Wow, good to know. That must be so maddening! I hope you get this fixed soon.

I grew up in Germany. Customer service is just not something that companies do there. By law, you have very generous consumer protections. And that's exactly what you'll get. Not more, not less.

Sounds as if that corporate culture might have spilled over to their US subsidiary ... minus the good legal protections.

So, you'll have to keep escalating until you find somebody who is empowered to help you. Your dealer might be able to help. But that depends on the dealer.

I wish I knew how to help you. Often these things have easy fixes. But I know absolutely nothing about Miele freezers. So, even if you described to symptoms, I probably wouldn't be any good to you.

How about writing to the CEO North America? Sure, you *could* wind your weary way up their dastardly food chain, but darn it, life's just too short sometimes. Christmas is looming, you've got better things to do with your time, so I'd email Jan Heck and see what happens. Keep it civil and factual and concise, I'm sure he's a busy busy man ;)

https://rocketreach.co/jan-heck-email_7498537

Seems like he's got a great reputation and is, in fact, such a great leader he'd probably drive a new fridge and freezer over to your house and deliver them with a nice hot apple pie he baked himself just to ensure you become a satisfied, not a dissatisfied, customer!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/heckjan

I had a similar experience with my top of the line Miele dishwasher. As a result I will never splurge on Miele products again. I have a Miele canister vacuum that works fine but the Dyson cordless stick vac I recently purchased is better. Miele is not a good value in my opinion - overrated and overpriced.

I've had ASKO since the mid-1980s....back when they were called ASEA. I was in my 20's when I got that dishwasher. :-) I've been a fan ever since. I've never had any issues with service. Maybe the Swedes are better at customer service. Just a heads up in case someone is shopping for a European designed dishwasher. I love ASKO.

When I had a ridiculously long wait time calling Miele in Princeton NJ I was told that there had been a lot of layoffs. I would also make a complaint here and see if they can help.

https://www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/ocp/Pages/default.aspx

tcv, I thought you were in Montana or somewhere remote, but as everyone who has lived anywhere on the east coast of the US knows, NJ is the center of everything :-) I don't know what they are thinking, but I think you should avail yourself of the email address and start sending them copies of these posts. Were I tempted to consider Miele, I'm no longer interested...

wilson853 I may have to try that because the BBB has done nothing but send me the lame excuses that Miele has written back to them. I have never in all my years of dealing with anything involving customer service dealt with anyone as horrible as Miele. Completely inexcusable.

The Kitchen Place, my Dad worked for Asko/Upo as his first real job in the 70's...everyone in my home country had some type of Asko appliance then, and they were good even at that time!

If you belong to Facebook, message them through their page. You can also respond to their posts. They seem responsive to negative posts, but I don’t know whether there were satisfactory outcomes.

@The Kitchen Place what model do you currently have? I'm evaluating Miele and Asko and I actually prefer the looks and design of the Asko. I will take another look this weekend, but I'm leaning towards either a 30 or 40 series.

Very sorry to hear of your issues. That is so maddening, and more so when you pay so much for a so called premium brand. One doesn't want to be in the position of complaining and spending so much time on just getting what you paid for.

I have been researching appliances extensively and have been twice to the Miele center in Princeton and called them on the phone a few times with some queries. I have had the same experiences as bubblyjock. Unfortunately ,they do not know their products as well as Houzzers seem to, are too lazy to find out the correct answer, at best have such snotty attitudes and at worst, downright rude and condescending. I honestly wanted to write to Mile about the horrible attitude of their staff but on seeing your account of lqck of response to your situation after having actually bought, I'm glad I didn't waste my time. My boyfriend is a contractor and he was quite disgusted at our experience there. I wish I liked the Wolf CSO a much as the MIele one as I have only had polite, excellent, efficient service from Wolf/Subzero, going above and beyond in answering my questions I am going with a few subzero products and never looked at the Miele refrigeration,

.Tcvino, I hope you get resolution and SOON! Good luck and keep us posted.

