E-mails to Consumerist about Electrolux products typically usually contain expressions of dismay. Customers are upset that appliances that are supposed to be “the best” around and are priced accordingly have failed, even within the warranty period, and the company won’t help. You may recall the story of George from a few weeks ago. After some effort, George got Electrolux to offer to buy back his refrigerator, but not to pay the $400 difference between the price of the unit a year ago and its current price. Here’s the interesting thing, though: somehow he managed to buy two separate warranties that replace defective appliances. Not buy back, replace. [More]
appliances
Did Sears AC Installers Break Window, Or Ignore Cracked Pane?
By 6.1.12
Rona, ladylike, didn’t tell us her age, but she is a senior citizen. As for many Americans, Sears has always just been where she went when there was an appliance to buy. She and her husband ordered up two air conditioners from Sears.com last month, and Sears contracted some local installers in New Jersey to put them in the windows. After the second installation appointment, she discovered that the window was cracked. One of two things had happened: either the installers noticed that the window was cracked and put an air conditioner in anyway, or they’re the ones who did it, then hoped that no one would notice. [More]
Since When Does Stainless Steel Rust?
By 5.25.12
The point of stainless steel appliances, I always thought, is that they’re all shiny and metallic and don’t rust. The not rusting thing is kind of key. So he’s disappointed to see a smattering of rust spots on the front of the stainless steel Kitchenaid dishwasher that he bought less than a year ago. [More]
Sears Finds New And Exciting Ways To Not Deliver Me A Working Dishwasher
By 5.22.12
Years ago, in a time so foreign and distant that many of us can barely remember it, Sears was the place to go if you wanted to buy a quality appliance. That’s not the case anymore. Evidently now it’s the place to go if you want to buy a non-operational appliance and take a bunch of unnecessary days off work. Tomorrow morning, Jesse will be waiting for a technician to come by and (most likely) not get his new dishwasher to work. The second, replacement dishwasher that Sears brought after the first one didn’t work either. [More]
At Least I Tried To Buy A Vacuum From Best Buy
By 5.7.12
Gregg ordered a new Dyson vacuum this past weekend, and used a Best Buy gift card toward the purchase. When he arrived at the store, his order wasn’t ready, even though the exact item he had ordered wasn’t on the sales floor. They couldn’t rush the online order process, couldn’t give him back the $30 from the gift card for his in-store purchase, and couldn’t do much of anything useful. So he waited for a refund and bought the same item from Lowe’s. The notification e-mail never did come through. [More]
Home Depot Delivers $2500 Worth Of Appliances, Won't Accept Money For Them
By 5.4.12
Consumer thought experiment: if Home Depot delivers some appliances to you, but never bills you for them, are they free? If that were true, a California grandmother got one heck of a Cyber Monday deal on more than $2,500 worth of kitchen appliances from Home Depot. That’s not what she wanted. She’d rather just pay the hardware mega-chain already, but they won’t accept her money. A computer glitch makes it look like she already paid for the appliances, and Home Depot won’t accept her money. [More]
Ordering Appliance At Lowe's Results In Cascade Of Incompetence
By 5.2.12
The employees at his local Lowe’s store were pretty great, reader Tony tells us, but ordering his stove online with multiple store gift cards wasn’t such a good idea. When he hit “Submit,” the order didn’t go through, and the Lowe’s customer service buffoons weren’t able to tell him what had happened. A visit to the local store resolved the situation, resulting in the actual delivery of the stove. Which was damaged. [More]
Best Buy Will Never Tempt Me With 'Delivery' Siren Song Again
By 4.23.12
Brian could have brought his new washer right home from Best Buy after purchasing it, but let the salesman talk him into delivery. Old appliances don’t just haul themselves away, you know. Only after he took a day off work, Best Buy didn’t even manage to get his appliance on the truck for delivery. This hasn’t reached Sears proportions yet, but Brian is annoyed. [More]
How A Few Minutes With A Screwdriver Saved Me $139
By 4.16.12
