Frigidaire You Stink!

Okay you've got to hear me on this because if you don't, O Mighty Internet, who will? Andrew's even out of town so he can't hear me bawl and I've got to vent to someone. How often do you hear me rant and rave anyway? This is historic I tell you.

Six years ago we bought new kitchen appliances and our refrigerator and wall oven were both from Frigidaire. A couple years ago the fridge broke (in essence totaled) but it was a faulty part that Frigidaire agreed to replace under warranty. A freak of nature you say? I think not because this January the kids were making shrinky dinks and the oven blew out--just stopped working completely.

Great. Just great. To top it off the appliance repair service I'd used before was no longer in business which meant I'd have to go with Harold's Appliance Service and I'd already had one bad experience with them six years ago.

So against my better judgment I called Harold's. They came out to fix it and the repairman griped the whole time. He griped about how the wall oven was installed, he griped about having to get it back in, griped about the problems until I was ready to pull a Hansel and Gretel move and shove him in. He's lucky my oven wasn't working.

By the time he left he'd determined pretty much nothing. My oven still wasn't working and he wasn't really sure why but he was going to order a very expensive part nonetheless. When the part finally came in and he came out to install it (with more griping) I got a bill for $286. I paid it but after he left I realized he hadn't tested the oven properly and the temperature adjustment button wasn't working--not a problem as long as you plan on baking everything at 350 right?

So I called them back and he came out again (more griping--nothing was his fault in case I planned on blaming him) and he messed with things. I'm not sure what he did but he broke it completely. Yea, it was just the temperature button out before he came but by the time he left he'd done his diagnostic job so well that the whole oven was out once again. Do you feel me getting angrier and angrier? Good because I was.

More griping--more whining about how it's not his fault and obviously the control board was ready to go at any moment or it wouldn't have reacted to his slightest touch. Yea. So he tells me he has to order another very expensive part to solve my problem this time.

Another week or two or three went by while we went on vacation and they waited for the part to arrive. They'd told me they'd call "the day we get back in town" but sure enough they didn't and I had to call them again to find out if the part had come in--it had. No apologies for not calling earlier and leaving a message to that effect because, hey, this whole thing was my fault right?

So my buddy Repairman Joe showed up--for a fourth time if you're keeping track. My oven had been broken for almost three months by then. But what does that matter to him? He complains about the job and how irritating it all is--as if he'd had to pay $286 for more broken oven and a repairman that will not shut up.

He installed the new control board fresh from Frigidaire. I held my breath. And it didn't work. The part was faulty, it didn't work and I was ready to bang my head against the wall. More whining but at least this time he said that he was going to call Frigidaire and get them to take care of the repair costs for the faulty part and that I wouldn't have to pay anything.

I was furious but I was hoping there was an end in sight, right? I'm essentially an optimist and though I considered going to another repair place multiple times along the way it was kind of that "In for a penny, in for a pound" thing and I worried that switching would just set me back and cost more. How wrong I was.

So he told me he'd order a new part and call me in a couple days to confirm that he was able to get Frigidaire to take care of everything--I wasn't to worry if I didn't hear within 24 hours because it might take a day or two to get an answer. So I waited. And I waited. And I waited.

Finally after two weeks of waiting I call Harold's yet again to check the status. The receptionist informed me that my file had been closed and that there was nothing happening at all because the case was finished.

This is the point where I really went ballistic. I mean I'm a nice person and as irritating as this repair guy was and as problematic as the whole thing had been I was keeping things together and was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe--just maybe--he'd been the victim of circumstance and that fate had it out for him. Maybe my appliance really was the Amityville oven or something and it wasn't his fault but to hear that they'd closed everything out and written me off ticked me off. Postal? You bet.

I finally got tough and demanded all my money back and started getting downright mean about things--and that was when the boss called me to smooth things over. She assured me that there had been a mix up and that my part was on backorder and somehow that information hadn't got to me. I wanted to go for her throat because really now--after all that had happened here shouldn't my name have this big red flag on it and shouldn't they be falling over themselves to get it taken care of? Just to get rid of me if for no other reason.

So two more weeks went by until this weekend when I got a call that the new part--once again fresh from the factory--had arrived. And my good friend Mr. Repairman showed up to fix it today.

The good news? Yes, he installed the new part (the whining was just a given) and my oven finally works but the bad news?? I can hardly hold still to type this I'm still so angry about it. THEY'RE CHARGING ME FOR THE WHOLE THING! Apparently Harold's claims that Frigidaire won't do anything, that they really don't care that their crummy wall oven broke after so short a time, that the part they shipped me was junk and that I've had to pay a repairman for five visits to get it fixed.

Harold's in turn is passing the savings on to me because they claim it's not their fault if the factory shipped a junky part. So the grand total? They want another $280 PLUS labor from me! The final bill for all that whining, poor service and going without an oven for four months is over six hundred dollars. As if! If I'd had any idea of the magnitude of trauma I was in for I would have just bought a new oven from the beginning--and NOT a Frigidaire!

Do you know what you can do with your stupid oven Frigidaire?? And you too Harold's Appliance in Anchorage, Alaska (got that Google--Harold's Appliance?? Anchorage, Alaska?? Frigidaire??)

You stink Frigidaire--may you rot in appliance purgatory. Forever.

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