Our refrigerator (GE model number GSS25KGMD-WW) failed on or before
January 21, 2005. To this day GE has failed to repair the unit
successfully; all diagnostics and repair work point to the in-warranty
sealed system. Since the initial failure we had scheduled eight
service appointments. At one of the appointments the technician
refused to perform any diagnostics. At one appointment the technician
refused to even come to the house. At another appointment the
technician failed to show up or even call. GE Consumer Relations
(1-800-386-1215, based in Louisville, Kentucky and Norfolk, Virginia)
still does not know what is wrong with our refrigerator and refuses to
replace it with a new one. They keep saying that they need to follow
procedure but they admit that their technicians are not performing the
steps that were specifically noted to them (the same instructions I
personally asked them to carry out when they were in our home).

Consumer Relations will do nothing more than schedule more service
appointments but obviously the technicians are not showing up or not
doing their work. It has been almost a month and we still have no
working refrigerator. We are caught in an endless cycle where GE says
the only thing they can do is follow their procedures but then they
admit that they did not follow their procedure. We have lost hundreds
of dollars of food. We have lost time from work and our lives. I have
gotten sick on food that was placed in our refrigerator when GE said it
was fixed. The technician has noted on more than one occasion that the
compressor is overheating; this refrigerator may be a fire hazard and I
have made GE Consumer Relations aware of that but it still does not
matter to them.

We are being terribly strained by not having a working refrigerator for
almost four weeks now. We cannot afford lawyers for this case and
every week that passes without a refrigerator is increasingly difficult
because my wife is pregnant. We have filed complaints with the
Virginia and Kentucky Attorney Generals' Offices as well as with the
Better Business Bureau; however, those avenues will require four to six
more weeks to process.

Here are the details:

On January 21, 2005 we noticed that the refrigerator was not producing
cold air as evidenced by thawing items and melting ice in the freezer.
I placed an outdoor wireless thermometer in the freezer in order to
monitor its performance without opening the door. When the failure was
first noticed, the freezer was above 40 degrees. Eventually the
freezer's interior rose to room temperature even while the unit was
running constantly. I turned off the refrigerator to prevent
compressor burnout in case the refrigerant had leaked.

Our first appointment was on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 (the earliest
time we could schedule). I missed work in order to be home for the
repair. The technician was named Joe (technician number 560). He
explained that he could not do anything unless the refrigerator was on
for at least 24 hours prior to the appointment. Joe said that he
needed to see frost patterns in order to diagnose the problem. No one
ever gave me any instructions about leaving the unit running for 24
hours beforehand. I also explained that the freezer had gone up to
room temperature (above 70 degrees) before I shut it off so there would
be no frost to even inspect but he disagreed. He checked the defrost
unit and evaporator coils and said that they were in working condition.
I asked him if he could check other things in the refrigerator but he
said that he did all he could do at the time. Joe spent a total of
approximately 5-10 minutes in our home.

The food in the refrigerator had already spoiled. We lost the top of
our wedding cake. We lost family-cooked meals that we had brought down
when we last visited our families. There were hundreds of dollars
worth of food that spoiled.

We rescheduled another appointment for the next day (Wednesday, January
26, 2005). Again, I missed work in order to be present for the
appointment. Within 5 minutes Joe had found a visible oil leak in one
of the tubes in the sealed system. He did not check for frost patterns
like he said he would do. I do not understand why he did not check the
tubes on the first visit even though I asked him to check other items
that were not related to the refrigerator needing to be on for 24
hours. Essentially, the second appointment was not necessary because
Joe could have easily done that check on the first day but refused to
do so. Joe's diagnosis was that the compressor and evaporator needed
to be replaced. Unfortunately for us, the parts were not in stock so
we had to reschedule for yet another appointment to perform the
replacement. He also made sure that the light switch was operating and
that the seals were in good condition. Joe spent a total of
approximately 15 minutes in our home.

Our third appointment was on Saturday, January 29, 2005. Joe was
present with another GE technician but I do not know his name. The
compressor and evaporator (including related defrost hardware) were
replaced. The freezer temperature dropped rapidly down to
approximately 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Joe and the other technician spent
approximately 75-90 minutes in our home.

