By the time you read this, I’ll have enjoyed a nice quiet weekend to myself. A rare treat. It doesn’t quite salve the wound I’m about to describe to you.
### Fridge update
When we last spoke, the ETA on replacement parts for the fridge was 11/17. On 11/20, I received a call from the parts department. A very nice woman with a sympathetic voice was on the line to inform me that they’ve received some of the parts, but are still waiting on a final piece of equipment. And after speaking with LG, they’ve updated the ETA of that part to today, 11/24.
I asked if, since they had some of the parts, they would stoop to send someone out to put in those parts, already knowing what the answer would be. And I was not disappointed. They will not. “Tough call” the nice woman said, “but no.” It is tough, isn’t it?
Just to make things interesting, the fridge’s symptoms are changing. The freezer is still completely full of frost, but it’s not hyperfreezing things anymore, just superfreezing. Ice cream is still impossible to spoon right out of the freezer, but it takes far less time to become servable.
In addition, the fridge is now running colder for some reason (40 degrees instead of 45 to 50), but earlier this week, ice was discovered building up in the bottom crisper drawers, freezing some spinach I had in there.
And then this morning, much to my surprise, I discovered that the water dispenser has completely stopped working. I could still hear water running somewhere in the machine, but none was coming out of the dispenser. None seemed to be leaking out of the cabinet, but it’s going somewhere. I shut off the water to the fridge just to be safe.
I’m not calling this in until they are out to fix the existing problem, however, because that will only delay their already delayed repair call.
Keep in mind that all of this is very likely related to one problem: a bad controller board that they replaced…with a known bad controller board. They ordered the wrong part, made me wait a month for this wrong part to arrive, installed the wrong part. And then had to order a replacement. Good god, this one had better be the right one.
The truth boils down to this statement:
I have been without a properly functioning fridge for an additional one full month due to the incompetence of Warners’ Stellian and the employees who’ve handled my issue.
Want to read about my bad experience with Warners’ Stellian and their extended warranty from the start? I’ve created a new category here at the Q-Blog that contains all posts that touch on the subject of my powerfully bad experience with Warners’ Stellian.
[Check it out.](http://q-burger.com/category/blog/bad-warners-stellian/)
Ok, this was ridiculous before… it’s now theatre of the absurd. Crazy.
Let me throw some useful words at you:
Breach of implied warranty of merchantability
Breach of implied warranty of fitness for particular purpose
Breach of express warranty (which presumably has properly disclaimed the above two warranties)
Breach of Minnesota Consumer Protection Act (this is one you report to the attorney general)
Breach of Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing
Minnesota Statutory Provision 336.2-608 entitled: REVOCATION OF ACCEPTANCE IN WHOLE OR IN PART.
Most manufacturers (and/or retailers) are smart enough to disclaim implied warranties, and limit damages/remedies to the repair and/or replacement of defective parts. Under Minnesota law, not that I’m giving legal advise or anything, of course, such limitations of remedies are only enforceable so long as they are “reasonable.” You might be hitting “unreasonable” territory, being sans refrigerator for 45-60 days. Hence the limitations on repair/replacement might not apply.
Also, you may be able to plausibly threaten revocation of acceptance. In other words, “take the fridge back. There were defects that I could not have detected at the time it was delivered, and I held onto the refrigerator after reporting these defects to you on the good faith belief that they would be fixed based on your assurances to me. They have not been fixed. As a result, me, my wife, two year old and seven month old have been without a functioning refrigerator for nearly two months. Again, to be clear, I am revoking this deal based on Warners Stellian’s failure to provide a functioning refrigerator.”
Of course, if your refrigerator is, like, 80% functional, I don’t know that I’d try that last one.
Good luck
Interesting, if not beyond my comprehension.
OK, Dude that is enough.
A) If the extended service contract is the one from NSI that they advertise on their website, they have a “No Lemon Policy” that states that they will replace your product upon your request if your product requires more than 3 NSI covered repairs. So if it is the service contract that is paying for the repairs you can go this route.
B) If you don’t think A will work, then call Corporate (651) 222-0011 and complain! Don’t be forestalled by the schmuck that answers the phone, escalate up as far as you can get and tell them what they can do to make it right! Complaining to Customer Service rarely gets you anywhere these days (I know I work for one of the largest companies in the world, in a customer service center). Tell them that to make this right they either need to come and get their product and refund all of your money (including your protection plan) and that you will go to Best Buy to buy a replacement or they can replace this model with a working one. You might even be able to leverage this to get the non-discontinued model as a replacement without having to pay the difference.
I think you have surpassed the reasonable arena and are well into the unreasonable one.
@Rogar
Well done. Somehow, I missed that bit about the lemon in the documentation I have. It’s buried.
Strange -I have had nothing but wonderful service from the people at Warners Stellian….karma must be coming back to bite you in the a** for something you did…
oh, one more thing – regarding the above posters comments about getting a new unit or a full refund from Warner Stellian, that isnt going to happen -only the extended warranty can give you a replacement unit if it’s out of the mfg’s warranty -& they will only do that if the cost of repairs exceeds the cost of the fridge.
Sounds like poor Warners’ Stellian is caught in the middle of your manufacturer not sending the parts quickly enough. And the warranty company of course has to approve all claims before they send out service or parts! What if you broke it? I’m sure there are some conditions with your warranty! Sad for W.S. to get all this bad press! I have had nothing but wonderful service from them & I’m about to buy a bunch more appliances from them. And might I add that my appiances purchased from Best Buy are only dealt with by the manufacturer which is quite the pain! At least they gave you a loaner!! NO big box company would do that!! You may be placing blame where there is none!
@ AMELIA
RE: Shipping time
Granted, the speed of shipping isn’t something that Warners’ Stellian can control. However, because of THEIR part ordering mistake, I had to wait an additional month for the correct replacement part to arrive.
And as a direct result of having to wait for the 2nd part, the problem worsened. Worsened to the point where the simple installation of the new part didn’t restore the fridge to working order.
Just today, I received a call from WS stating that the parts that were ordered in the beginning of December have an ETA of January 5th.
So, yes, it’s not their fault that it takes a long time to get the parts, but it IS their fault that I’m still having to endure the long delivery times for parts that shouldn’t have been needed.
RE: Warranty company approval
It’s a given that the warranty company would want to be sure that the issue is a legitimate one.
And on the first visit from the tech, the problem was confirmed to be caused by the controller board, not inappropriate use. All subsequent service calls have been direct results of this initial malfunction. There should be no reason for any further “approval” by the warranty company if WS is telling them that this is all still the same issue.
RE: The loaner fridge
Yes, it was nice of WS to give us a loaner. And it’s likely that a big box store wouldn’t have done that. And WS would have gotten high marks for it…had we not already gone 2 months without a properly functioning fridge (at least 1 month of which was due to their mistake). These last 31 days (and the next who knows how many) would have been much worse had they not given us the loaner.
RE: Misplaced blame
I don’t believe that I’m placing blame inappropriately here. I think that if you read through each WS-related post, you’d see that I haven’t been unreasonable in my expectations or assignment of blame.