It’s Not Mercury Retrograde When an Appliance Breaks Down– Particularly the NEW Appliance!

It never fails to happen that something goes wrong on a major holiday: blowing out a water heater; plumbing backing up; a washer or dryer dying or a major kitchen appliance doing the same. This past Thanksgiving at my home, the dishwasher died. Dead as a doornail and it would not empty and I could hear the motor churning and burning. Finally got the SO (significant other) to call it quits on trying to clear the line to the Bosch Dishwasher that had more repairs on it than any other DW we had ever owned. Off we went on the Thanksgiving weekend to buy an appliance replacement– ASAP! While we were there, the SO decided that we had to buy a new refrigerator. I knew he didn’t like the current one. It was not a user-friendly as others. (In 8 years, what is still truly user friendly?)
We had it down to 5 different refrigerators all roughly the same dimension- -but different price points. I don’t like stainless steel but he was determined to get this one model that he really liked. For my money, I wanted the LG that Marc Silverstein had talked to me about but this one was a close second. So rather than fight “city hall” on this one, I just went with the flow. (I can always compensate myself with new shoes)

Here’s what we wound up buying:
Whirlpool Gold® ENERGY STAR® qualified 25 cu. ft. 4-Door French Door Refrigerator

Here’s a photo of the machine

Not exactly inexpensive but it had been marked down so I wasn’t going to complain too loudly. My concern was truly the dishwasher and if he wanted to replace something that wasn’t broken, I figure it was not going to be me crying when the credit card bill came in. Purchase was made on a Sunday, and the delivery was set for Tuesday. Dishwasher was going to be installed on Wed, but the refrigerator was installed on Tuesday. The Whirlpool device had the most insane owners manual. You had to wade through lots of diagrams of stuff that is relatively important to installation but not to useage. The use and how to first treat the refrigerator was buried in fine print on some poor quality paper (newsprint) and it was not clear. The bottom line was do not put ANYTHING in the refrigerator for 24 hours ! It has to get cool (WHAT THE HECK — it’s a refrigerator!! I have had at least 5 refrigerators – not including those when I was living at home when I was a kid and nothing every was that lame). So we followed directions and it went from cool to cooler and we finally put some things into the appliance. That’s when things went from bad to horrible in 24 hours or less– HONEST!

By the time the dishwasher was installed the next day, the compressor on the refrigerator was running every 30 minutes; it was noisey and it was WARM. Things were melting in the freezer, produce and semi-cooked or defrosted meat were getting warm quickly. We were tossing out groceries and opened bottles FAST not to mention eggs, milk, produce, margarine & butter and a slew of Robert Lambert Artisanal products along with several other brands that required cool temperatures to stay fresh. (This includes things for my 12 Drinks of Christmas series; holiday baking & food for events)

I called the store the night before and told the manager on duty that the appliance was getting WARM inside (not cold, not lukewarm but WARM) and we needed a new device pronto– since it hadn’t been 48 hours that we had the refrigerator. By the next morning I was on the phone with his supervisor and he was telling me we needed a new refrigerator and it was obvious we got a lemon. I asked him about the loss of food and it was his(Howard’s Appliance Store Manager) suggestion that since I had the machine go south in less than 48 hours, that I contact Whirlpool and see if they would do something about that. Considering it was such a short time since it had been activated (and we never got any ice from it either) the manager thought that Whirlpool would step up to the plate.

I called Whirlpool and talked to them. According to their owners manual — and I didn’t find this part right off the bat- they are legally not responsible. By purchasing the machine, I was taking on the liability myself for the cost of any food lost due to machine malfunction.
I never even SAW the owner’s manual until the device was installed and the sales person said nothing about it – probably because he didn’t know about it. How weird is that- you don’t know you are assuming a liability or that the 24 hours that the refrigerator requires to “GET COLD” until AFTER you get the device in your home. Why not

I was shocked that within such a short time that Whirlpool would not do something to make a customer happy. Typically I am not especially brand loyal though I do like my washing machine/dryer enough to buy it again- along with Bosch though I don’t feel the same now as when I bought this second Bosch. I know which brands I would never buy (I had 3 GE refrigerators go out due to poor compressors. I would NEVER recommend GE) I would tell you do not buy Whirlpool because the CS person said I should have called them and they would have had someone come fix the appliance.