The refrigerator would not stop running. After approximately 24 hours,
the temperature began to rise again. At times the temperature in the
freezer would climb above 40 degrees even though the unit was running
constantly. Often the temperature would be over 20 degrees. It would
take hours to bring it down just a few degrees. We limited the number
of times we opened the doors to prevent loss of cold air. The
refrigerator continued to run constantly for days upon days. We
scheduled another appointment.

Our fourth appointment was on Thursday, February 3, 2005. I had
requested that a different technician come this time. I was concerned
that there would be conflicts of interest in having the same technician
review his prior work. I was also dissatisfied with Joe's attitude and
how he avoided performing inspections and work. Bob (technician number
551) was our technician at this appointment. When he arrived, the
refrigerator was still running but was not able to bring the
temperature down any lower than 21 degrees in the freezer. He
immediately noticed a pumping/gurgling noise in the rear of the unit.
His diagnosis was that there was something wrong that was related to
the refrigerant. Bob flushed the old refrigerant and replaced it with
new refrigerant. He also noticed that the compressor was unusually hot
(it almost burned his hand). Bob spent about 35 minutes in our home.

After about 12 hours of running, the unit was able to eventually bring
the temperature down low enough that the thermostat allowed the
compressor to shut off. Once the internal temperature rose high
enough, the thermostat turned the unit back on and it has been running
non-stop (except for 1 defrost cycle) ever since.

Even though the compressor was constantly running, the temperature
inside the freezer fluctuated from -7 degrees to 24 degrees with the
door never being opened during the time of that fluctuation. The
temperature rose even though the compressor was running and the defrost
cycle had not activated. Our food that we added after the compressor
replacement was developing bad flavor and much had to be discarded. We
scheduled another appointment.

I spoke with Carol at GE Consumer Relations on Monday, February 7,
2005. I complained that GE has been to our home a number of times
already and that the refrigerator was still allowing our food to spoil.
Carol explained that the technician at the next visit would call the
GE engineers in Kentucky. She put in a note for the technician to call
the engineers when they were at our home and looking at the
refrigerator. Carol told me that if the engineers deemed the unit
non-repairable, we would be given a new refrigerator.

Our fifth appointment was on Tuesday, February 8, 2005. I had
requested and confirmed that Bob would return for the appointment but
instead Joe arrived. At the time the freezer was at 7 degrees. Joe
refused to do anything because he said the unit was working properly.
I explained that the refrigerator was running constantly and would
never get low enough to shut off. His solution was to add more food to
the freezer to bring the temperature down. I found that contrary to
simple thermodynamics and asked how adding frozen food at temperatures
_higher_ than the air temperature could possibly bring the air
temperature down. He could not explain how it could bring the
temperature down but said that adding food would help stabilize the
temperature. I agreed, but I pointed out to him two things. First, a
fuller freezer only helps stabilize in situations when the door is
opened (because there is less cold air to replace and solid, frozen
items have higher thermal mass). Secondly, our primary problem was
that the unit could not produce air cold enough to even trigger the
thermostat to stop the compressor; there is no way the refrigerator can
stabilize a temperature if it is running full-bore and still cannot
produce low-enough temperatures.

I asked Joe to call the engineers. He refused to do so. I told him
that Consumer Relations had specific instructions written for him to
contact the engineers. Joe again refused to follow his instructions.

I explained once again to Joe that the refrigerator ran constantly and
simply could not produce temperatures low enough to even stop running
for a moment. I showed him the sound pressure meter that I kept nearby
to measure the increasing noise level of the refrigerator. I showed
Joe the records I kept of the fluctuating freezer interior temperature.
He denied my claims, insisted that the unit was working properly, and
told me that he "[wasn't] gonna stand here and argue" and that he was
going to leave. Eventually, he said he was going to order a new
compressor and angrily stated that "Bob can deal with it" since "Bob
must think there's something wrong with it". When I asked more
questions about what could be wrong with the refrigerator, he changed
his mind and said in a harsh tone that he was going to cancel the
compressor order. He left after that. Joe was in our home for
approximately 20 minutes.

