Reliability problems

Purchased from Universal Appliance (http://universalakb.reachlocal.com) in January 2008. The oven failed by May with a computer error code E118 and would not run.

Bosch customer service (available only daylight eastern time) could not identify the code over the phone and required an authorized service agent. That rep came out and identified a fan sensor error. He replaced the sensor and the oven failed in the same way a few days later. He returned, and replaced fan and board. The oven worked until September (another 5 months) and failed with same error.

I called Bosch and asked what they intended to do with multiple repeated failures, and what service they would provide when my 1 year warranty expired. Got a manager on the phone, who said that they would handle this on a case-by-case basis after the end of warranty (i.e., they would decide at that time whether to back the product against these defects). He suggested that I purchase a 5 year warranty. This is unacceptable. An oven clearly should have a trouble free life span of more than four months.

The retailer (http://universalakb.reachlocal.com was much more ethical and responsive and assured me that if the problem continued, he would give me an exchange or replacement, or at least a free five year warranty.

Check out the interesting reviews at http://www.my3cents.com/productReview.cgi?company=Bosch. I wish I had done so.

caveat emptor