Gary - does Maytag have their own research and design team? How about management team? Do they have their own factories where they only produce Maytag appliances ? Nope they pretty much cease to exist. The few factories that are still open are an old Amana plant from that acquisition and that scion of cooking Magic Chef ! Maytag 's only value is in its name. Now , lets look at Gaggenau. While they are under they Bosch ownership umbrella , they have their own mgmt. team, in Gaggenau Germany. Their own factories where they produce Gaggenau appliances, and more importantly, a capable R&D dept. that comes up with things like full surface induction tops, side hinged ovens, pop up column vents, side hinged ovens. Some of that is shared across Bosch's other brands, like the induction, and some is not - like the ventilator. I'll let you slide on this one since your a techie instead of a big picture management guy. But, how bout gettin a clue before you start looking for interesting things next time. Lots of parts are shared in the industry, and not just within corp. entities. There are only a few fridge compressors on the market. Does that make Kitchen Aid a marketing arm of Sub Zero because the compressor will fit both ? How about the light bulb that fits your Electrolux and a thermador too? What about the door hinges that Bosch and Tdor and Gaggenau use on their fridges? Miele has the same thing too. That's a whole separate discussion because of the shared factory, but by your logic it'd make them just a " marketing arm" because the same part is shared. Why don't you offer some reasons why one should buy Maytag instead of trying to pick a scrap with me and crapping on some other brand to deflect away from what the OP asked. And speaking of interesting and tellin it like it is, why didn't you include your beloved Electrolux on your list of poor service companies and those that don't do their own service? Inquiring minds find a THAT interesting.

I always call back if I don't get a satisfactory answer/result to my request. 9 times out of 10 I get the results I was hoping for the second time around. And always get names. I've started telling them that I too am recording this phone call. I have an app on my phone that records both sides of a conversation. I have it for work related phone calls so if I'm not where I can write down information I can recall it at a later time. I've also found that (most of the time) women take their jobs way too seriously or act like they have a chip on their shoulders. Men are much easier to deal with. As always, keeping the high road and keep calm pays off...except for the time I told one Eastern Indian (who had no business dealing with the American public) that if I knew where he lived, I'd fly a plane thru his tent! This was shortly after 9-11. I think I broke my phone that day :(

Anne - I feel your pain. I am the person who originally started this thread. I totally know what you mean about the "customer service fortress." That was the most frustrating thing for me. But I did eventually get past it. I also bought my appliances from Snyder Diamond and they have been very supportive with any product issues I've had. Do they know about this? I'm sure they would step in to help you but my guess is that these delays and cancellations are simply due to the unavailability of parts and not because they are trying to blow you off. But the main reason I am responding is to tell you that you absolutely should ask for them to extend your warranty. At the end of my ordeal I asked for a warranty extension and they gave me a generous one. And it is an extension of the original factory warranty, not the third party company that sells Thermador extended warranties (they will start barraging you with mailed solicitations). The person I was in communication with from Thermador told me the third party warranty is far inferior to the factory warranty and she was happy to offer me the added protection.

I had a similar experience as Deeinohio but mine was with Eddie Bauer. I'd ordered 4 of their down throws as Christmas gifts. When the box arrived I was shocked at how big it was.... imagine my surprise when it turned out to be 3 men's long down parkas and 2 pair of men's snowpants (none of it inexpensive). The other person's order form was in the box, they were in Ontario, I am on the East Coast. I assume they must have stuck the wrong mailing label on the box once they were all packaged. I called their customer service and could not believe how difficult it was to make them understand what had happened. They kept asking for my order number, which was irrelevant because it wasn't MY order I'd received. I tried giving them the order number from the packing slip in the box but they wouldn't discuss that order with me because I wasn't the person who'd ordered it. They ultimately credited me for the original 4 blankets (that probably went to Ontario) and redid the order. They were supposed to email me a return label to send back the snowsuits which of course never came. I had to call again. Then I received the blankets again and had to make arrangements to return THEM. I have never in my life had such a hard time returning merchandise that did not belong to me and that I did not want. I was half tempted to just donate all the extra stuff but figured they'd catch up to me sooner or later.