I immediately called GE Consumer Relations after Joe left and expressed
my dissatisfaction with his cocky attitude and his failure to follow
their procedures. The Consumer Relations person I spoke with was named
Greg. I had taken off time from work to be home for a technician who
refused to do anything. Now the refrigerator repair was being delayed
even further.

Greg set up another appointment for me for that coming Saturday
morning. I did not want Joe back at our house because he does not do
his job. Greg requested that Bob would be our technician. Greg
confirmed that Joe had instructions to call engineers and that he did
not perform his duties; Greg sent a note to Joe's supervisor to let
him about it. Greg explained again to me that if the engineers in
Kentucky deemed the unit non-repairable, we would get a new
refrigerator-brand-new, straight from the factory, and at no cost to
us. A note was put in the GE system for our technician to call the
engineers while the technician was in our home. I asked if GE could
send us another new compressor and evaporator in case they needed to be
replaced again but Greg said that he could not do that.

Our sixth service appointment was on Saturday, February 12, 2005. I
received a call that morning from Bob. He asked if a compressor had
been sent to our house. I did not know what he was talking about since
no one told me that any parts were being ordered. Joe had angrily
canceled the order he placed at our fifth service appointment.
Consumer Relations already told me that they could not order parts.
Bob said that he was not going to come out to our house because there
were no parts there. Bob said that he even noted that the compressor
was overheating and that Joe should have known that at the fifth
service visit (note that when I brought up the overheating issue to Joe
at that appointment, Joe replied that "compressors get hot" without
examining it). I explained to Bob that his specific instructions from
Consumer Relations were to arrive at our house, inspect the
refrigerator, and call the engineers in Kentucky. Bob replied that
Consumer Relations "will do anything to get [me] off the phone" and
that calling the engineers would only result in "four more" service
appointments to my house. Bob said that he would order yet another
compressor and evaporator but would not come to our house to call the
engineers.

I scheduled a seventh service appointment for Monday, February 14,
2005.

I called GE Consumer Relations again on Monday, February 14, 2005 and
spoke with Bernadette and Peggy Martinez. Again I requested a new
refrigerator because it had been over three weeks since our
refrigerator failed. Once again, GE refused to do anything other than
send technicians to our home. I explained that the technicians were
not following their orders and the last one refused to even come out to
our house. Peggy said that she would investigate by sending an email
out to Bob. I asked Peggy what happens if the technician does not show
up. She assured me that the technician would be out to our home that
day and would call the engineers. She said that the technician would
call me 30 minutes before arrival at my house.

I filed a complaint with the Virginia Attorney General's Office on
Monday, February 14, 2005. Shortly afterwards I filed a complaint with
the Kentucky Attorney General's Office. I also filed a complaint
with the Better Business Bureau. I submitted our story to the local
ABC station's "7 On Your Side" consumer-protection segment. I
wrote to our homebuilder about our problems with GE.

I spoke with Diane at GE Consumer Relations on the same day. I
explained the situation and told her that I thought GE is only trying
to delay the service process and that they already knew about the
non-performance of their technicians. I was worried that the
technician would not even arrive. Diane said that if the technician
did not show up, the issue would be automatically forwarded to the
Exchange Team for evaluation.

The seventh service appointment was supposed to have been between
1:00pm and 5:00pm on Monday, February 14, 2005. The technician never
showed up and never called any of the phone numbers we registered with
GE. We have CallerID and call-waiting and there is no record of any
attempts being made to let us know that the technician would not be
there.

I called GE Consumer Relations again and spoke with Karen. Diane had
already gone home for the day. Karen read the notes and followed
Diane's instructions to forward our case to the Exchange Team.

On Tuesday, February 15, 2005 I emailed members of the Virginia Chamber
of Commerce about our problem with GE. I spoke with a member of the
Greater Louisville Chamber of Commerce who said that he would do his
best to get in touch with GE. I emailed him the information I had up
to that point about this case. One of Steve's suggestions was to
contact the local newspaper, so I submitted this problem to the
"Washington Post" and "Loudoun Easterner" newspapers. I also
contacted "Dateline NBC", "60 Minutes", "60 Minutes II",
"20/20", and "Primetime Live" with information about how GE is
mishandling our situation.

