New washing machine time - What sort?

That's how I got this one - in 1994 beige and brown. I've had it about as long as the original owners.

I'm going off the idea of a Bosch though, on account of too many customer reviews telling of controller board failures at 3-4 years, costing =A3200 quid.

I'm now thinking about one of those LG machines with the direct drive motor. Quiet and vibration seem excellent, does anyone know about their reliability?

I know it's a Slovenian company -- although the group now includes Asko of Sweden who actually build the ISE machines as well as machines under their own name. Once had a dishwasher from Asko -- lasted quite well. And spare parts for Gorenje aren't too bad -- they're available from UK Whitegoods.

However, not to have material properly proof-read their public website shows a sloppy attitude and, in this instance, reveals crass ignorance of geography. If they employ crassly-ignorant people in one department, they're likely to do the same in other departments. If none of their UK staff have even read the website, then it doesn't say much for them. Nor does it say much for them if they have read it! Would they ever have the competence to get a repair person to the correct address?

Slovenia is a little bit further than from the Isle of Wight than my own address in the North of Scotland, but it's only the difference between 700 miles and 1000 miles, so if I can get it right, then they should be able to. If they're selling into the UK market they should get it right.

That's how I got this one - in 1994 beige and brown. I've had it about as long as the original owners.

I'm going off the idea of a Bosch though, on account of too many customer reviews telling of controller board failures at 3-4 years, costing £200 quid.

I'm now thinking about one of those LG machines with the direct drive motor. Quiet and vibration seem excellent, does anyone know about their reliability?

Most critical aspect is to ensure the feet are really well adjusted - it prevents all the complaints about the machine wobbling and reduces wear and tear.

I doubt it was the Slovenes who created the website, more likely a UK based agency. So while a sloppy website might say something about the quality of staff in their UK sales and marketing office it doesn't have much to do with the quality of the manufactured goods.

Mine just went - cost a quid or so for a new relay and a bit of=20 soldering.

--=20 Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.

• It says something about the quality of the agency they employed to create the website
• In fact, the whole website is a masterpiece of non-communication
• It says something about the quality of staff they employ in England that they wouldn't even check the website, or, if they did check it and didn't notice that whopper, then they must be a bunch of plonkers.

Yes, perfectly good equipment can be let down by poor-quality representation in an overseas market, but it's usually the local representatives you have to deal with when even the best machine breaks down.

John

I thought that - it's very superficial, innit?

• It says something about the quality of the agency they employed to create the website
• In fact, the whole website is a masterpiece of non-communication
• It says something about the quality of staff they employ in England that they wouldn't even check the website, or, if they did check it and didn't notice that whopper, then they must be a bunch of plonkers.

Yes, perfectly good equipment can be let down by poor-quality representation in an overseas market, but it's usually the local representatives you have to deal with when even the best machine breaks down.

John

I recall we once had someone on a TV show who referred to "East Angular"

I certainly take your point but feel that you have touched on a general sloppiness caused by tasks being contracted to people who lack the expertise to do the job properly. Firms have a "core" business of (say) manufacturing and they get drawn into outsourcing sales, marketing, servicing, etc. I has happened for ages - even cars are bought in bulk to a spec by UK based concessionaires who head the sales and distribution (some better than others). It puts a lot of 'distance' between the maker and the eventual end user as the manufacturer is only interested in the number of shipping containers it has to export.

Much of this caused by a shift backward from a literate to an oral culture. And where there is literacy, too trusting of the spell checker.

Do I really want to do business with a company which employs illiterates as communicators?

The late August Horch had a problem when he was squeezed out of the company he had founded and which manufactured cars under his name. A little bit of thought provided the answer to his problem. He didn't want to make cars for the masses, he wanted to sell cars to discerning, educated individuals all of whom, he reckoned, could read Latin and would immediately understand that Audi (the Latin imperative of audire, to hear) is the equivalent of Horch (from the German h=F6ren, to hear). Sadly, Audi cars of today do not conform to the standards of Horch any more than the current Audi customer base fits the target customer profile adopted by Horch.

Although it doesn't mention it in the manual, it looks very likely that the door on the WT2780 (washer/dryer) can be reversed. The casing is symmetrical around the door area, and the aperture for the latch seems very much the same as that occupied by the hinge, IYSWIM.

Not convinced it would be made to be readily reversed as the connections to the lock and interlock would be a problem. Perhaps it is a standard stamping used for different models.

Physical distance isn't a very relevant measure for this. An American writer would be much further away but that shouldn't make it more acceptable for an American to get things wrong. The difference in native language is a more relevant factor to consider. But I suppose some would say that people in the far north of Scotland speak a different language anyway :-)

Although I can see how an error like this could easily slip through in an initial translation I agree it should have been spotted and corrected at the proof reading stage.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember John MacLeod saying something like:

Today? Go back forty years and they were cheap s*it under the skin, same as any other make.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Mike Clarke saying something like:

Yes. It's known as Quite Good English.

Americans are a whole cultural world away and at least half a linguistic world away. And yes, I've lived and worked there too.

There are at least as many pitfalls for the average American trying to communicate in the UK -- all the more dangerous because they don't realise they're likely to exist at all.

Well, we speak many different languages in this house, from Mandarin, through Latin, Greek and Hebrew, to Gaelic, German, French, Scots and English. To which were you referring? :-) I can manage only seven of then nine :-(.

John

Horch was a lot more than forty years ago :-). And no, I've never owned one or wished to, though those produced under Horch would be much more desirable than contemporary competitors.

John

In message , Grimly Curmudgeon writes

Not when you're wearing rose tinted glasses, they're not