FIX THE APPLIANCE when it’s 2-3 days OLD? Are you kidding me? That’s called replace the darn thing. Plus he couldn’t get me a repair person for at least 2 days. *Shudder* This man was making me very unhappy and I was doing my very level best to not use inappropriate language- for which I have to say I am proud. I did ask if the call was being recorded and he didn’t know. (REALLY you don’t know if the company records customer service call? Please, that’s bs).

He and I went back and forth and he wouldn’t connect me to his supervisor. I finally told him I was a blogger and that I would be writing about it. He truly didn’t care. He said the company would do nothing for me and that I just had to live with it. I did tell him I would post a review not only on this blog but on the Whirlpool site — which I did promptly after I got off the phone. It has yet to be posted by Whirlpool because they “evaluate them”

After speaking to the manager of the appliance store, I finally got an additional machine delivered-by now it was Friday and we had gone for 3 days without a refrigerator. I have a wine cooler, but that’s not good enough for eggs, uncooked meat or leftovers.

FYI, the store manager told me that it doesn’t require 24 hours for the refrigerator to cool and get cold. That it was unreasonable legal language to cover Whirlpool and that in all his time in appliance sales, you would know within 2-8 hours if the machine is a dud or not.
Interesting information huh!

The replacement refrigerator was delivered at almost 9 PM at night and it turned out to be dented. I didn’t want a dented device. They couldn’t cut the cost down low enough to make it worthwhile for me to take it. A dent usually means the product might have some internal defect that is unknown and it cuts the value of the product at least by 50%. I have purchased scratch and dent merchandise before and if I KNOW that I am buying that, I always buy a warranty. But I am not paying full price plus purchasing a warranty to get a couple hundred knocked off a four digit price tag.

So wait we did. Thankfully the managers realized I was pretty well fried and a refrigerator would be a good thing to get me pronto. We were scheduled for a Saturday delivery and turned out to be mid-day (but we didn’t find out till 8 PM Friday night. I went off to an event on Saturday and the machine showed up as promised and in good condition. Since I wasn’t at home, the Significant Other did what he felt prudent and waited a few hours before testing the machine.

Thanks to the appliance store– HOWARDS– (who will get a postive YELP review on this), I have a working refrigerator (KNOCK ON WOOD). Whirlpool– you can count me out of being a repeat customer. I don’t like how you treated me. I don’t like your customer service people’s attitude. I don’t like how you write obfuscatory owner’s manuals that should be handed to the customer before they pay for the device so they know exactly what terms they are buying the device under.

So while this is being written, it’s ONLY Saturday and I want to make sure that I have time to edit this in case anything else with this appliance goes wrong– or if it is sticking to the positive performance that I have after 8 + hours.
UPDATE#1
It’s now Sunday night and we actually have ICE! Wow. That hadn’t ever happened. The store manager thought the refrigerator never worked from the beginning- not that it broke. He called it a “lemon” – which happens , but when it happens and the customer pays the price not only for the appliance but for the food lost (so actually I paid for the food to be in the appliance and also to lose it all to the same appliance because it was a faulty appliance, I get charged twice. NICE job Whirlpool! I hope you don’t have stock in Kroger stores!)

Would I recommend Whirlpool to you? NEVER– just like I would not recommend GE.
Are there other brands I would recommend? YES, because I have had positive experiences with these brands (Kitchenaid, Frigidaire, Kenmore, Jenn-Air and even Maytag!)
Whirlpool loses primarily on it’s exceptionally poor customer service. Everyone has a lemon product come through the pipeline, but it’s how you deal with the customer about it that makes or breaks the relationship. They could have sent me a really nice “something” from small appliances (a big electric mixer or a juicer or a gift card good for a Whirlpool appliance) Even a case of dishwasher detergent would have been nice. But that’s not what Whirlpool wants to do- they just want to take my money (and yours) and forget about you.

