My oven saga - or the night I filmed my oven

Parent Cafe
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<p>I have an oven that I bought on Jan 27, 2007. I bought it from a local appliance store. It is a General Electric Profile, dual fuel. (You may remember when I was on here looking for oven suggestions.)</p>

<p>Anyway, the convection has never worked properly. It seems to just shut off. I now have this repair history (GE is doing all the repair work):</p>

<p>7/20/07 First repair. The guy orders parts.</p>

<p>8/3/07 The guy fails to show up at all.</p>

<p>8/8/07 Shows up and discovers that he has ordered the wrong parts. Reorders - claims they will be EXPEDITED, and he’ll call me when he gets them.</p>

<p>8/16/07 After I call him because I hadn’t heard anything, he realizes he has the parts and he comes out and installs them.</p>

<p>8/24/07 Oven is still broken (which I discover while in the middle of baking cookies &$^#%#@).</p>

<p>8/29/07 They send out a different guy. He reorders THE SAME PARTS and leaves. I spend the rest of the afternoon screaming at their stupid customer relations supervisor, who is steadfast that they will repair the oven and can not tell me how many visits that might take.</p>

<p>9/6/07 Original guy comes out and installs the parts again.</p>

<p>9/12/07 Oven is still broken (I discover while roasting potatoes). SO WE FILM THE DARN THING. (Mostly because the guy tried to accuse me of not knowing how to cook - although his meter thing tells him there’s something wrong.) It is obvious that the oven turns off and drops in temp and does not turn on again.</p>

<p>The question is, who do I go to now? I can barely stand to be on hold with the idiots in the GE customer service dept again. (Who, so far, have stood firm in spite of my demands for a replacement oven.) Is it time to go to the place I bought it at? Do I even want this same crappy oven again? Or should I try to buy something else?</p>

<p>Grrrr. I hate General Electric! :(</p>

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<p>I don’t know what to tell you to do next, but I can share my experience with a GE Profile two years ago: I sold my house to get away from it.</p>

<p>Good luck. Perhaps the $30,000 handmade stove with flowers on it for the next one.</p>

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<p>I’d go back where you bought it, tell them they can try once more, but after that… they can replace it with something else. (My Dacor convection ovens have both been trouble-free.)</p>

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<p>^ Zoosermom, that is hilarious. Believe me - that is sounding like a good idea right about now.</p>

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<p>I would send a copy of the film to the executive offices of GE Appliances, so they know that you mean business this time. Or you can also put it on youtube (just kidding). Is this a wall oven or a free-standing range with an oven, because I have always had a GE range/oven, and have never had a problem, whereas my mother has always had wall ovens that gave her all kinds of trouble. Seriously, though, you should demand to speak to the highest level company member in customer service, and at the same time notify the store where you purchased the oven - perhaps they have someone who they deal with at GE. If you purchased other appliances from the store, and you have an established business relationship with them, then maybe they would be more willing to help rectify the situation. The key is to be persistent and politely annoying, but never give up until you’re satisfied with the outcome. Also, I would go to the upper level executive offices if need be.
Good luck.</p>

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<p>Weenie, all kidding aside I sold my house to the most vile, evil woman (think Tony Soprano in drag and you have her) and I was not sorry when she got stuck with the stove. You’ll appreciate this, though. When I was showing her how to use the appliances, I showed her the warming drawer feature with my hand on the handle. She grabbed my wrist and snarled in my face “if it’s a toaster oven, call it a toaster oven.” I’m guessing she wasn’t much of a cook.</p>

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<p>Maybe threaten GE to put the film on YouTube??</p>

<p>I have a GE Profile oven (not convection) and it’s been problem free. There’s really not a whole lot to an oven or any major applicance for that matter. They’re very simple devices - even the high-end ones they charge a lot of money for or the ones with all the ‘features’ (I’ve done my own repairs to ovens, fridges, dishwashers, washers). Also keep in mind that there aren’t nearly as many manufacturers as there are brands. You might unknowingly replace your GE with a GE of another brand if you’re not careful.</p>

<p>I don’t know about GE but a lot of times you can contact any “Authorized Service” provider and the company will cover it under warranty (assuming this is under warranty). These are usually local or nationwide companies authorized to perform factory service for that brand and therefore covered under the manufacturers warranty. If GE works that way, contact a different service provider company and try again.</p>

