Is smeg Korean For Lemon?

Dear Signore Bertazzoni

I'm sorry to interupt your Summer holiday, I'm sure your villa on Lake Como is positively gorgeous this time of the year, but as a smeg customer, I am not happy. I've been a microwave fan for years, having previously owned your competitors products, a Sony & a Panasonic. The Sony was a gem, 14 years old & still going strong, as was the Panasonic at 8 years, it was as good as new. Both went to good homes, the Sony to a son who was setting up his own place & the Panasonic to the Rowing Club, who were in desperate need of a microwave after their kitchen refurbishment.

4 years ago, to replace the Panasonic, I purchased one of yours, a SA31-1MX, paying the princely amount of AU$695.00. MOTH wasn't happy, & I had to do a lot of convincing that we would get our money's worth - how wrong I was.

During the first 6 months the globe blew & the metal door trim peeled away from the cabinet frame. Small things you might say, but not what I was expecting so soon into our 'relationship'. Then after about 12 months I noticed small areas of bubbly corrosion on the black enamel interior, similar to rust spots. Now before you jump down my throat & accuse me of misuse, I will tell you that I followed the care instructions to the letter. Wiping out the interior with a sponge using warm water & mild detergent only, drying it afterwards, cooking in the appropriate containers etc. etc.

I checked the Warranty & noted that we still had a further 12 months running on it, so phoned the number on the paperwork. I quickly discovered that you don't go direct into Australia, you sell through a Distributor Omega Appliances. I spoke to their Customer Service person, who quite frankly, would have won the annual Company Award for providing the most disinterested & unhelpful advice to a customer. Her 'advice' was to carry the offending appliance out to my car, spend 2 hours driving to the other side of the city, lug it into their Service Dept., & leave it there for 2 weeks. When they had a spare moment, they would have a look at it to see if my complaint was genuine. If it wasn't, then they'd happily confirm that I was the raving loony she secretly thought I was. Oh, & even if the issue was my fault, I'd have to pay a fee of $95 for the privilege of being told that. You've got to be joking.

We purchased the product originally from David Jones, a reputable Department Store who has provided us with excellent service over the years. I phoned their Small Appliances Manager, who listened carefully to my complaint, & confirmed what we reckoned, that during manufacture, the enamel baking process had somehow failed. She promised she would speak to her contacts at smeg to see what could be done & phone me back the next day. 2.5 years on, I'm still waiting for the return call.

As time has passed, the interior of the microwave has rapidly deteriorated, with large areas of erosion spreading, like ulcerous cankers. The inside rim of the door buckled & warped & the rubber seal fell off. Each time I wiped it out, large flakes of rusty metal would adhere to the sponge - it was atrocious. Sunday night was the final straw. As I was wiping over the interior after cooking a small container of rice, my hand suddenly plunged through the floor of the microwave onto the kitchen bench underneath, just about ripping my hand to pieces on the jagged metallic edges in the process. A large gaping hole, aptly around the size of a lemon now renders SA31-1MX totally useless....... she is as dead as a dodo.

So here we are Signore, 4 years on, with no microwave & $695.00 worse off. I'm just wondering if you or any other member of the family conglomerate, have any ideas as to what we do next. Oh & the icing on the cake was when yesterday morning, as MOTH was yelling for me to check the fine print on the smeg Warranty again, I noticed on the back page this little gem ' Thank you for buying this Daewoo product'. I feel like a right sucker. I was never under the illusion that the manufacture of products like this wouldn't be outsourced to other parts of the globe but Oh mio Dio - please explain!!!

2 very angry & miserable ex-?smeg/?daewoo customers - Millie & MOTH.