Two weeks later, the washer developed a significant leak at the bottom of the drum. I contacted the dealer and he got back to me saying that he could not repair it on site and he didn't have any other refurbished units. He then offered to sell us a brand new Hotpoint washer for the difference in price and he'd throw in a five year warranty for free. I agreed and set up an appointment for the install. The dealer showed up, took the old washer away, installed the new one, and left.
I heard nothing since then, nor did I believe I was supposed to.
Fast forward to May 13th of this year: While doing a normal load of laundry the agitator began sounding like someone grinding gears in a manual transmission car. The more it ran the worse it got. Once the load was complete, I contacted the dealer in order to file a warranty claim via the same Facebook Messenger chat that I saved explicitly for such a potential issue.
At first, he tried claiming he didn't remember ever selling anything to me, let alone offering a warranty. I was forced to screenshot the entire conversation from October/November of 2020 and send them to him, at which point he had no choice but to concede that he did make such an offer. He then asked me if I filed a claim with the warranty company. I asked him what warranty company he was referring to because after he left I heard nothing further about the washer and believed any warranty claims needed to go through him and/or his dealership.
It was at this point he admitted he had never filed the warranty paperwork with the extended warranty company and that he would need to do so, 18 months after-the-fact. The next day he contacted me and said he had filed the paperwork and submitted a claim, and I should hear from the warranty repair company within 5-7 days.
A week went by and I heard nothing. I contact the dealer again and he says he'd have to check with the warranty company, but he wouldn't be able to do that until the following Monday. Monday comes and goes -- no phone call. On Tuesday, I get a massive welcome packet from the extended warranty service with all the paperwork for the warranty enclosed. To my shock, the dealer had listed the sale date of the item as 4/13/22, not the proper sale date of 11/15/20.
Tired of trying to get anywhere with the dealer, I call the warranty service company directly and explained the whole situation to them. Because the dealer listed the date of sale as 4/13/22, the warranty service said they weren’t going to do anything because the washer was still, by their documentation, under the manufacturer's warranty. When I explained that I bought it in 2020 not 2022, they asked if I had a bill of sale or invoice from the dealer to prove it. I told them no because he sold it via Facebook and didn’t give any paperwork. Nor did he give me the phone number of his place of business or even an address for his actual shop. The customer service representative was shocked when they pulled up the warranty file and realized he had never provided a business number or address on any of his warranty sales either.
I told them all I could give them as proof was screenshots of the entire conversation -- the same screenshots I had to send to the dealer to jog his memory plus the conversation after where he admitted he was filing the warranty late. The representative added her supervisor to the call and recapped the entire situation and the supervisor told me to send the screenshots as my proof of sale. I sent them as requested along with notations showing the actual washer and highlighting the timestamps of every segment of the conversation. The supervisor said they would forward the entire incident report to the office that deals with warranty claims and I'd hear back between 2-4 business days.
This 'dealer' is clearly trying to scam both buyers and the warranty service. Meanwhile, the dealer has stopped responding to any communication via Facebook Messenger. And that's where I sit. In limbo, with a broken washer and laundry piling up. I am becoming increasingly skeptical that I'm going to get any repair done and I will be forced to either pay for the repairs or a new washing machine out-of-pocket. At this point I'd be happy if this extended warranty place just gives me one repair and then drops the plan. Hopefully they cut off doing any further business with this shady 'dealer'.
