Word: hotpoint
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Into the executive offices of General Electric's Hotpoint division last year flowed a series of disturbing reports. Despite an industry-wide pickup, Hotpoint's sales of laundry appliances were slipping to an abnormal low. When the company's officers set out to find the reason for the slump, they ran into a manufacturer's nightmare...
Thousands of housewives complained bitterly that their 1955-57 model washers and washer-dryers needed six or seven annoying and costly repair calls a year (v. a national average of two or three), and Hotpoint repairmen discovered faulty clutches, transmissions and filters in alarming numbers. To save its reputation and future sales, the company decided to do the only honorable thing: repair and replace some 40,000 ailing machines that had brought complaints from owners. Last week Hotpoint's 11,000 appliance dealers were busy doing just that-at a cost that the industry estimates will be somewhere between...
Under the program, Hotpoint is replacing 1955-57 machines with brand-new $299.95 models at a cost to the customer of as little as $49.95. On some models, the company is replacing the transmission free of charge, exchanging washer-dryer combinations for new, separate, 1959 washer and dryer units that are delivered and initially serviced free. The rush to redeem machines at a bargain rate has been crushing; Hotpoint has had to turn down housewives who hoped to palm off 20-year-old ringer-type washers, made by firms long out of business, for new models. To keep the machines...
...Hotpoint's problem was a case of too many cooks. From 1955 to 1958 the company's top executives often disagreed about the best way to construct washers and washer-dryer combinations. Result: the company tried a little bit of everything. Now, under a revamped management team, Hotpoint has completely overhauled its testing and quality control to catch potential defects. The replacement program has generated so much good will for Hotpoint that the company, despite its large outlay, expects to end the year well in the black...
...auto models is a prime example: Ford dropped from 71 to 54 models, dropping eight Edsels (see Autos); General Motors cut back from 82 to 73 models, has reduced the number of basic body shells this year from three to two. General Electric's Hotpoint Co. Division is cutting its TV models by 50% for 1959, and Motorola is offering 15% fewer 1959 TV models. Norge, which got an early start this year by cutting its washer and dryer models in half, found that its sales climbed...