Complaint Review: General Electric Appliance

I have a GE Microwave purchased in 2005 with a 10 year warranty. After taking it to a local appliance center (Franks) they diagnosed that the magnetron went out. I called GE and they verified that the parts were covered. I requested that GE send the parts and was told that they were too dangerous to send to a customer. Also, that the US mail would not deliver such hazardous materials. I was informed that I must have a GE approved service company handle the job. GE recommended Affordable Appliance, Inc. as one of their service companies. I called Affordable and asked if they would get the parts for me. They refused and said they would have to install them. I notified them that GE already had approved the parts so all they had to do was get them in and install them. The lady at Affordable said the cost to do that was $75 to which I agreed. One week later they showed up without the parts, took the microwave apart and informed me that the magnetron was bad. They wanted $75 for this trip and $320 to get and install the parts. When I complained that I already had the authorization for the parts and that they were to come out with them, also that the lady that took the call knew all of this in advanced the serviceman got upset. He said it was his wife and that this would never happen. I told him he wasted his time and he proceeded to give me a bill for what I already knew was wrong. Threatened me that if I didn't pay they would go to collections and ruin my credit. I contacted GE and all they could say was sorry.

Later this certified GE service company charged me $45 for the trip. I went online and ordered the parts (Genuine renewal parts- which I still have the packages) from Repairclinic.com. It seems this online vendor had no problem that these were dangerous parts and also they shipped them through the US postal service. I installed the parts in under 5 minutes and the microwave works perfectly now. My problem is that GE's warranty is a sham when you have to go through something like this!

I asked GE to refund me the $45 charged for a bogus service call - that had to be made by a company of GE's choice, and $144.75 for the parts that were supposedly under warranty.

Gary Mantooth 502-452-4205 – June 9^th, 9:57:  Gary wanted to verify the amounts that I had requested. Gary said I found a way to circumvent their repair process and although he was not part of the conversations he knew for a fact that no one would offer this service. I informed him that “I was” part of the conversation and asked why both parties would agree to this and go this far before GE would inform the customer of what their policy was. All Gary could say was that we agree to disagree. I asked Gary why neither GE nor their authorized service repair company, until after the fact, notified me of their mandatory inspection call. Also why they would not even notify the customer after being informed of the problem and agreeing to come out and replace the parts.  All Gary could say was that this was policy.  I then asked why the parts they produce were too dangerous and the US postal service would not ship them, but the exact same parts “GE produced” were shipped by the US postal service by another company. All he could say again was that this was policy and people have died when they ship these parts.  Policy is a flimsy excuse to get out of taking care of a customer, also using it after the fact.

GE's warrenty is a scam.