Edward bought a new Kitchenaid refrigerator back in September, and it lasted for four whole months. He had expected it to last a little longer than that. It all began with the water and ice dispenser breaking down. When a technician came to fix that and replaced the whole user interface, the appliance lost its ability to keep food cold. Now Edward’s family is using their crappy backup garage fridge while the repairwoman goes over the refrigerator wire by wire, trying to find the original problem.

Edward, understandably, has lost patience. He wants Whirlpool to pick over every wire at their facility, on their own time, and just give him a working fridge already. He writes:

I purchased a Kitchenaid french door refrigerator in September, 2012. It worked well until approximately 4 weeks ago when it no longer made ice or dispensed water. I went online and setup a repair appointment. The repairman arrived and diagnosed it as a bad computer. He ordered the part and we waited. The part came in and a different repair lady arrived to install it. The refrigerator still did not dispense water or make ice and she felt it was likely the user interface and ordered a new one. The next morning we awoke to defrosting food. Now, the compressor would not work so no cooling. Luckily, we have a small refrigerator in the garage into which we quickly moved all the food that would fit. Unfortunately, the garage fridge doesn’t work very well (it has frozen beer in the refrigerator compartment) and regularly ruins fruit and vegetables. We called the repair service and they could not come out until the scheduled appointment as they were booked solid. The next visit they replaced the user interface and it still did not work. The repair lady called Whirlpool and was told to replace the computer again. That part was on backorder and they didn’t come back until today. Today, the new computer still did not help matters. When the tech called Whirlpool, she was told she need to order a special tool and go through the refrigerator wire by wire until she found the problem.

When I called Whirlpool, I was told they won’t replace the refrigerator as long as the repair service says it is still repairable. I feel that after 3+ weeks of unsuccessful service calls, they should replace the refrigerator and diagnose the problem on their time, not mine. To expect a consumer to endure watching their appliance be taken apart wire by wire is absurd.

It depends on how much Whirlpool is paying the repair service to go through every wire. But it’s true that the family shouldn’t have to tolerate beersicles while waiting for yet another appointment from the overbooked service.

Other readers have found success complaining to Whirlpool’s executive customer service representatives about various Whirlpool brands through Facebook and Twitter. Old-fashioned letters or e-mails to executives work pretty well, too.

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