What is fair with new damaged and non working appliances

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Topic Author
meebers
Posts: 501
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2012 7:20 pm
Location: Florida

What is fair with new damaged and non working appliances

Post by meebers »

Our fridge bit the dust on thanksgiving morning :confused So we eventually decided to renew the kitchen appliances which were 15+ years old. Two weeks for ordering delivery etc. Christmas time slipped it even further. The people we bought it from provided free delivery and take away, but the will only install the fridge and stove. The dishwasher and microwave would have to be hired out at our expense. So the day comes for delivery, the fridge is to $&^#$ big to fit thru the front door. They had to disassemble the front doors to make it fit along with our front door to the house. OK things happen. Stove installed fine, works fine. Fridge with its new technology has a "feature" that senses if the fridge has a leak and shuts off the water line to it. (Translated: no water and no ice) As a side note, the water filter has an rfid tag on the side that "talks" to the motherboard telling it the filter status. :P, in this case, it detected a leak. Fridge has a small screen on the front door that tells us to call a service number, which we did. The technician at the other end said he has never heard of this problem and has nothing in his troubleshooting procedures to solve it. He asked how long have you had this fridge, I replied 2 hours. He suggested that I have a factory trained repairman come and have a look at it. 2 days later, the service guy shows up, looks at the display and says, "I have not seen that before". The fridge has a usb plug on top, the service guy plugs in his laptop to look at it. Says nothing there, but lets just replace the motherboard for the fridge. New mother board did not solve the issue. He suggest that I call the seller and request a replacement. I did, they agreed, estimated 2 weeks delivery. So in the mean time, go to the grocery store, pick up a 10 lb bag of ice every couple of days to load the ice container.

So now I go to un-box the microwave that I had asked to just set it in my garage. Opened the box and the microwave looks like it had been dropped and just bent the &*^%$ out of the door and the inside stainless steel cavity. The seller is also replacing this as well, 2 weeks estimated time.

So what do you think might be fair for the seller to do if anything additional? This was a Christmas present that went sour. :annoyed
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cheese_breath
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Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 7:08 pm

Re: What is fair with new damaged and non working appliances

Post by cheese_breath »

Not a pleasant experience to be sure, but I think the seller did all they could. It's not their fault the fridge didn't fit through your front door. It's your responsibility to know this and let them know in advance there would be extra work getting it in the house. Be thankful they took the doors off and reinstalled them instead of leaving it on the porch. Also you knew they wouldn't install the dishwasher and microwave. If you didn't like it you should have bought them somewhere that did installations.

What did you expect them to do about the delivery time? That's beyond their control, especially during the Christmas season. Also,they don't manufacture the appliances any more than an auto dealer manufacturers the cars they sell. You're really naive if you don't know the appliances manufactured today are all crap and often need 'fixing' after they're delivered. (But that's a separate discussion). Be happy the seller agreed to replace the defective units without any hassle. Some would put you through the wringer before doing this.

Seems like you had a good seller. None of these things were their fault. Talk to them if you want, but I wouldn't expect any cash back. They might give you a discount voucher for future a purchase, but in your current frame of mind I doubt you will ever use it.
The surest way to know the future is when it becomes the past.
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tainted-meat
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Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2011 8:35 pm
Location: Kentucky

Re: What is fair with new damaged and non working appliances

Post by tainted-meat »

Despite the issues, I'd say you bought from a good seller as they've already agreed to replace what you've requested. Things happen sometimes and at least they're owning it.
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lthenderson
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Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2012 11:43 am
Location: Iowa

Re: What is fair with new damaged and non working appliances

Post by lthenderson »

I lost my refrigerator due to a lightening strike this spring. It took two months for the replacement to arrive since it was back ordered and after taking off the doors to get it inside the house, the realized they had ordered the wrong one. Two months later I finally get the actual refrigerator I ordered after being back ordered a second time so I was without a refrigerator for 4 months this summer. I would trade it all for a mostly working refrigerator and a trip to the store for a bag of ice now and then.
Topic Author
meebers
Posts: 501
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2012 7:20 pm
Location: Florida

Re: What is fair with new damaged and non working appliances

Post by meebers »

cheese_breath wrote:Not a pleasant experience to be sure, but I think the seller did all they could. It's not their fault the fridge didn't fit through your front door. It's your responsibility to know this and let them know in advance there would be extra work getting it in the house. Be thankful they took the doors off and reinstalled them instead of leaving it on the porch. Also you knew they wouldn't install the dishwasher and microwave. If you didn't like it you should have bought them somewhere that did installations.

What did you expect them to do about the delivery time? That's beyond their control, especially during the Christmas season. Also,they don't manufacture the appliances any more than an auto dealer manufacturers the cars they sell. You're really naive if you don't know the appliances manufactured today are all crap and often need 'fixing' after they're delivered. (But that's a separate discussion). Be happy the seller agreed to replace the defective units without any hassle. Some would put you through the wringer before doing this.

