About five weeks ago our 3 year old Hoover washing machine broke for the second time in its short life. The problem was the same as the first time it broke -- the concrete ballast had fallen to pieces. You know when it happens as it starts to sound like a train is coming through the house when it's on full spin.

First time it happened (just outside of its 1 year warranty) they came and fixed it within a couple of weeks (and charged us for it). I remember it well, as the Hoover-supplied "engineer" left all the concrete pieces, the old drum, boxes and various other bits on our doorstep as he left. I pointed out he'd forgotten them only to be told they're not Hoover's property so not their responsibility to dispose of. Yeah, thanks for that.

But anyway, forward on just over a year later and it's happened again. The concrete that makes up the weight is in bits. Lots of bits. Oh, and lots of dust. It's everywhere. It's now obvious it's an inherent problem with the machine. Looking at the ballast it appears to be concrete of the grade you'd expect in a breeze block. Now I'm now engineer (well, actually I do have a degree in it) but even I know that's not going to last very long.

Whether the machine has an inherent problem or not the fact is Hoover's customer service is truly terrible.

Here's what happened in the five weeks since it broke:

• Rang Hoover "customer services" to tell them it had broken.
• Told them it was the exact same issue as before but they said an "engineer" would need to visit anyway.
• Before this first visit I am forced in to paying for either a £110 labour charge or taking a £159 policy with Domestic & General (D&G) to cover the labour charge and any other repairs for a year. Made sense so I went for the £159 option.
• Wait a week for a man to visit, who takes one look inside the utility room door and say "It's your concrete's gone, love". Yeah, you don't say.
• Man then puts parts on order.
• Wait a week and call. Parts still on order.
• Trouble just about every neighbour on the road to do a load of washing for us.
• Wait a week and call. Parts still on order.
• Trouble just about every neighbour on the road to do a load of washing for us.
• Wait a week and call. Parts still on order.
• Trouble just about every neighbour on the road to do a load of washing for us.
• Decide enough is enough and that we might as well buy a new one for the same cost of the policy.
• Call D&G to cancel policy. They say we can but that we'd be liable to a £90 call-out charge for the man who was charged with coming to point out the obvious.
• Realise they have us by the short and curlies and there's little we can do but wait.
• Wait a week and call. Parts still on order.
• Trouble just about every neighbour on the road to do a load of washing for us.
• Karen calls and get very irate. Not until she point our her 3rd child is due any day now does the lady take pity and decide to lodge an internal complaint and to waiver the call-out fee.
• Three days later they confirm they've cancelled and we have nothing to pay.
• We go to Argos and order the cheapest washing machine we can find.
• Due for delivery next Tuesday. Well over 6 weeks since we stopped using the other.

So we got the refund for the policy, but who won? It certainly doesn't feel like we have! We're just back where we started. No better off and certainly worse off, as we owe all our neighbours a lot of favours.

What we've learnt is that buying a top of the range branded domestic appliance is a complete waste of money. I can't remember exactly what we paid for the washing machine but it was in the region of £400. We did this in the naive belief that it was better and would last.

The machine that it replaced cost Karen about £200 and lasted her about 10 years! When I buy things I have an expected life-span for them. With something like a washing machine it's in the region of 10 years. Certainly not three.

So, what we've done (aside for vowing never to buy Hoover again) is buy a cheapo one instead. As has been pointed out to us recently "They're all just the same plastic crap inside nowadays anyway".

We've bought this new cheap one on the premise that if it breaks outside of the warranty then it is, in effect,  disposable. When the cost to repair it equals the cost of a new one what are you supposed to do? As much as I hate the idea of sending the "old" one to the tip, what am I supposed to do?

There are some things in life you take for granted until they break. I didn't realise how much we relied on a washing machine until now. Well, not so much me, but my very pregnant wife who was way more patient with this whole saga than I would have been.

It all leaves me thinking extended warranties and the like are a complete waste of money. Just buy cheap and replace it when broke. I never thought I'd be suggesting such a wasteful idea, but it's the only real option here. Hoover should be ashamed of the terrible, terrible customer service.