We don’t begrudge Sears Repair–or, indeed, any business–a healthy markup on items that they sell. That’s how capitalism works, and capitalism is awesome. But Matthew must have felt insulted when the part his dishwasher needed showed up on his doorstep ahead of a return visit from the repairman. The part needed only a few screws to install…and, making things worse, was available $50 cheaper, for only $121, on Sears’ own website. It’s even cheaper elsewhere. [More]
Own GE Appliances? Get To Work On Your Upper Body Strength
By 4.13.12
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. [More]
Where 'Delivery Date' Doesn't Mean 'Date When We Will Deliver Your Dishwasher To Your House'
By 3.21.12
In Paula’s letter to Consumerist, she said something unusual that caught our eye. She sincerely wished that she had ordered her new dishwasher from Sears rather than Lowe’s. What makes a person express such crazy desires? She had assumed that the “delivery date” displayed for shoppers on the Lowe’s site stood for the date that the appliance would be delivered to and installed in her home. Not quite. [More]
Target Sells You A Vacuum Full Of Crud, Won't Take It Back
By 2.23.12
Isabelle’s $300 Dyson vacuum from Target arrived on her doorstep without some of the parts, and filled with dirt from someone else’s house. Wanting to receive the item she actually had ordered, she dragged it to the nearest Target in a taxi and was told that she was obviously trying to pull one over on Target by returning this vacuum when she so clearly had used it and kept the handle. Clearly. [More]
Sears Might Repair Your Fridge, Isn’t Really Sure
By 2.8.12 — Updated: 1.9.13
For generations of Americans, Sears has simply been where you go when it’s time to outfit your new home. (At one point, you could even order your house itself out of the Sears, Roebuck catalog.) They, and their Kenmore appliances, were trustworthy, reliable, and quintessentially American. Now? Is Sears any of those things?
Waiting for the second repair on her two-year-old fridge, Joyce was surprised to learn that her Kenmore is just an LG with a badge slapped on it. Oh, and no one knows when the new compressor is coming, or whether it’s actually been ordered at all.
Buying An Extended Warranty From Lowe's? Keep The Paperwork Very, Very Safe
By 1.26.12
When the dishwasher that Greg bought at Lowe’s broke down after a failed repair, he called up the store. A manager instructed him to bring the appliance, which was covered under an extended warranty, in to the store and they would exchange it for one that actually worked. Only when he brought it in, the employees on duty treated him “like a criminal” because he had lost the receipt in a recent move. Wait, don’t appliances have serial numbers that they can use to look up warranty information? Nope.
[More]
GE Doesn't See The Problem With An Oven That Won't Cook Anything
By 1.25.12
For some reason, Terry expects the GE range with double ovens that he bought just a few months ago to do unreasonable things, like heat up to a consistent temperature, or perhaps cook some food. But his roasts remain un-roasted, and his cakes won’t bake. What’s wrong? None of the technicians GE has sent see a problem with the oven. [More]
You Can't Fix A Washing Machine With A Microwave Door
By 1.5.12
Lori’s front-loading Whirlpool washing machine is broken, and has been since the end of November. This would be less infuriating if Lowe’s hadn’t sent six large boxes of the wrong parts to her house, as well as two repairmen who can’t do anything because the correct parts still haven’t shown up. She wrote to Consumerist in what is clearly a laundry-induced rage. [More]
Does Accepting A Better Fridge Than The One I Ordered Make Me A Bad Consumer?
By 12.5.11
Last week, a reader wrote in wanting to hear from the Consumerist hive-mind if he’d been a Bad Consumer by badgering a carwash into giving him some wiper fluid for damage that might not have been the carwash’s fault. Inspired by that post, another reader wants to hear your verdict — and this time it’s a lot pricier than a bottle of wiper fluid. [More]
Best Buy Sells You Appliances, Then Sells Them To Someone Else
By 11.2.11
John got a great deal on a floor-model washer and dryer unit at Best Buy. But he wasn’t the only one. After he completed the purchase, Best Buy sold the units out to another customer, delivering them to the other purchaser before reaching John. That’s a simple enough error that could have been easily fixed by, say, offering a significant discount on another set of the same model. But that’s not possible at this Best Buy. [More]
