Bad quality but worst customer care

After a decade of being a loyal supporter of this brand, I can see how their standards have dropped, this goes for both their customer service and quality. The saddest part is that 95% of my home is fitted with Smeg. I purchased a tumble dryer a few years ago. Hardly ever used it, due to loadshedding. My disappointment comes when the start button being pressed causes it to become faulty and requires the entire panel to need to be replaced. So not mishandling the unit or excessive use, but merely pressing the start button, leads to a repair bill of R2800. How sad is that for a brand that you trust and expect quality from. The cheap plastic mechanism used for the button makes you wonder which part of Italian brand it refers to. The customer service part of this issue was even worst than the poor quality. They treat you like they don’t need your business and could not care less. It’s really sad. I guess now that you sell mass units to complex developments makes you not courteous to the regular consumer. My advice is to stick to the German engineered products. Don’t make the mistake I made.