Consuming interest
Chaos ex Machina
By LESLIE ADRIAN A neighbour tells me that she wanted part of her Kenwood liquidiser replaced and rang Kenwood's London. number to ask for advice. A rather unforthcoming girl who answered was helpful only in so far as she was able to give a Kenwood address in Havant, Hampshire, where parts could be replaced. My neighbour, wanting. the part replaced quickly, sent the damaged part to Havant and asked them to send her a new one as soon as possible. It is exactly
two weeks since she did this and she hasn't heard a word from them yet.
I've been holding the telling of my own story until the whole miserable business was over. I think its all over now, so here goes.
Nine months ago we bought a Dishlex mobile dishwasher.
Item: it took about a month for the people who installed it to discover by trial and error which of the specially recommended detergents would work best with our water supply. During that time most of the things we put in the machine had to be washed again in the sink before they were clean Shortly after we had found the right one, it was discontinued.
Item: we were told that one of the refinements of the machine was an extra rack for use after, say, a party when you had a lot of glasses to wash. We ordered_one, have repeatedly asked again for one and still haven't got one.
Item: the spring that holds the heavy lid of the machine open. and stops it falling on and crushing your 'fingers failed after about six months. Telephone.-calls to the Dishlex head office having : done- no good, I wrote to the
managing director and told him just how danger- ous the machine now was to our children and ourselves. The lid was made safe with surprising speed.
Item: the machine developed a fault which resulted in the water overflowing. The same fault occurred five times in spite of the efforts of the Dishlex engineers. During a period of just over a month we were able to use the machine on only four days. On the other days it was all a sort of chaos ex machina. We either didn't use the thing at all or we had to stand over it all the time it was operating in case it overflowed again and flooded the kitchen. At regular inter- vals we telephoned the managing director—who was never there. His secretary repeatedly assured us that our problem-twas their constant concern and eventually told us that the chief engineer was coming to inspect the machine and was under instructions to report back to the managing director himself. This was after a letter in which I asked if, in the circumstances. we could not amicably agree that our machine v4 as a dud. I suggested that Dishlex might either replace it or return the money we had spent on it.
Two modifications were eventually made and the machine is now, at last, doing what it is supposed to do. We think it will go on that way.
The sad thing about all this is that, in our opinion, the Dishlex is an excellent dishwasher. We say this in spite of the constant irritation and dissatisfaction that our own model has given us. When it has been working it has done its job extremely efficiently. Why, one feels entitled to ask, don't the makers and dealers follow the sale of a good machine with decent service when, as must happen occasionally, things go wrong? I recently congratulated the Launderers' Guild on its service following the introduction of its new code. I hope the examples of poor service I have given may help to persuade the electrical appliance manufacturers—and others—to follow the Launderers' lead.
In reply to a question I put here a few weeks ago—how to keep children occupied on long' car journeys—one reader insisted that the only way is to leave them behind. This column doesn't give up that easily. We've just joined another family—four children in all—on holiday in Spain and it turned out to be very well worth while for everybody. We simply don't believe that children, even very young ones, don't appreciate the difference between the Medi- terranean and the Channel. They may not know the difference but their parents can certainly see it. A large part of our enjoyment of the holiday was the visible pleasure it gave to, especially, the two three-year-olds in our party. And the journey this year was far easier than ever before.
We used the French Railways' new service from.'taples (Le Touqiiet) to Narbonne, put our cars on the train and slept in couchettes. Instead of, aS last time we did the same journey two years ago, three days' driving, two nights' hotel expenses, all that petrol-and a great deal of wear and tear on the parents and frustration for the children, we reached Spain this time in thirty hours, had no hotel expehses and had only short runs in the car to Dover and from Narbonne into Spain. Most of all, though, the advantages were in terms of the children. The car journeys were no trouble to them and, therefore, no trouble to us and they slept through most of the night on the train, largely because French railway lines, I'm told. are welded to- gether so that you don't get the constant clickety- click you do on British lines. Moreover, being so young, the children cost us nothing in fares.
The only complaints I have are the usual one about the state of the lavatories on French trains and the lack of information in London about what exactly is provided in the way of food on the train. I don't suppose they'll ever do much about the lavatories but it would be very easy to let you known in advance that, though there is no restaurant car on the train, there is plenty of time and a reasonable choice of restaurants for dinner right beside the station at taples and, in the morning, the attendants will sell you a packed continental breakfast with hot coffee.
Previous page