@anoop I did my kitchen in 2013. I have this model (discontinued).

Asko XXL Series D5524XXLFI

Fully Integrated Dishwasher with 14-Place Settings, 9 Wash Cycles, 7 Spray Wash System, Condensation Drying, 50 dBA and Requires Custom Panel/Handle

@waverly6, I am so sorry to hear that you had a bad experience at Miele in Princeton. My sample set is obviously extremely limited. My only experience is with Miele in San Francisco. I have always find them extremely helpful and knowledgeable. They went out of their way to help me find some unusual accessories that I had asked about. They have super fun cooking classes. And they are always happy to chat about their appliances and how they work.

It is disappointing that the human side of their North American business is so uneven.

As far as appliances go. I have so far only had excellent luck with our Miele appliances. Their CSO and SpeedOven are awesome. And the Miele dishwasher is in a class of its own. Personally, it's pretty much the only brand I'd consider, if I was looking for a replacement. Our family has had Miele dishwashers since at least the mid 1970s, and has been happy with each an every one of them.

M, I love your well thought out, knowledgeable comments and replies.

At this point, the only Miele appliance I am considering is the CSO, i did really

like the regular M touch oven but went another way. While one of the local appliance stores I am working with have said they are getting certified mIele repair status I can't take the chance as I am about 3 and half to 4 hours from the nearest certified repair center.

I am fortunate to have a Miele Experience Center in town, and there is easy access to Miele technicians. Nonetheless, for the CSO I still decided to get the extended warranty. I wish Miele USA had the same policy as Miele Canada and offered 10 year warranties. But I had to settle for a 5 year warranty instead. Still, that's not too bad for peace of mind. It's just nice to know that I am not taking any chances, even though I bought a potentially more complex appliance.

And in general, Miele appliances don't seem to fare much worse than other brands as far as need for service. They all follow the "bathtub curve". They either fail early on, or they last many year and then die at the end of their expected lifespan.

They all might need a small amount of ongoing maintenance every few years though. I think that's been true for pretty much every single one of my appliances, regardless of brand. For those minor repairs, it would of course be nice to have a Miele-trained technician close by. So, I understand your reluctance.

Most recently, my Miele dishwasher was finally acting up a little bit for the first time since I bought it. The symptoms were strange and erratic. It would drain the tub, and then tell me that the filters were clogged and it didn't drain (and obvious lie!). Or at other times, it would run for 5 minutes and then just stopped telling me that the filters were clogged, when they obviously were clean. And then again, for days, it would run just fine. I had actually scheduled a Miele technician to come out -- and then the problem went away for a few days. So, I cancelled the appointment. No point in having your appliance serviced, if you can't demonstrate the problem. Of course, immediately after cancelling the appointment, the problem came back with a vengeance.

Our dishwasher is about ten years old. So, I wouldn't feel too horrible, if it died. But I still do think that 10 years is a little early for a high-end brand; I'd want to get at least another 5 or better 10 years more use out of it. So, I did research online, and I finally found somebody else describing the same symptom. Apparently, the gasket in the backflow valve can degrade over time and get sticky. When that happens, it behaves erratically and sometimes fails to open.

The backflow valve is one of the parts that you are supposed to take out and clean on occasion. It's easily accessible and there is a description in the manual. I checked it, and it looked fine. But it's an easy part to replace. I wish I could buy just the gasket, but I had to get the entire assembly. Cost about $40 ordered from Europe. And that fixed it. So, overall a positive experience.

The reason I am telling you this is to show that some of the easier maintenance tasks are within reach of the home owner. And with the internet, it gets increasingly easier to diagnose problems. You don't always need to have access to the manufacturer's repair network. I have had to do similar tasks for my range, for my laundry machine, for my boiler, for my fridge, for my furnace, ... The list goes on and on.

OP, I would second the post above for reaching out to them on facebook, but you can also try twitter and yelp.

How frustrating that must be. Until recently, we lived in an area with trained Miele technicians readily available-However, we hardly needed them because the appliances were solid performers for many years.