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<p>Not good. I’ve had GE appliances forever and some are better than others, but they’re all pretty reliable. And the repair guys are usually fine.</p>

<p>If you live in a funky area, maybe you get funky repair men??</p>

<p>Weenie: Keep trying. So far it sounds like you got a lazy repair man the first time out, the the second guy did what seemed logical to him to do. But I agree with everyone else: Keep trying.</p>

<p>Is there a lemon law for ovens?</p>

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<p>nyumom hit the nail on the head: you tube. Very seriously, speak to a CSR supervisor manager @ GE. Demand (albeit politely to speak to a CSR manager). Explain the problem. Get a response as to what they intend to do: (new oven, credit, whatever you desire). I would be very clear that if they did not rectify the problem completely and immediately with their next attempt, the video would hit you tube, as well as the local tv consumer advocate spot. I would ask for a written response, and reiterate your intended course of action by return mail.</p>

<p>Your problem will in most likelyhood disappear.</p>

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<p>Weenie—where did you get the oven? The “big box” stores have no-lemon policies (i.e. Best Buy, etc), and I’d assume that a smaller appliance store would also be able to help you. Especially if it means losing your business in the future. Don’t waste your time talking to anyone but the manager, however. And demand to get something different. After a similar run-down of bad experiences with a Maytag washer that shook the heck out of the entire first floor of my house (and the repair guys telling me, among other things that my house just wasn’t built right), we stood firm and finally got a new (different brand) washer…from Best Buy. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Hey–I just had an idea…you know the cell phone commercial that shows the hundreds of people that are part of the “network” that follows the person around? (cingular? verizon?) Anyway, you let us know when you’re going back to that store and the whole cc bunch of us can be standing outside the door, glaring in at the manager, ready to give you moral support!!</p>

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<p>weenie, I sympathize. I have a GE profile oven that has been possessed. Every once in a while for about two years it would just start beeping like crazy and the keyboard display would not work. Of course, the repair guy came out twice and each time, the oven went “I’m not the problem…SHE’S the problem”
Anyway long story short, eventually I got sick of it. Got online, found a parts place with great diagrams and parts descriptions. Bought a whole new front plate/keypad. Had my husband change it out himself.<br>
Problem solved.<br>
Two points for marrying a “techie”. Of course, we did eat out a lot when the oven was possessed.</p>

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<p>Agree with, ebeeeee. Since you used ‘film’ to record your range, you may have earlier, insulted the brains of this fine appliance with your ignorance; Humble yourself before it by offering a Turkey.</p>

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<p>weenie - if you paid for your oven with a credit card, contact the credit card company about your problem. You may be covered by them.</p>

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<p>thisoldman, you crack me up!</p>

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<p>Weenie, I read your title “the night I filmed my oven” and the first thing that came to mind was “and I thought I needed to get a life!”. My sympathies. I have no words of wisdom, but I did just go into the kitchen and thank my 20 year old Whirlpool for being there.</p>

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<p>I have a GE spacemaker microwave that recently started acting possessed! Every once in awhile when you open the door it randomly starts - WITH THE DOOR OPEN !! The first time it happened I was afrad my brain was going to be microwaved!!!LOL I have no idea why it does this ( it’s happened about 10 times) but I am definitely going to replace it. It can’t be good for us. It is about 8 years old so I am not going to waste money on a repairman.</p>

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<p>Here’s a strategy I have sometimes used to get a decent response:</p>

<p>I call the company and ask “Could you give me the contact information of someone on a high level to whom I could write a letter praising an employee?”</p>

<p>Please note my phrasing (“to whom I could write”).</p>

<p>Generally this will get me to someone more powerful than a customer service supervisor who fields complaints all the time.</p>

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<p>We have a GE Profile fridge. I hate it. One day after it went off it’s one year warranty, it died. GE refused to even talk to us. Fortunately the store where we purchased the thing did. We had to pay for the condenser to be replaced but they gave us a HUGE discount. Oh…neighbor has the identical fridge. She had the SAME problem… except hers didn’t work the DAY it was delivered. GE would do nothing. The vendor actually replaced the thing at no cost. When my fridge dies (please make it last until my kids get out of college)…I will buy any brand BUT GE. They make JUNK and their customer service is awful. Weenie, call the place where you bought your oven. At least they will able to communicate with you.</p>

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<p>I have all GE Profile appliances and have never had a single problem with any one of them.</p>

<p>I will consider myself lucky.</p>