After years of hearing about Maytag's great, unbreakable products, and the fact that the Maytag Repairman was "out of work," I remodeled my kitchen and installed new cabinets based on the company's appliance dimensions. I had more or less become a captive buyer.
Not long after, my first two Maytag dishwashers had leaking problems, so I upgraded to a higher-end stainless-steel model. I thought I was free and clear from appliance trouble, but no such luck -- Maytag sold out to Whirlpool. After that move, it was one problem after another in my house. The company moved to outsourced production, which included cheap labor, parts, and maintenance.
I had problems again with the new Maytag stainless-steel dishwasher, and as luck would have it, I neglected to buy the extended warranty. That was a big mistake. After one year and two weeks to the day -- when the standard warranty ran out -- it stopped working. After about three days, I got in touch with the designated Whirlpool maintenance company. They came and installed a new electronic starter that cost north of $300. I kept the old part and went online to find that I could have bought the replacement part for $50 from a store in Boston.
This entry was submitted by Dan McCarthy and edited by Jennifer Campbell.
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Designing to a price point is sometimes the only way to stay in a very competitive market.
I wonder how many applicances Maytag would sell if they designed for reliability, and the product came with the relevant pricetag. (you are up against imports from Korea with 5% profit margins)
Another concept that the commercials showed was a manufacturer driven service department. When Sears only sold Kenmore appliances, Sears sold a lot of product based on servicing what they sold. You could rely on a Sears service tech showing up if you needed service. Now you seem to get random tech from companies that you haven't heard of.
Does anyone know the details of why there was a suspected cultural shift away from quality at Maytag? (change of ownership or managment? profitability issues?). Many times a company with an older, respected brand will fall on hard times and the new owners or shareholders do not value the inherent quality policy that previously made their brand a house-hold name.
Maytag is following the trend of "throw-away electronics." No one expects anything to last past 5 years anymore...I miss those old commercials but even more, I miss the concept of quality that was behind them.
Up until `98 I had a 1967 Maytag dryer. I got it in `79, I could still get parts for it, and the only thing it ever needed was a belt and an occasional bearing. When I moved the house buyer demanded that the dryer stay with the house and that was the end of my Maytag. The replacement dryer needs to be repaired every couple of years to replace the skid pads that he drum rides on because it doesn't use rollers. It's an easy fix, but the Maytag certainly didn't have parts that were DESIGNED to wear out.
Many years ago, there was truth behind the old "lonely repairman" commercials. Maytag products really were reliable. One year, Design News even gave Maytag its annual quality award, and the engineering team actually showed up with the "repairman" from the commercials. Over the years, though, it seems like that has changed. I hear a lot of complaints these days about Maytag products.
It seems that designing to specific price points is generally resulting in more repair and maintenance issues with appliances. But maybe that is only my specific experience.
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