We recently moved to Philadelphia and have made a number of trips to the Experience Center in Princeton where we found a very competent staff member who helped us choose our appliances for our upcoming gut renovation.

However, we have been trying with without success to find what resources are available in Philadelphia to provide service for the appliances! We have been directed mostly to stores that sell and service Miele vacuums. It makes no sense to me that a company would manufacture such excellent products but fall down so badly when it comes to service. As much as I love their appliances, it would be foolish to purchase them if no support is available.

I'm in the Los Angeles area and Miele also has an experience center here. I have been a couple of times and they were all pretty helpful and had good knowledge of the products in the showroom.

I currently have a Miele dishwasher, CSO (plumbed XXL model) and plumbed coffee machine. We haven't had any problem with them in the 16 months they have been installed.

I will be building and plan on getting the same model of DW, steam oven and coffee machine.

I looked at their ranges and fridges, but went with Wolf and Subzero for those.

This forum strongly recommend buying the best appliance for the particular task, rather than buying all the same brand for everything. And while I don't think you'd make a horrible mistake buying all Miele, I do agree that you'll get a much better kitchen if you pick different brands for the range, the fridge and the hood. None of those are appliances that Miele is famous for

@coneflower, Have you tried Gerhard, Ferguson or D&K Appliances? I'm not sure if they sell mIele but I'm shocked that in Philadelphia you can't get good Miele service.

A few weeks ago, I had an afternoon off and needed to call for 3 appointments for 3 different appliances - Wolf, Miele and Electrolux. My call to Wolf was answered by a real person within 30 seconds, I was on hold for 25 minutes with Electrolux, after a robotic phone tree menu and had the same 25 minute experience with Miele. I was disappointed to have the same wait times for Miele as Electrolux. However, the Miele technician that came to repair my dishwasher was excellent. He was from the factory, had a Miele uniform and was super knowledgeable. He was a stark contrast to the inexperienced 3rd party technician who was dispatched the first time to fix the dishwasher (and could not fix it). The second Miele tech told me I could request a factory direct tech when I set up the service call but that sometimes the wait times are longer.

I have a lot of Sub-Zero Wolf appliances and every time I have called with a question, a live person has answered the phone within 1 minute. With the high price of these appliances, that is the level of service I expect. Unfortunately, Miele does not deliver that level of phone service and in-home repairs vary depending on the tech.

I don't care how pretty it looks. If the service when something goes wrong is shoddy at best you shouldn't be charging a premium price tag at the very least. I had a certified Miele technician who was very nice and seemingly knowledgeable come out to my house 3 times to try and fix this freezer. Ultimately, he made it inoperable. I am STILL waiting to hear when it can be replaced. The BBB notified me and basically told me there is nothing I can do other than leave the complaint for others to see. They advised the NJ Board of Consumer Affairs (as others have mentioned) and I will attempt to do that. I can not get an actual email address that works for anyone who can help. Just left a comment on the Miele FB page which I am sure will be taken down. I could almost understand all this if I bought an Electrolux like dotsandstripes mentioned, but seriously?? I pay almost $8000 and this is the service I get? Not acceptable.

I do live in Philadelphia and have a Miele washer and Dishwasher and vacuum. I've always had good service from them so I think this experience is something of a new thing from them. Perhaps they need to get a new service manager. I like the suggestion of posting to them on facebook, better yet post your experience on facebook so that Miele management can read it. The thing that moves companies is fear of losing customers.

Saw your complaint posted and their response. Hope you get a satisfactory resolution.

Jerrod, may I ask whom you call for service in Philadelphia? Thank you so much!

Coneflower4: I have had Miele appliances since 2002 when I bought the washer. I saw the new washer this year and replaced the washer with the new one. I've had the Dishwasher since 2006. I call the headquarters in N.J. for service.

OP,

Wondering if you ever had any resolution with your issue?