On February 15, 2005 at 10:38am EST I called Consumer Relations and
spoke with Shirley. She reviewed the notes and confirmed that a
request for exchange had been sent out because the technician did not
come to our house for the February 14th service appointment. Shirley
said it would take the Exchange Team 24 to 48 hours to process the
request.

On February 15, 2005 at 3:18pm EST I called Consumer Relations and
spoke with Barbara. She told me that the exchange was denied and that
they had scheduled an eighth service appointment for us for tomorrow
(February 16); no one had called me to let me know that they went ahead
to schedule yet another service call. She put in a note for the
technician to call the engineers while he was in our home inspecting
the refrigerator. I once again expressed my concern that the
technician (Bob, technician 551) would once again not show up. Again,
all we could do was call Consumer Relations and reschedule if the
technician failed to show up.

Our eighth service appointment was on February 16, 2005 at
approximately 12:30pm. When he showed up, the freezer temperature was
over 34 degrees. I measured the temperature of the existing compressor
using an infrared thermometer; it read 175 degrees Fahrenheit on its
surface. He replaced the compressor and slowly the temperature went
down to a low of 13 degrees. Within less than four hours after the
repair completion, the temperature began to rise again even though the
compressor was running.

I called Consumer Relations yet again and explained that the eighth
service repair attempt was again a failure. At the time of the call,
the freezer temperature was over 40 degrees and rising (even with the
refrigerator running); fourteen hours after the phone call the
temperature had risen to almost 60 degrees in the freezer. Consumer
Relations once again denied a refrigerator replacement and said that
they would need to send out a technician to call the engineers. I
explained again that the technicians had refused to do that the last
four times even though it was specifically noted to them by Consumer
Relations and I even reminded them to do so. All they would do was
schedule a ninth appointment for Friday, February 18, 2005.

We have done everything we can to explain our plight to GE. Their
solution is clearly not working and yet they will do nothing else. It
has now been almost four weeks since our refrigerator failed and still
no word from GE about what the problem is our what they will do about
it. I think they want to drag this out as long as possible until we
cave in under the financial and emotional stress and simply buy a new
refrigerator. Unfortunately we do not have that kind of extra money.

I wrote this because I am dissatisfied with not only the poor
reliability of our GE refrigerator, but also the poor treatment that we
have been given. GE does not want to face the problem and does not
care that it has taken almost a month and eight service appointments to
get nowhere with our refrigerator. GE realizes that the technicians
are not showing up and when they do, they do not follow their
procedures. Yet GE refuses to do anything more than send technicians
who obviously cannot and will not do the work.

My wife is getting further along in her pregnancy and going out to eat
all the time is not a good option (health-wise, time-wise, and
financially). We're desperate for a resolution. I know that we will
never, ever purchase GE appliances for the rest of our lives knowing
what we have to go through to have an in-warranty problem worked on.

What should we do?

Please respond in newsgroups or by email to me ).
Thanks in advance.

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Our refrigerator (GE model number GSS25KGMD-WW) failed on or before
> January 21, 2005. To this day GE has failed to repair the unit
> successfully; all diagnostics and repair work point to the in-warranty
> sealed system. Since the initial failure we had scheduled eight
> service appointments.

Well personally I would go much higher up the GE food chain. At a minimum
you should now be saying to customer service "I want to talk to your
supervisor" -- you may need to go up several layers of supervisor. If that
doesn't work, find their website or go to the library and get their annual
report. Find the email address or phone number of the president of the
corporation or some senior VP and get in touch with them. They will have
some administrative assistant who answers their phone/mail and who handles
this sort of thing or will send you to the corporate person who does.
Explain briefly what is happening and they should take responsibility for
getting the problem handled. Or at least when I have had unfixable problems
with corporations where customer service is just not getting the job done
that is what I have done, and the problem has always gotten resolved
rapidly.

Best of luck in getting this resolved rapidly and congrats on the soon to be
new baby.


Ellen

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Our refrigerator (GE model number GSS25KGMD-WW) failed on or before
> January 21, 2005. To this day GE has failed to repair the unit
> successfully; all diagnostics and repair work point to the in-warranty
> sealed system. Since the initial failure we had scheduled eight
> service appointments.

