gate. Thankfully I was home and so he came in and assessed the washing machine - he un*****ed the top and the back off and said it was (he believed) to be an easy fix, it was just the LCD display screen and that he would return the next day with the part. He left my house leaving the machine with no top or back fitted. That was the last time I saw John and the last time I heard from him. After about a week of waiting I again called the service centre to find out what was happening - I was told the job had been cancelled/closed because nobody could get hold of me. This is absolute *******, both my number as well as my partner's number are on their system and both of us had no missed calls, nothing! - how could this have happened? The lady on the phone said we had to begin the process again.

I again explained the problem, she gave me a new case number etc and said once again a technician would be in contact and that there was to be R690 call out fee. This time, impressively within a couple of days a man called Yogan called me and said he would be at my house later that day. He arrived at the arranged time, looked at my machine (which for him was quite easy as it was already taken apart) with his cellphone flashlight for not longer than 4 mins (if that) and said it was motherboard of the machine and that it had to be replaced. He pulled a mobile point of sale device and insisted the R690 be paid there and then - which I happily did. I was obviously now concerned about how much a motherboard was going to cost - he said he would call me and let me know. He was honestly not at my house for longer than 8 - 10 mins.

Once again I heard nothing - I called the service centre again, I asked two questions, the price of how much it was to replace the motherboard and why had Yogan not contacted me? Her response was that she was not allowed to give me pricing on parts only the technician could only do that (which surprised me) and that he would contact me in a couple of days.

Three days later I got a call from Yogan to tell me that the part had arrived and when could he come and fit it. I wanted to know the price before any of that was going to happen - he told me the part would cost R3000!!!!!! I could not believe what I was hearing, which I told him! The machine was practically new, a premium machine and hardly used, why must I spend 3k to fix it. One can almost buy a new for that amount - his answer was so unbelievable, he simply said okay, no problem he would let the office know. And goodbye. I was left dumbfounded!!

I ONCE AGAIN called the call centre because this time I was now angry and had a complaint and wanted to discuss a reasonable solution to getting my machine fixed. I requested to talk to a person of seniority within the customer service centre - I was told Vanessa or Ishmail would be the people to talk to. I have called numerous times, but every single time, they are in a meeting, not in the office, basically always unavailable!

I AM NOW SICK AND TIRED OF ALL OF IT. The call centre are useless and basically only data capturers. They don't help at all, don't give advice, they won't give me any other persons name of seniority within Defy to email or call.