Posted on 05/31/2006 3:41:13 PM PDT by SJackson
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I've got clients and friends that live in Newton. On one hand the city leaders are responsible for this situation. On the other Maytag managment and labor drove the company into the ground. Shame.
Somewhere, Jesse White is crying...
Newton PING!
The part about the old Maytag shops and the reliability of the product struck a cord. I bought my first washer/dryer set from a small appliance shop in the neighborhood. Didn't have to buy a service contract. That first pair went without repair for 25 of the 26 years I had it. When it did start to break down, I called the shop owner and he would come right out. Reasonable price to fix too. Didn't have to pay $500 just to have a repairman walk in the door.
My latest set has an extended warranty for 5 years. The pair, not including the warranty, cost me nearly a thousand dollars and it may not last five years. That's a pity. And I couldn't buy the washer/dryer at the local shop. The shop closed down and the owner has passed away. Today, I have to call some authorized service company to come out maybe within a week or so of my call (if they have to come out on an emergency basis, I'm looking at some hefty extra fee that is not covered by warranty). And gdd help me if whatever is wrong is not covered by the warranty. I'm looking at a major repair bill.
It's a shame.
Compared to the 28-year old models that we had before "upgrading", our current late model Maytag washer and dryer are crap.
The fabled Maytag quality is long gone, anyway. Maytag is now just another product.
I was raised on a farm about 20 miles from Newton. Sad to see this happen.
Sure, the union didn't help much, but management decisions led to the failure of the company. There is still a market for top quality goods and Maytag could've continued making durable, simple machines and sold every one they made. Instead, they bought Hoover sweeper company and a couple of other useless brands and lost millions. The management kept bringing in geniuses who knew nothing about laundry and they made more stupid moves, which were rewarded with $10 million bonuses and buy-outs. If I had been a Maytag stockholder 15 years ago, I would have come to the annual meetings carrying a noose.
Washers and dryers are just as disposable now as vacuum cleaners, tires, etc. If you get 4-5 years out of any brand you are lucky. My old Kenmore lasted 18 years, next a Whirlpool 3 years, a G.E., 3 years, now i'm on a Performa? We'll see how short this one lasts.
"'How to make American companies successful? In Maytag's case, find the engineering drawings and start making 1972-vintage machines. They are way better than today's version.""
Amen to that. And you can say the same thing about Whirlpools.
My in-laws have an OLD Maytag unit in their basement that they use for cold soda. It has been operating since 1954 when they bought it without missing a day of service.
The new appliances are basically disposable junk.
I have a set of the new Maytags also...Almost as bad as yours. I can't recommend them.
Other than regular maintenance (belts that wear out, etc.) it's still doing her laundry to this day.
In the "they don't make them like they used to" theme, I bought a Litton microwave oven when I rented my first house in '82. It didn't have one of those "new fangled" carousels but instead claimed to rotate the waves from above. The old thing is still going strong and I am dreading having to replace it with some short-lived piece of you-know-what some day.
The EPA has stressed the reduction of energy use by requiring smaller compressors that run all the time, but don't use as much electricity. The problem is that since they run all the time then they wear out. The EPA does not consider the cost to the enviroment or the cost to the consumer to replace such units. So it is basically a sham.
My mother and a friend both have a GE microwave they got back in 1984. They are still going too. You will never get that kind of service from anything you buy today.
I liked Newton. Great little town. It will soon look like a ghost town.
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