Also this has already hit Twitter and will hit Facebook. On twitter, I included @Whirlpoolcorp (the company) and @Whirlpoolcare (customer service) and neither has replied but that’s because today is a Sunday. Wait till this piece runs and all the details get out. PLUS I have a reasonable following so there are people who will retweet this. I did tell the CS representative at Whirlpool this as well. He was less than impressed and said it would make no difference. I hope that the marketing department understands that word of mouth marketing particularly about products that are often purchased at this time of year (appliances are bought between Nov and end of January quite often) that they are getting some bad PR spin and they could easily have prevented it. I chose NOT to reach out to corporate — though I have done so in the past with Microsoft, ATT, Apple, Kayser-Roth, Verizon, Sears, Sprint and several other companies– where changes were made. I even caused ATT to change a policy on how they handled the Gift Card Rebates. Apple started calling ME to apologize. I was dealing with the executive level of companies (VP & above).

I am not just some bitchy person who is looking for a hand-out. What I am looking for is a change in policy– or that the every appliance from Whirlpool (read refrigerators) should have an owners manual in the floor model and have a note posted on the floor models saying that they are not responsible for food loss and that the refrigerator will require 24 hours to reach the appropriate cooling temperature. An apology would be nice too- like an email or a phone call. They have all that information already. Now I get to redo the registration for the refrigerator since it’s gone back to the store.

Happy day Whirlpool, hope you understand you lost a customer.

UPDATE #2:
Here it is now Thursday as I am quickly typing this so that I can run to the market to replace many things I had to toss out. Replacing Robert Lambert products aren’t on the scoreboard because they have to be shipped but every chocolate, macaron, caramel sauce, jam, marmalade (and the incredible cherries in merlot) along with other perishables can’t be replaced quickly, affordably or easily. The refrigerator does work well. I would be a lot happier with the situation if all this hadn’t happened. We were eating out much more than we should have or could have. Someone suggested belatedly that we should have used a cooler– but we had not ICE and the coolers were in the attic and the food had already decayed so fast that it was really surprising.

I will say that I did start up a twitter campaign about this and @WhirlpoolCare finally TODAY asked for name/address/city/phone and model/serial number of the refrigerator. All that is in their customer care data base if they would bother to check it out – since I DID CALL a week ago. (Wake up and smell the coffee Whirlpool). I will DM them all the 411 that they request– though it will take 2 tweets to do so– and really what can they do for me at this point that they haven’t already burned a lot of bridges with me. If you followed me on twitter or go search on twitter for @Whirlpoolcare, @Whirlpoolcorp, there is everything out there plain as day and I made it clear I had significant issues. It’s taken 3 + days for them to get “with the program”. Social media & this kind of complaint should be handled quickly. As a social media and digital marketing pioneer– I KNOW THAT. Since I couldn’t get response from them via telephone and I figured calling corporate would be a waste of time though I have done it before with ATT, Apple, Verizon, Sears, JCrew, Microsoft, Kayser-Roth and got dealt with 98% of the time at the exec/C level very quickly. I would see/hear a reply from them within less than 24 hours. I guess Whirlpool needs someone like me to shake them up– but they could/should hire someone (ME!) to teach them that twitter, facebook and other spots like pinterest can give them access to customers and deal with a brewing issue before it becomes a firestorm .
Realize this post will go live on twitter and it will be retweeted by many people with large networks of followers. And the bad news never ends for Whirlpool…. and what could have have done differently? Pay attention and learn the import of social media and how to engage — with their customers — quickly.
Something I have taught many a company to do– and clearly Whirlpool needs an expert like me on board to fix what they have screwed up.
Considering what the significan other said, “a little too late, isn’t it?” — and he’s not even on Twitter.

Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com

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