Well personally I would go much higher up the GE food chain. At a minimum
you should now be saying to customer service "I want to talk to your
supervisor" -- you may need to go up several layers of supervisor. If that
doesn't work, find their website or go to the library and get their annual
report. Find the email address or phone number of the president of the
corporation or some senior VP and get in touch with them. They will have
some administrative assistant who answers their phone/mail and who handles
this sort of thing or will send you to the corporate person who does.
Explain briefly what is happening and they should take responsibility for
getting the problem handled. Or at least when I have had unfixable problems
with corporations where customer service is just not getting the job done
that is what I have done, and the problem has always gotten resolved
rapidly.

Best of luck in getting this resolved rapidly and congrats on the soon to be
new baby.


Ellen

By this time, I imagine you've had enough of the stonewalling.

How about your going down to the local courthouse and filing a small
claims suit against (a) the local vendor, or (b) The regional
distributor or (c) General Electric Corporation.

When I was in business, I found that the arrival of a summons or
subpoena has a remarkable way of getting up to a decision maker quite
quickly.

Costs are minimal and the small claims court staff can be very
helpful. If you are unaware of this venue, just call your local
county clerk and ask where to get info on small claims court.

Normal filing fees can be in the $50 area and you can claim all your
legal fees, the dollar value of food lost, any out-of-pocket expenses
associated with the product failure, cost of travel to the courthouse,
any on-going costs of going without a fridge, etc.

Small claims suits are limited to a few thousand dollars
usually...maybe $2500. For a $50 fee (which you can file to recover),
it might be worthwhile!

Good luck!

Pixmaker in FLL
==========================
It's not the heat, it's the humidity!
==========================
(...Think the humidity's bad?
You should watch us vote!)

By this time, I imagine you've had enough of the stonewalling.

How about your going down to the local courthouse and filing a small
claims suit against (a) the local vendor, or (b) The regional
distributor or (c) General Electric Corporation.

When I was in business, I found that the arrival of a summons or
subpoena has a remarkable way of getting up to a decision maker quite
quickly.

Costs are minimal and the small claims court staff can be very
helpful. If you are unaware of this venue, just call your local
county clerk and ask where to get info on small claims court.

Normal filing fees can be in the $50 area and you can claim all your
legal fees, the dollar value of food lost, any out-of-pocket expenses
associated with the product failure, cost of travel to the courthouse,
any on-going costs of going without a fridge, etc.

Small claims suits are limited to a few thousand dollars
usually...maybe $2500. For a $50 fee (which you can file to recover),
it might be worthwhile!

Good luck!

Pixmaker in FLL
==========================
It's not the heat, it's the humidity!
==========================
(...Think the humidity's bad?
You should watch us vote!)

I forgot to mention...does your state have a "lemon law"? That might
offer you the ability to recover, also. Get on the net to your state
website and use their search engine.

Pixmaker in FLL
==========================
It's not the heat, it's the humidity!
==========================
(...Think the humidity's bad?
You should watch us vote!)

I forgot to mention...does your state have a "lemon law"? That might
offer you the ability to recover, also. Get on the net to your state
website and use their search engine.

Pixmaker in FLL
==========================
It's not the heat, it's the humidity!
==========================
(...Think the humidity's bad?
You should watch us vote!)

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Our refrigerator (GE model number GSS25KGMD-WW) failed on or before
> January 21, 2005. To this day GE has failed to repair the unit
> successfully; all diagnostics and repair work point to the in-warranty
> sealed system. Since the initial failure we had scheduled eight
> service appointments. At one of the appointments the technician
> refused to perform any diagnostics. At one appointment the technician
> refused to even come to the house. At another appointment the
> technician failed to show up or even call. GE Consumer Relations
> (1-800-386-1215, based in Louisville, Kentucky and Norfolk, Virginia)
> still does not know what is wrong with our refrigerator and refuses to
> replace it with a new one.


