Broken Dyson DC24

[madabouthoovers]

You will probably find that the filters are classed as wear items and are not covered by warranty. Although if you tell the engineer you are disappointed with Dyson and will be getting a SEBO in a few months when the warranty expires, they might throw in a HEPA filter for free in an attempt to keep you as a Dyson customer

 

[blakaeg]

Madabouthoovers,

I'm going to need to make a complaint about the filters to the engineer as I seem to keep having a problem with the pre motor filter lifting up inside the housing on top of the cyclone and then this in turn throws out a load if fine dust, hair etc onto the HEPA filter! This appears to have a tiny hole and that let's the dust out into the room.

Not sure the pre motor filter is very effective anymore as it seems to clog us within 3 weeks use and I do notice a loss of suction and then this issue with the filter lifting itself up occurs I hope it doesn't take the Dyson engineer long to change the duct housing over.

 

[madabouthoovers]

Tell him all about it - the premotor filter should not be doing that, and you require him to find out why its doing it. The fact it clogs very quickly suggests that the rubber gasket at the bottom of the bin (the inner one) may be leaking allowing dust to escape up the cyclone tubes in reverse

 

[super-sweeper]

a broken Dyson?

Surprise, surprise!

(Ducks and B-Runs)!

 

[blakaeg]

Received new cleanerhead from Dyson for the DC24. I noticed there's a different between the old and the new. I know that Dyson has modified the 'spindle' that the brush goes onto but I noticed the side of the head used to have a safety Reset button but the newer one doesn't have it. I wonder what the reason was for Dyson to remove the safety switch.

Would rather they modify the brush bearings, spindle etc so the brushbar and end cap don't start to rattle every 6 months or so.

Below on the top is the latest cleaning head and the lower ones are showing the older ones.

 

[blakaeg]

Side of new head

 

[blakaeg]

Old head

 

[blakaeg]

Safety button on side of old cleaner head

 

[vintagerepairer]

Dyson have recently scaled back their customer operations. The cynic in me would say the lack of reset button it to reduce the calls from people who want to know why their cleaner isn't picking up. With no cut-out to reset, there is no call to Dyson about the problem of the brush not turning.

I don't know why it was there to start with, as the DC25 never had it.

 

[blakaeg]

Their repair service Is no where as good as it used to be. It was 2 weeks ago I called the Helpline to get my machine fixed and it's still not been repaired as the engineer advised me they don't carry parts onboard and have to order them in!

It seems to be a common complaint now that the engineer turns up without any parts.

 

[madabouthoovers]

"engineer" lol - makes me laugh. Wont be long before they send you a box to pack it in to be sent off to Malmesbury for repair at their leisure.

 

[vintagerepairer]

Well this interesting you see. When goods are sold in the UK, the contract is only ever between the retailer and the purchaser, never the manufacturer. This is why a "manufacturers warranty" is only ever in addition to a consumers statutory rights.

However, if a manufacturers warranty is offered, providing any neccesary terms & conditons have been met, that warranty has to be honoured. But there are no specific clauses or requirements which the manufacturer has to adhere to regarding timeframes or service levels, and so on. And of course if you think about it, once a product has been sold, there is little incentive for the manufacturer to offer a gold-plated 7-day-per-week customer service like Dyson does. Dyson did that beacause -like so much Dyson does- Dyson wanted to do it. In that respect, they have done nothing wrong as it's a free country. But it didn't stop me pondering how cost-effective it was so far as business choices go, and how much money it awarded Dyson in terms of repeat custom (and indeed how it was measured).

Put simply, if a vacuum cleaner call-centre is open at 5pm on a Sunday, people who need to use it will ring in. If it is not open, they will have no choice but to wait until such time that it is open. A vacuum cleaner problem is so far from life and death that I doubt anyone actually expects to be able to deal with it at the weekend anyway. Dyson is proud of it's awards for customer service, and so it should be, but if that same customer service is costing them lots of money, that award becomes very expensive.

Don't get me wrong, for what a Dyson cleaner costs to buy, I think the least one can expect is some sort of longevity, whether that comes in the form of a durable product, or a more flimsey one which has the back-up of a warranty. I just wonder sometimes what all this after care costs Dyson.

 

[vintagerepairer]

"Wont be long before they send you a box to pack it in to be sent off to Malmesbury for repair at their leisure."

You may be too young to recall that up untill the year 2000, this was exactly what happened, albiet a customer was instructed to use their own black bags to wrap the cleaner in. A courier then took the cleaner off to Malmesbury for repair. There was a 3-day turn around, which was remarkably good when compared to other manufacturers.

That said, Dyson were more problematic than any other, and sold in greater numbers. Thus, the aftercare had to match.

 

[blakaeg]

Vintagerepairer,

I don't mean to be blunt but at the moment I don't really care how much it's costing Dyson. They have caused a lot of inconvenience.

