With the approval of your physician, there’s no time like the present to start a rigorous exercise program. Doubly so if you own any General Electric appliances. See, Jack owns a stackable General Electric washer and dryer. GE was happy to sell him a 5-year extended service plan, but balked at actually sending a repair person to his house. Once he finally talked them into sending someone to fix his washer, he learned that he and his wife would have to move the dryer from on top of the washer themselves. What’s the problem? It only weighs 150 pounds.

Three years ago my wife bought a new stacking GE washer/dryer combo, paying an extra $200 for the 5 year extended service plan. A month ago the washer stopped working (seemingly a broken spin cycle) and she called the service number to get it repaired.

Initially, she was told that there weren’t any service providers in our area (we live in rural Vermont), and that she was on her own for getting it repaired. When she asked why it was that GE would sell a service contract to someone who lived in an area that they didn’t actually service (especially as GE seemed perfectly content coming out to do the installation in the first place), they said they would get back to her, and eventually (after a week’s wait) a provider was located.

Later, when the provider called to set up an appointment, we were told that we needed to unstack the dryer for the repair to occur – GE would not pay for two people to come out, which is what would be required for the dryer to be moved. We called the GE extended service number again to confirm this. The service rep told my wife that the dryer is “only 150 pounds”, and that the repair could not occur if access to the washer was “obstructed” (in this case, by the dryer which was designed to be placed on top of the washer, and which was placed there by GE installers). My wife observed that this seemed to be putting GE in a position of liability, in terms of instructing an untrained person to lower a large 150 pound object from chest height to the ground. She was told that, of course, GE could take no responsibility for any actions we might choose to take with regards to our dryer (like doing the thing we were explicitly told to do if we wanted GE to provide the service we had al
ready paid for).

Our takeaway is that we should consider the money we paid for an extended service contract as being down a hole, and find someone who will actually fix our washer.

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