Tasco Appliances

Purchased 5 new appliances when moving into new home in summer 2008, and also purchased extended warranty (Performance Protection Plan a.k.a. "PPP")for the fridge, stove, dishwasher, and hood vent (skipped the microwave since it was only $150). The total cost of the PPP was $450 for the 4 appliances which will cover us until summer 2012.

Earlier this week my Blomberg Dishwasher didn't drain and wouldn't go into cycle again (because it was still flooded) so I called Tasco to understand how the extended warranty works. They said if it was my fault (e.g. if food was the cause of the blockage) then I would be responsible for the service call. I checked everything from the filters to the drainage hose into the sink and nothing was clogged so I decided to place a service call.

When the technician came he spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out how to take apart my dishwasher, yanking away and damaging some of the internal parts. He called his boss and still can't figure it out and then I had to read the installation manual and help HIM out.

Finally the technician was able to remove the drain pump and found a piece of broken plastic that was lodged. One of the plastic tabs that held the cutlery basket together was broken and managed to go past the filter.

The technical called his boss and advised any cloggage was considered "maintenance" and not covered by Tasco warranty. I paid the technican and called Tasco Warrnty.

Even before asking about my name, make & model of Dishwasher, etc... the Tasco Agent immediately interrupted me and read from her script (seemingly) that all maintenance work is not covered by the warranty and a broken plastic trim is cosmetics only and does not affect peformance of the dishwasher therefore it's not covered.

I understand that if the cloggage is due to food or other items I placed into the dishwasher then it's my fault, but the fact that the blockage was caused by an INTERNAL PART of the dishwasher that had broken off.

Of course, the Tasco agent is now in broken record mode repeating the same denial and refused to carry on the conversation any longer.

A couple points
1) Tasco should not be sending technicans who have NOT worked on my make & model of dishwashers before. Any HACK can try and look for screws and disassemble an appliance. I paid for two hours labor for this technician for trial and error when it should have been a quick 30-min job to open up and check the drainage pump.

2) The PPP covers performance related issues only, but if that performance issue was caused by a faulty INTERIOR part of the appliance it should be covered!

And BTW, Tasco spends about 1 hour convincing us to buy the PPP but wouldn't spend more than 5 min listening to our warranty claim.

Update: July 2012 - we went into Tasco Richmond Hill to see what Tasco would do for us and none of the sales nor warranty folks want to discuss or do anything about our case.

At this time our warranty is up and since we did not make any successful claims we decided to use the $450 warranty as credit towards a new purchase. This is where our experience got more sour - when we were sold the warranty the salesman focused on how we can used the warranty premiums as a attire credit if we didn't claim warranty, but now that we want to use the credit all sorts of conditions come up!!!!

We were told the following conditions - minimum $500 purchase, can only use one product warranty credit per each new purchase, meaning we have to buy 4 new appliance each worth $500 or more... Essentially rendering the warranty credit worthless!

We wasted more time with Tasco and should not have aggravated our experience even more by giving this company a second chance. Identifying ourselves as Homestar reviewer meant nothing to the Tasco staff other than getting a couple blanked looks from them not knowing what it is...