Perhaps to some, not being able to vacuum isn't a major big deal but to some like myself who need to vacuum regularly to keep the dust down otherwise my allergies flare up it's pretty important. Plus may I mention the fact I expected Dyson to repair my machine on the day that confirmed the engineer turned up and then he tells me he can't repair it and it's going to take another week before the parts turn up because he needs to order them. I took a whole day off work and this time I now have to get someone to come and stay at the flat to let the engineer come a second time. I really hope he has all the parts to fix it this time. Cannot fault him, he was fantastic the whole time.

I remember the days of sending machines back to Malmesbury. Had a DC03 back with the cable sliced, a piece cracked off (Dyson blamed both issues on Parcel Force), an over sensitive clutch installed. Then there was the DC05 that also came back with a crack in it and had an issue with the cable rewinding back into the body when it got hot. Had one home visit to fix the DC03 and the engineer chatted so much , he forgot to put the spring back in the on/ off switch. Didn't bother asking them to send him back. I must be unlucky with them. I need to change brands lol

 

[madabouthoovers]

Well, if you have allergies - a bagless is not ideal anyway. What I'd recommend is a SEBO Felix to replace your DC24 - it may be a bit heavier, but its a very nimble twin motored machine, and at £230 ish, its very competitively priced. 1 pack of bags is about a tenner, and will last months - they also have sealing tabs so you don't breathe in the dust when you do have to change the bag. SEBO may not have mobile "engineers" but don't charge the prices to include them, and the chances of a Sebo going wrong are much smaller than that for a modern Dyson. They are also made in Germany, rather than Malaysia.


Dyson has had his slice of the cake, now he's going very stale, and its time to move on to better brands who value reliability rather than being the next fashion item.

 

[vintagerepairer]

"
I don't mean to be blunt but at the moment I don't really care how much it's costing Dyson. They have caused a lot of inconvenience. "

No, and I quite agree. I think perhaps I didn't make it clear where I was coming from on this, for which I do apologise. What I was meaning was, taking you, me, and any other consumer out of the equation, as a business choice, I have often wondered how much the whole process was costing Dyson. It's not me asking for the Dyson sympathy vote, it's me saying that I simply wonder how much it costs Dyson.

As a company, they have a choice as to how much built-in faliure they provide, but I have often thought that Dyson cleaners have too much of it, off-set by a very expensive (to Dyson) customer care service. I would have considerd that by now the quality of Dyson cleaners would have improved by now not for the consumer, but for the aftercare cost which Dyson have to fork out for.

I am not writing in defence of Dyson (if anything I am with you on this one) but having had a small business myself, I often wonder how the very basics of business are being used or indeed missed by the big-boys.

 

[sebo_fan]

Well, if you are a buyer and led by a Dyson with its long warranty, you expect a quality service. As do all the other brands that offer quality and design as their marketing advertising blurbs. A large company like Dyson should offer a far better service than the one that blakaeg has received.

blakaeg already has a SEBO Felix. A quick look at his profile confirms that.

 

[vintagerepairer]

Yes but terms like "expect" and "should" are not the same as "legally required to". Like you Sebofan, I think for the price a consumer pays for a Dyson that one could expect some kind of service or longer life from the product, however, customer care is not the reason Dyson exist; they are here to make a profit. So far as profits go, it doesn't matter how poor the aftercare is, if people are still buying the cleaners, that is all that matters.

We can of course all say that if this carries on then people won't buy Dyson cleaners, but two things need to be considered before we do; one, we don't have access to sales figures so we can't know what is happening on that front, and two, Dyson cleaners have been of an inferior build quality from the word go, yet it's not stopped the company getting to where it is now.

In otherwords, no matter how poor the quality of the cleaners and how miserable the aftercare is becoming, it does not seem to be affecting sales. Dyson has cornered the market and the quality of what is left of other brands has declined accordingly. Even if Dysons are purchased as a "Hobsons Choice", sales are still being made, it seems.

 

[blakaeg]

This morning I received a call from the Dyson engineer to say that the part he ordered has been sent to Head Office!! I didn't quite catch the reason, if it's because he missed the post or what but I just immediately got so angry as I had booked for someone to stay at the flat especially, whilst I'm at work.

I was so angry but I just couldn't have a go at the engineer as he's a lovely bloke and it's not his fault that Dyson seem to operate this absolute sham of a repair service. It's so unfortunate as I called Dyson on the 10th May to book it In and it might not be for another week or so now until it's repaired. Getting tempted to just give up on the Dyson now to be honest 2 weeks going on 3 weeks and I'm left waiting for this repair.

This is just going to go on and on and I'm fed up with it now. All I want is a working machine. In order for it to be repaired means more inconvenience, not only to myself but also the engineer too.

 

[madabouthoovers]

Seeing as you have a Sebo Felix - why not just use this? or one of the other Dysons you say you have in your profile?

[this post was last edited: 5/23/2014-09:25]