Miele Reviews 

Warning to consumers & resolution request

A fridge/freezer is a long-term purchase and should not rust after only a few years.
In 2021, we purchased a Miele freezer for approximately R40,000. The freezer door has rusted severely, while the fridge door beside it — same conditions, same care — remains flawless.
Instead of taking responsibility and repairing the defect, we are offered a 30% discount on a R18000 replacement door, which does not address the underlying issue and may fail.
Under the Consumer Protection Act, goods must be of durable quality, reasonably suitable for their intended purpose, and free from defects. A premium appliance rusting in normal household use does not meet this standard.
We are requesting that this be properly repaired or replaced at no cost, rather than shifting the burden to the consumer.
This post is shared to inform other consumers and in the hope that Miele will honour both its brand promise and legal obligations.

I got a brand new state of the art kitchen in my holiday house in Cape Town this past December/January and except for the fridge (was too high for the space) I fitted it with 7 brand new Miele appliances.

Shortly after the kitchen was completed, at the beginning of February, I had to go back to Switzerland. At the beginning of May I came back to Cape Town and found the stainless steel rim of the induction hob full of tiny rust spots. They are dotted evenly all around the rim and no Miele cleaner could get it off. The Miele rep that came to have a look said he has never seen anything like it and that it should not look like this after 3 months - during which time it was not in use! He said it will probably need to be replaced, but it has to be looked at by a technician first. They came when I had left already and said it won’t be replaced, that I must have cleaned it incorrectly and that I should have “conditioned” (oiled!) the rim before leaving it unused for an extended period of time!! Then they sent me a quote for almost half of the purchase price to replace it!!!! A hob that has been installed 3 months earlier and has only been used a few times!?

Miele, are you being serious? Your hob frames need to be “conditioned” if they are not used for some time?! Isn’t that in itself an admission of an inferior quality of steel? I have had hobs with a stainless steel rim for the past 35 years - in Switzerland and in South Africa - premium products and cheap ones. And none of them ever had a single spot of rust on it, whether it has been used and cleaned twice a day every day or not used for a few months!

I know how to take care of my appliances and I am actually one of those people who DO read the instruction manual from front to back! And nowhere in there does it say the steel needs to be “conditioned” if it is not used for a while. In fact it doesn’t say a single word about the rim and how to take care of it, it only speaks of the ceramic glass top! And the Miele lady who came to my house and explained all the appliances knew very well that it is currently still only a holiday home and that I will be leaving again in a few days. And she also didn’t mention anything about “conditioning” the stainless steel rim of my hob or any of the other appliances!

I will never buy another Miele appliance and I will tell my story to all my friends and acquaintances. Why should anybody pay such premium prices when the after sales service is so shocking or even non-existent!? Miele is blaming everybody else before they look at the problem properly. My steamer’s front was skew and they insisted that my very experienced kitchen contractor put it in incorrectly, although the level showed that everything was completely level - apart from the door in the front. Only a month later, when they came back from the holidays did they actually take it out and see that the casing of the steamer was put together incorrectly - a screw was in the wrong place!!!

Your products may be premium (the prices certainly are) but customer service is definitely not something you are passionate about. But for us consumers it is ALL about after sales and customer service!!

I thought I’m buying from a reputable manufacturer and even (albeit grudgingly) accepted that there won’t be any discount even if I buy 7 appliances. But I have never experienced such bad customer service in my life. A brand new hob’s frame shouldn’t rust within 3 months, period. I definitely haven’t got any chemicals in my house that could do this and I most certainly didn’t clean it with anything other than a damp sponge.