I have had much the same experience with my Miele appliances, and
felt bad about the fact that I cannot recommend them when there are so
many that love theirs. At approximately the 2 year mark, the
Ice maker in freezer was replaced, entire fridge was replaced because
the top shelf was freezing everything while the bottom shelf was around
38F and nothing that they did as a repair worked. I swear that my 10
year old Kenmore keeps my produce fresher than the Miele. I was without
my DW for 2 months while they replaced everything in it that could be
replaced. I don't know that I would buy the Miele again. Customer
service is awful (and I am 30 minutes from their Canadian
Headquarters). I'd probably still be waiting if it weren't for the
appliance store that I ordered the product from intervening on my
behalf. I also know of a number of people that have had issues with the
CSO's as well. Fortunately, I didn't go the Miele route for that,
because given their track record with me I'd have CSO issues as well.
The upside is that I did get the 10 year warranty, so I'm only out of
patience, not out of pocket!

Still no freezer!!! They FINALLY sent one but it was the wrong damn freezer!!! So now I'm STILL waiting for a new one. Unbelievable. Good customer service would have had the right one sent the very next day. This was last week and I'm not expecting one until at least the middle of next week. Never again.

Good grief, that's disgraceful!!! Do you think it's the company, or the particular store you're dealing with, who are so awful?

bubblyjock, in Canada, it is Miele, not the appliance store that you are dealing with. The appliance stores here basically just write the orders. Miele controls everything, from pricing right down to the delivery of the appliances. I put a down payment on my appliances and the balance was paid directly to Miele, not my appliance store. I was fortunate that my appliance store sells a lot of Miele appliances, so when I had problems they were able to step up for me. Not sure what it's like in other countries.

Definitely Miele themselves.

sherri1058 - wow, I didn't realise you're in Canada! So am I - and I didn't even get as far as placing an order with Miele before I was turned off by the surly cluelessness of the "customer service" people at the other end of the phone when I tried calling to get more info than the website had to offer. Took way too #$%^ long for them to bother answering, as well. I also didn't bother going to their grand store in Ottawa as I'd heard it's just a showroom, not a sales room (whatever is the point???).

bubblyjock, nice to meet you, neighbour. I'm in Toronto.

@sherri1058 I agree with everything you have said about Miele I have had the same experiences. Strange that it would happen in 2 separate countries. Perhaps it's all listed in their training manuals..... the only thing I wanted to clarify is that the showroom has all (most?) of the appliances on display, although not necessarily connected and working. They do have demos scheduled on some of the appliances. And yes you are correct, they don't sell them there, you have to order them from your local dealer.

I have nothing but good things to say about my Little Giants and my induction range, and the service from the Scottsdale Experience Center. We have had our Little Giants for well over ten years now, maybe even twelve?, with no issues whatsoever. Meanwhile, my best friend has gone through three washing machines in the same amount of time. My Miele vacuum cleaner I was less impressed with - my Shark handles all our animal hair much better. I have known the older lady at the Experience Center for many years now, and she is always very helpful. I am sorry that other people have been having issues.

My wife and I bought Miele little giant washer/dryer. Alas, the dryer doesn’t dry, and the washer works no better than our previous Asko.

After a long fight with BBB we got nowhere;. We’ve replaced the unit and are chalking it up to a very expensive lesson learned. I’d never buy another Miele appliance. The wall oven I have from the early 2000s is great, but I’d never waste money on Miele again.

Ironically, we bought our Little Giants to replace our old Askos, which were giving us problems, and we have had the exact opposite experience. I guess all brands can have issues.

I am considering a Miele appliance or two and was very disappointed with what I just read in this thread...has there been any resolution?!

dagogo.....It was finally resolved after several months. I finally received my new freezer - and the ice maker doesn't work on this one either. Wouldn't recommend.

Wow, that is truly terrible, especially considering how much you must have paid for that freezer. Totally unacceptable.