Seems like you had a good seller. None of these things were their fault. Talk to them if you want, but I wouldn't expect any cash back. They might give you a discount voucher for future a purchase, but in your current frame of mind I doubt you will ever use it.
The seller did the right thing and I will not have any hesitation of visiting them again. I didn't have any problem with them not installing the MW and DW, I knew that up front but more directed towards a damaged item. The box looked ok. The old fridge had same trouble going out as the new one comming in. It is a standard size front door. The delivery man said that he deals with this on most deliveries. He said his next house will have double doors in the front to make it easier. No where in the instructions did it mention that this might not fit thru a standard door, nor did the salesman indicate it, otherwise he could have asked for a additional fee. He sells a lot of these items. In the mean time, I noticed a deposit in my credit card account from the seller. Went to customer service to clarify what it was. Turned out they did a 10% discount and refunded that amount to the card. This is a big box store of the two main ones, the other sells you the item, delivers it and then you deal with the manufacturer on problems.
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cheese_breath
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Re: What is fair with new damaged and non working appliances

Post by cheese_breath »

meebers wrote:
cheese_breath wrote:Not a pleasant experience to be sure, but I think the seller did all they could. It's not their fault the fridge didn't fit through your front door. It's your responsibility to know this and let them know in advance there would be extra work getting it in the house. Be thankful they took the doors off and reinstalled them instead of leaving it on the porch. Also you knew they wouldn't install the dishwasher and microwave. If you didn't like it you should have bought them somewhere that did installations.

What did you expect them to do about the delivery time? That's beyond their control, especially during the Christmas season. Also,they don't manufacture the appliances any more than an auto dealer manufacturers the cars they sell. You're really naive if you don't know the appliances manufactured today are all crap and often need 'fixing' after they're delivered. (But that's a separate discussion). Be happy the seller agreed to replace the defective units without any hassle. Some would put you through the wringer before doing this.

Seems like you had a good seller. None of these things were their fault. Talk to them if you want, but I wouldn't expect any cash back. They might give you a discount voucher for future a purchase, but in your current frame of mind I doubt you will ever use it.
The seller did the right thing and I will not have any hesitation of visiting them again. I didn't have any problem with them not installing the MW and DW, I knew that up front but more directed towards a damaged item. The box looked ok. The old fridge had same trouble going out as the new one comming in. It is a standard size front door. The delivery man said that he deals with this on most deliveries. He said his next house will have double doors in the front to make it easier. No where in the instructions did it mention that this might not fit thru a standard door, nor did the salesman indicate it, otherwise he could have asked for a additional fee. He sells a lot of these items. In the mean time, I noticed a deposit in my credit card account from the seller. Went to customer service to clarify what it was. Turned out they did a 10% discount and refunded that amount to the card. This is a big box store of the two main ones, the other sells you the item, delivers it and then you deal with the manufacturer on problems.
So basically this all boils down to the damaged microwave. Again, this wasn't the seller's fault.

Maybe I'm unique in this, but I think not. Whenever I'm in the market for a new appliance I always make sure it will fit before I buy it. My house is 1980 vintage, and with them making the appliances larger and larger nowadays they might not always fit. I have double doors so that's not a problem, but hallways or openings for some appliances might be. A simple tape measure can tell me what space I have available, and I can compare this with the dealer's specs for the appliance to determine if I should buy it.
The surest way to know the future is when it becomes the past.
Topic Author
meebers
Posts: 501
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2012 7:20 pm
Location: Florida

Re: What is fair with new damaged and non working appliances

Post by meebers »

cheese_breath wrote:
meebers wrote:
cheese_breath wrote:Not a pleasant experience to be sure, but I think the seller did all they could. It's not their fault the fridge didn't fit through your front door. It's your responsibility to know this and let them know in advance there would be extra work getting it in the house. Be thankful they took the doors off and reinstalled them instead of leaving it on the porch. Also you knew they wouldn't install the dishwasher and microwave. If you didn't like it you should have bought them somewhere that did installations.

What did you expect them to do about the delivery time? That's beyond their control, especially during the Christmas season. Also,they don't manufacture the appliances any more than an auto dealer manufacturers the cars they sell. You're really naive if you don't know the appliances manufactured today are all crap and often need 'fixing' after they're delivered. (But that's a separate discussion). Be happy the seller agreed to replace the defective units without any hassle. Some would put you through the wringer before doing this.

Seems like you had a good seller. None of these things were their fault. Talk to them if you want, but I wouldn't expect any cash back. They might give you a discount voucher for future a purchase, but in your current frame of mind I doubt you will ever use it.
The seller did the right thing and I will not have any hesitation of visiting them again. I didn't have any problem with them not installing the MW and DW, I knew that up front but more directed towards a damaged item. The box looked ok. The old fridge had same trouble going out as the new one comming in. It is a standard size front door. The delivery man said that he deals with this on most deliveries. He said his next house will have double doors in the front to make it easier. No where in the instructions did it mention that this might not fit thru a standard door, nor did the salesman indicate it, otherwise he could have asked for a additional fee. He sells a lot of these items. In the mean time, I noticed a deposit in my credit card account from the seller. Went to customer service to clarify what it was. Turned out they did a 10% discount and refunded that amount to the card. This is a big box store of the two main ones, the other sells you the item, delivers it and then you deal with the manufacturer on problems.
So basically this all boils down to the damaged microwave. Again, this wasn't the seller's fault.
Of course it is the sellers fault, they delivered a damaged product. 1st when they got it from the delivery system into their warehouse, when they put it on their delivery truck, when they put it in my garage. I inspected it and found it damaged. No it does not boil down to just the MW. :oops:
If I buy anything and it is not working or damaged, it gets returned to the seller. Tell me you don't do that.
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