Saturday, March 01, 2008

Help! Who do you call when your appliances break?

For the first time in awhile we have a major appliance that is new enough it needs fixing, not replacing, even though it's not under warranty. But who do you call? So far one place we tried calling has a list two weeks out. And the next place we called was supposed to come today, but they just sent us a "thank you for rescheduling" e-mail, only we didn't reschedule and they can't tell us why we were rescheduled for NEXT THURSDAY.

Someone please help. My 3-year-old front-load washing machine is broken and I have three kids and a spare grownup in the house. That's six people's laundry we're potentially going to have to haul to the laundry place at this rate. We thought we were getting fixed today, so it's already been a few days. I really don't want to wait nearly another week until Thursday. The towel supply alone is nearly gone. I think I'd have to fill the van to get everything taken care of. That's a lot of time at the laundromat.

Help! Who do YOU call? Please say someone out there knows a good appliance place ...

7 comments:

James Lamb / tvjames said...

And you don't have American Home Shield or equivalent? Bummer. That's who I'd call.

If that weren't an option, I would probably call Sears. Or GE as their repair guys usually are some of the best and competent with other brands.

Anonymous said...

Servicemaster referrals are a pretty comprehensive site for referrals, though once they have you they will keep you in e-mail hell for services you never knew you needed mastered around the house (roofing, windows, bathrooms, painting, etc, will the insanity ever end?)

While under warranty, our dryer had the same issue it currently has-- no heat-- and we went through the scum-lapping, blood-sucking evil bastard warranty company (I've blocked the name out of my memory) -- we had to wait 2 weeks for an appointment for "assessment" THEN another two weeks on part/repair. Both days required four hours of house-hostage wait time.

Alicia said...

James: 1) What is AHS? I have no idea what this is. 2) GE is who we thought was our knight in shining armor up to and including the confirmation last night, only to have them no-show and magically reschedule us for no reason and without consulting us. No call, just the magic e-mail that made it sound like we did it. And 40 minutes on the phone saying "tough luck" and us explaining we can't be home on a Thursday in the middle of the day. Which is sad, since GE was awesome the last time we called 3 years ago, and seemed to have so much potential before the cluster-f that was today.

JC: Servicemaster? Is this like AHS? These are things I've never heard of.

On the bright side, I googled around, might have found the problem and saved us $100 ... we'll soon find out ...

Alicia said...

No luck. Back to square one.

Alicia said...

Hot husband fixed it!!!! Apparently something behind the timer was unplugged. And we cleaned about two bucks out of the drain. But it was the unplugged piece of the timer that did the deed. Woo hoo!

Anonymous said...

does hot husband want to take a stab at our dryer? (though I'm pretty certain it needs a new thermostat once again...)(sigh)

Lena said...

Alright husband!

If my washing machine did anything weirder than sounding like it's ready for take-off I would cry endlessly.

Me loves me front-loader! :)