Complaint Review: GE Appliances Headquarters - Louisville Kentucky

Dear GE Appliance Headquarters,

In August of 2006 I purchased and filled an entire new construction house with GE appliances, 6 in total, including a washer & dryer (both front loading, washer model WCVH6800 and the matching dryer), dishwasher, stove, microwave, and refrigerator (All in GEs clean steel line). I purchased these appliances at your authorized retail center Jims Appliance at 1115 Lusk St, Boise, Idaho 83706.

I am writing because I have had absolutely nothing but terrible experiences with your products, and the corresponding service I have received on them. 5 out of the 6 appliances have failed at some point in time. I will start from the beginning.

When I purchased my appliances from Jims, I had a wide range of choices. I was not limited to GE products. However, based on the salesmans glowing recommendation of your brand, I purchased entirely from the GE line. He said that they had gotten nothing but great reviews by everyone who was using them. I learned later after looking the models he recommended and I purchased up on the internet, that the statements made to me were a terrible lie, and they had everything BUT great reviews, but by then it was apparently too late.

When the appliances were all installed, the ice maker in the fridge was non-functional.  It took approximately 6 days to get the part repaired by Jims service company, Easys Repair Service, Inc (located at the same address as the retail store). In a brand new house, this was not something I was really pleased to deal with, but based on what the salesman told me about everything else, I stuck with it.

Shortly after moving in, maybe a few months, the washing machine failed. A trip out from the repair company showed that the filter had sucked in approximately $3.73 in change, 3 full sized lighters, a house key, and multiple other un-identifiable pieces. They told me this was normal. I had never experienced a washing machine eating objects into its inner workings before, so I called your GE customer service line to talk to them. The CSR on the phone told me that under the absolutely perfect circumstances, a dime may be able to get picked up into the filter, but absolutely never anything bigger than that. Ive apparently had an abundance of perfect circumstances in my laundry room then, along with some other situations that some might call miracles, if my washing machine is able to eat large objects that are over an inch long and in diameter. I have been thinking about entering it into the local talent contest, but alas, Jims Appliance and their service company, when told what your CSR said to me, and I asked for a replacement machine, told me that your people are full of crap. Thats nice. So to end that, the washing machine had about 4 service calls, a new motherboard, and lord knows what else. We now keep our Newfoundland dogs away from the laundry-room, for fear that it will suck one of them into the filter also.

Next, we move on to the dishwasher. It also has a voracious appetite for inanimate objects. The repair company had to come out after it started making a horrible screeching noise that reverberated through the house. It was found that it had eaten a very large piece of glass into its inner workings. We are now to a point where we are running out of areas of our house that the dogs can safely go.

The stove has honestly not been so bad, but one of the back burners hasnt ever functioned. It has never warranted a call out to the repair company, because honestly, it slips my mind and considering that there are 3 other working burners, I can deal with it. Im really not too hard to please.

Our microwave has been quite a champ and hasnt had any problems as of yet. I throw it a birthday party every year to celebrate its triumph over the odds of its kind.

Ah, but now we come to the dryer. This has been the most recent problem, and quite an annoying one. The dryer recently started to sound like we were attempting to wash a Ford Focus in it. Not good. We ceased operation of the dryer and called Easys Repair. They came out and determined that all of our bearings had melted, or the track had melted, or basically that something that probably shouldnt have ever been made out of plastic had melted. We were left without a dryer for over a week while the parts were ordered and replaced. In a house with 5 people, this was really not fun to deal with, but we managed by trudging to friends houses to use their 10-20 year old trusty dryers (surprisingly, or not, none of them were GE). When the part came in, we rejoiced, paid the $200 to replace the part, it was installed, we did laundry, and the next day the Ford Focus had found its parking spot in the dryer once again. Another call to Easys followed. They came out and said that we needed to have our vent to the outside snaked by a professional, as it was full and causing the machine to overheat. I was concerned that it had melted whatever melt-able piece it had before, but I was assured that it didnt have enough time to do so. We called SystemCleen in Meridian, Idaho to snake the vent. They came out, we paid them the $100 service fee, and they told us that they got barely anything out of there. Its even written on our paperwork, that there just was not a problem there. The Ford Focus continues to haunt our laundry room at all hours of the day and night, and its becoming very loud. I suspect that someone might have put an aftermarket muffler on it yesterday. Im not even going to attempt to call the repair center at this point because I might get told that someone is full of crap. The bottom line is your products are just huge lumps of useless plastic, and its not worth it. Im seriously considering finding a very high suspension bridge to launch the dryer off of after its been taken out of my house. I will be sure to send you a video of this when I do so. I will also put it on YouTube and Facebook for everyones viewing pleasure. Ill make sure to capture the GE insignia on the face before I launch it, so youll get your 15 minutes of fame.

At this point Im throwing in the towel. Im off to purchase a new Samsung set of laundry appliances this weekend. Your products will not get my endorsement in any way, shape, or form ever again and for that matter; I am going to make it my personal mission to dissuade as many people as I can away from the brand name, and your retail center Jims. They sure talked the talk when I had money waving in their faces to buy a whole house full of appliances, but I know now that they were probably just looking forward to the repair revenue from Easys after everything broke (they are the only authorized repair center in town for your products you know, funny how that works!). I will be purchasing my new appliances from Sears or RC Willey from now on, and they will all be brands that have exceeded my expectations with quality and service. Samsung has been great to me in the past, and they are now an up and coming rival to GE with their appliance line. Could it be because they know how to take care of their customers? In this economy, thats all youve got and you certainly do not have it. Your stores & service centers are a representation of your company, and I am less than impressed. If Miss.GE CSR on the phone that I talked to had any power to do anything, we might have gotten somewhere. Oh well.

Thank you for your time, and no-thank-you to your giant paperweights that masquerade as appliances.