Terribly dissapointed with Quality & Customer Service

A year on from placing my order, I'm beginning to wish I had trusted my instincts! I wanted an energy efficient and reliable dehumidifier for when I dry my washing inside, predominantly over the winter months. Following a Which magazine recommendation, I purchased an Ebac Powerpac 21 from the manufacturers website.

It arrived and had a loud grinding noise, shortly before it failed to pump the water to the reservoir and dropped it all over the floor. Sending it back proved difficult also with a less than helpful person at the end of their customer service team. I ended up driving it more than 30 miles to the nearest depot on a Friday afternoon because they were unable to pick it up on a weekend and at the time I worked in a secure site.

All going swimmingly until 3 months later I found my carpet was sodden and while not making the same noises, it was only pumping half the water into the reservoir. This time, in a new job, they collected from my office an returned it 7 days later. All fine, same unit repaired.

7 months later, the same problem again. This time, has stained my brand new carpet and while they have invited me to submit photos to make a claim (which I will do), I called customer services to discuss a refund - this being the 3rd fault in less than a year.

Had I read these reviews before I made my purchase, I would have opted for a different brand. While I appreciate sometimes faults occur, it would appear they have either a massive quality issue with their manufacturing process, or the design is floored. I suggest the former, given the number of models which seem to report the same issues. It is a real shame given when it works, it has worked really well.

I suggest, steer well clear unless you are patient, don't mind dealing with customer service staff who at least portray having a less than helpful attitude should you wish to discuss something off their standard script (to be fair I have some sympathy given the volume of calls from unhappy customers they appear to be dealing with).