Time to call in the big dogs. Call your state's Attorney General's office
and find out if there is any lemon law. If so, follow that path. If not,
try small claims court. Does your newspaper have a consumer advocate
columnist?
If may even be collectable to buy a replacement and then try to get a full
refund. I don't know the law on that but you have an unreliable product,
under warranty, and the company won't make good on it. Ask about that when
you call the AG's office.

Polite, but strong words to the dealer also. Let him know exactly what you
are doing, why you will be going to a different dealer if he does not make
good NOW, and how he is going to be a party to the lawsuit when you file it.
Call the 800 number and again tell them you are leaving the house in twenty
minutes to go file a suite in small claims court for all your expenses and
losses. Good luck and be sure to report back.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Our refrigerator (GE model number GSS25KGMD-WW) failed on or before
> January 21, 2005. To this day GE has failed to repair the unit
> successfully; all diagnostics and repair work point to the in-warranty
> sealed system. Since the initial failure we had scheduled eight
> service appointments. At one of the appointments the technician
> refused to perform any diagnostics. At one appointment the technician
> refused to even come to the house. At another appointment the
> technician failed to show up or even call. GE Consumer Relations
> (1-800-386-1215, based in Louisville, Kentucky and Norfolk, Virginia)
> still does not know what is wrong with our refrigerator and refuses to
> replace it with a new one.


Time to call in the big dogs. Call your state's Attorney General's office
and find out if there is any lemon law. If so, follow that path. If not,
try small claims court. Does your newspaper have a consumer advocate
columnist?
If may even be collectable to buy a replacement and then try to get a full
refund. I don't know the law on that but you have an unreliable product,
under warranty, and the company won't make good on it. Ask about that when
you call the AG's office.

Polite, but strong words to the dealer also. Let him know exactly what you
are doing, why you will be going to a different dealer if he does not make
good NOW, and how he is going to be a party to the lawsuit when you file it.
Call the 800 number and again tell them you are leaving the house in twenty
minutes to go file a suite in small claims court for all your expenses and
losses. Good luck and be sure to report back.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

On 17 Feb 2005, " > wrote:

>What should we do?

Write to the GE president. It works.

Don <donwiss at panix.com>.

In article .com>, " > wrote:
>Our refrigerator (GE model number GSS25KGMD-WW) failed on or before
>January 21, 2005. To this day GE has failed to repair the unit
>successfully; all diagnostics and repair work point to the in-warranty
>sealed system. Since the initial failure we had scheduled eight
>service appointments. At one of the appointments the technician
>refused to perform any diagnostics. At one appointment the technician
>refused to even come to the house. At another appointment the
>technician failed to show up or even call. GE Consumer Relations
>(1-800-386-1215, based in Louisville, Kentucky and Norfolk, Virginia)
>still does not know what is wrong with our refrigerator and refuses to
>replace it with a new one. They keep saying that they need to follow
>procedure but they admit that their technicians are not performing the
>steps that were specifically noted to them (the same instructions I
>personally asked them to carry out when they were in our home).
>

Most states have lemon laws and if a unit has to be serviced like 3 times
then the manufacturer is forced to replace it.

Where are you located and i can look up the state code for you?

>Consumer Relations will do nothing more than schedule more service
>appointments but obviously the technicians are not showing up or not
>doing their work. It has been almost a month and we still have no
>working refrigerator. We are caught in an endless cycle where GE says
>the only thing they can do is follow their procedures but then they
>admit that they did not follow their procedure. We have lost hundreds
>of dollars of food. We have lost time from work and our lives. I have
>gotten sick on food that was placed in our refrigerator when GE said it
>was fixed. The technician has noted on more than one occasion that the
>compressor is overheating; this refrigerator may be a fire hazard and I
>have made GE Consumer Relations aware of that but it still does not
>matter to them.
>
>We are being terribly strained by not having a working refrigerator for
>almost four weeks now. We cannot afford lawyers for this case and
>every week that passes without a refrigerator is increasingly difficult
>because my wife is pregnant. We have filed complaints with the
>Virginia and Kentucky Attorney Generals' Offices as well as with the
>Better Business Bureau; however, those avenues will require four to six
>more weeks to process.
>

I'd just call the manager of the store you bought it from. Or the regional
manager. They might just exchange the thing.