Dear Whirlpool Corporation, You Have Failed
In October I noticed our professional style oven was not heating up to temperature and I put in a call to the service center. Because we live so far out in the country, the earliest they could get out to look at the oven was 7 days later. Our tech looked at the oven and decided it needed a new element. Apparently, service pros no longer keep appliance parts on their trucks or even in shop. The element had to be special ordered and delivered to our house, which took another 7 days. On the morning the element arrived our tech was out at the house to install. As he diligently looked over the schematics for our oven on his computer he realized he would have to disassemble the oven completely in order to install a new element. He called out a second technician to assist and put in a call to Whirlpool Corp to double check his solution as being viable. I listened in on the conversation between our tech and Whirlpool and heard Whirlpool advise the element was not a replaceable item on our particular oven and told our tech to not even consider disassembling the oven. Uh. . . The techs packed up, apologized and advised us to call Whirlpool Corporation and see if we could get a replacement oven or a prorated refund on our current model. The element has a 5 year warranty and the oven is only 4 years old, and although the main oven is no longer under warranty, the element is, and seeing as how it cannot be replaced safely, Whirlpool technically should offer some kind of compensation, right?
I called the corporate service line and they took all our information and I was told I would hear back from them in 10 days. Unfortunately, this was right at the time we were leaving for our European trip. I was assured Whirlpool would leave a message via answering machine or email while we were on vacation. When we returned home, three weeks later, nothing. Thanksgiving was just days away. What the heck? We called once more and were told we would be contacted immediately. At this point, I wanted nothing to do with owning another Whirlpool appliance. Wingnut took me shopping and I picked out a fantastic GE double gas oven and range. It was delivered the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, just in time for a cooking frenzy to commence. We continued to wait on Whirlpool. Three days later, still no word. We called again, and the poor call center employee actually expressed shock and dismay that we had heard nothing. She spoke to a supervisor who told her to relay to us they would contact us that day. Another three days later and we finally had a call returned. Whirlpool offered to replace our unrepairable appliance with the exact same model at a prorated price of $1500. What? So, Whirlpool built an appliance that could not be serviced for an extremely simple repair and they were offering to let us pay for a new model of the exact same dud oven? I don't think so, and I told her so. I also let her know we had already replaced the oven with a different brand and that we had absolutely no interest in owning another Whirlpool. I told her I expected Whirlpool to refund part of what the original oven had cost, at the very least. She informed me she could not help me. At this point I handed the phone to Wingnut, who handles idiocy like this so much better than I do. After a prolonged argument with the Whirlpool employee, we were assured an executive would contact us within 24 hours.
Nearly a week later, Wingnut was calling Whirlpool again. Apparently, we have a nice long file with them and every time we call it is documented and the call center employee has to read through our extensive record to determine what level of corporate to send us to next. On this occasion we were finally offered a payout of $2300. We were told we would be contacted by a local contractor who would come out to our house and remove the old oven and turn over a check for the refund within two weeks. This conversation took place on the 1st of December.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited until after Christmas and New Year's had passed before calling to see what was up with our money. I was given the number of the local contractor to call. When I called the local guys, they have absolutely no record of us. I was assured that it might take a few days longer for Whirlpool to follow through completely. We are now nearly two weeks past the holidays and nothing.
We have written letters to corporate executives. We've made countless phone calls. Promises have been made and broken several times by Whirlpool. We have yet to hear directly from a single executive. This is absolutely ridiculous and horrible customer service. At this point, we are taking to the internet. We are writing about this travesty here and on every site that has a product review link. If Whirlpool won't listen and respond to us, we'll just make sure we are not the only customers they ever lose over this episode. Whirlpool, you stink!
I called the corporate service line and they took all our information and I was told I would hear back from them in 10 days. Unfortunately, this was right at the time we were leaving for our European trip. I was assured Whirlpool would leave a message via answering machine or email while we were on vacation. When we returned home, three weeks later, nothing. Thanksgiving was just days away. What the heck? We called once more and were told we would be contacted immediately. At this point, I wanted nothing to do with owning another Whirlpool appliance. Wingnut took me shopping and I picked out a fantastic GE double gas oven and range. It was delivered the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, just in time for a cooking frenzy to commence. We continued to wait on Whirlpool. Three days later, still no word. We called again, and the poor call center employee actually expressed shock and dismay that we had heard nothing. She spoke to a supervisor who told her to relay to us they would contact us that day. Another three days later and we finally had a call returned. Whirlpool offered to replace our unrepairable appliance with the exact same model at a prorated price of $1500. What? So, Whirlpool built an appliance that could not be serviced for an extremely simple repair and they were offering to let us pay for a new model of the exact same dud oven? I don't think so, and I told her so. I also let her know we had already replaced the oven with a different brand and that we had absolutely no interest in owning another Whirlpool. I told her I expected Whirlpool to refund part of what the original oven had cost, at the very least. She informed me she could not help me. At this point I handed the phone to Wingnut, who handles idiocy like this so much better than I do. After a prolonged argument with the Whirlpool employee, we were assured an executive would contact us within 24 hours.
Nearly a week later, Wingnut was calling Whirlpool again. Apparently, we have a nice long file with them and every time we call it is documented and the call center employee has to read through our extensive record to determine what level of corporate to send us to next. On this occasion we were finally offered a payout of $2300. We were told we would be contacted by a local contractor who would come out to our house and remove the old oven and turn over a check for the refund within two weeks. This conversation took place on the 1st of December.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited until after Christmas and New Year's had passed before calling to see what was up with our money. I was given the number of the local contractor to call. When I called the local guys, they have absolutely no record of us. I was assured that it might take a few days longer for Whirlpool to follow through completely. We are now nearly two weeks past the holidays and nothing.
We have written letters to corporate executives. We've made countless phone calls. Promises have been made and broken several times by Whirlpool. We have yet to hear directly from a single executive. This is absolutely ridiculous and horrible customer service. At this point, we are taking to the internet. We are writing about this travesty here and on every site that has a product review link. If Whirlpool won't listen and respond to us, we'll just make sure we are not the only customers they ever lose over this episode. Whirlpool, you stink!
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