I love Miele appliances. I can't say enough good things about either our dishwasher or the combination steam oven. But I also firmly believe in buying the best brand for the task, rather than buying bundles. And honestly, while Miele isn't known for bottom-of-the-barrel refrigeration products, it also is rarely named as top of the line, either. This particular product line just seems to be something that they do to fill out their overall product selection. But it doesn't seem to play to their strengths.

On the other hand, every time this discussion comes up, everybody repeats just how happy they are with their SubZero refrigeration products. And even with SubZero, you occasionally hear complaints about the ice maker. Ice makers and water dispensers are the most fragile part of any fridge/freezer. Avoid completely, if you have that option; and if you don't have that option then at least buy the least complicated model. That means, no water dispenser and internal ice maker is the ideal configuration.

Of course, none of that justifies poor service from the manufacturer. Very sorry to hear that you had to go through that. There seem to be a small number of manufacturers that have great customer service, but they are apparently few and far between. For everyone else, you have to be the squeaky wheel.

The worst customer service in the industry. My 500.00 cordless Miele vacuum would not turn on after 3 months. After emailing, calling, etc. for an entire month the best they would do is offer me a 15% discount. Laughable on an alleged 2 year warranty. NEVER AGAIN!

@Danette Olstad - seems odd since the vacuum is only 3 months old. Why didn’t you go back to the store you bought it from? You bought it from a Miele authorized seller, right? If you did not, that could be why Miele is not honoring the warranty.

There almost always is more to the story, but I doubt we'll ever find out.

That's not to say that people can't have poor customer service experiences. That's true with any brand. But there always are multiple ways to get things resolved. It's very suspect, if that all failed for an item that is this new

M Miller

I bought the Miele vacuum on Amazon. Nowhere was it posted the warranty would not be valid by seller. Amazon stepped up and made things right for me.

If you need warranty service, your primary contact is the place you bought it from, as they are the party that you have a contract with. A lot of manufacturers offer to step into this responsibility, as they frequently are in a better position to deal with warranty claims. But they can set the terms of this service when they do that.

This becomes a problem when manufacturers have a restricted network of authorized dealers. And it's on you to confirm this information or revert back to contacting the dealer instead of the manufacturer. This is a pretty common concept in many jurisdictions around the world, and the US isn't as exception.

Amazon throws an extra wrinkle into this whole thing. I believe they might actually be an authorized dealer for Miele. But that's only true if they act in their role as dealer. They also happen to operate a market place where they facilitate third parties selling to customers. In that case, you are most likely dealing with an unauthorized dealer who sources their appliances on the grey market. They might even be customer-returns, or refurbished units. Not surprisingly, Miele is less excited about providing warranty service for these.

Can you confirm that you bought directly from Amazon, or was it a third party that happened to sell on Amazon? That's important you know.

And yes, if in doubt, Amazon is the best point of contact for you.

Miele is a totally over-rated so-called German product. We have an expensive MasterCool built in fridge that had a new fan fitted in 2019 after only 3.5 years. And now the new fan has stopped working at just under 3 years. This is totally unacceptable. In addition, try and phone for service - wait forever! My wife booked and service call on line, had no confirmation. I emailed Miele yesterday, but not the courtesy of a reply. I will never buy Miele again, and not recommend to anyone. Next time it is Korean or something else. Perth Australia

Every appliance manufacturer has appliances that they specialize in, and appliances that they either build as an after-thought or buy from somebody else and slap their label on.

Miele is great for dishwashers and ovens. Lots of people also like their vaccuums and their washers/dryers. But I was never as impressed with Miele's refrigeration products. I have heard from other friends who over time were disillusioned as well. So, not necessarily surprised about your experience.

If you can afford it, buying from the brands that have a particular strength in this area is ideal. For refrigerators, the clear leader would be SubZero (aka Wolf).

Samsung specializes in phones, and LG specializes in TVs. For both of them, kitchen appliances are very obviously not a core expertise. And why would it? They can sell millions of them and when the appliance inevitably breaks, consumers come right back and want more. Sam Vimes would be very impressed.