Yes it's a design flaw, and no, I doubt you'll get anywhere. But
given that the bits are cheap and Hpt's callout, which you have to pay
under their extended warranty, is somewhere around 80 quid, then
you'll probably save money by getting in a local bod, and paying parts
and labour. And you'll have the satisfaction of paying no more money
to hotpoint.

Many of the newer hotpoint models are not true hotpoints, and are
rebadged italian stuff. FWIW the bearing assembly on the 1400-spin
hpts is the same as what Zanussi retired on their 1000-spin machines
pre-FL series.