It seems as if I have become involved in an old fashioned cheat the customer scam....and it looks like I'm in company with hundreds or thousands of others.
Less than a year ago, The Bride and I decided to upgrade our built in oven and microwave from the unit that came with the house. The operative word is "upgrade". We had a plain jane low cost builders unit and wanted something a little more upscale.
After minimal research we selected a KitchenAid self-cleaning model and paid several thousands of dollars for it. The unit was delivered and installed and everything was hunky dory for a month or so. After about 60 days we used the "self-clean" feature and the oven completely shut down. The clock is the only thing that continued to work and it's hard to cook dinner with a clock! It took a little over a week to schedule a service call under the warranty.
When the repairman came, he didn't seem surprised and quickly diagnosed the problem of a blown thermostat. The repair was simple but while he was doing the repair he made a comment that sometimes just replacing the thermostat wasn't a longterm fix. For whatever reason that really didn't register with me.
About two months later....the next time we tried the "self-clean" cycle, the same thing happened. The entire unit shut down, except for the clock. Call the repair guy again, wait another week and a half and the repair guy replaces the thermostat again and this time opens a vent in the trim work that was not open before.
Several months later and we decide to use the "self-clean" cycle for the third time. The third time is NOT the charm and we're back to crock pot dinners....The clock is working and I get the feeling that it's ticking away time just to rub it in that I won't have use of this expensive piece of electric campfire for a while.
Same deal, a week and a half go by and the repairman shows up and replaces the thermostat, again. I guess he took pity on me this time and told me that this was a common problem with KitchenAid built in ovens and I needed to start documenting things and perhaps even contact KitchenAid.
Before I tried to contact KitchenAid I decided to do some internet research to see what I could learn. Unfortunately, I found out more than I wanted to know at http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/kit_stoves.html .
What have I gotten myself into???
Yesterday I was able to get a real live person at KitchenAid. To say I got the run around is an understatement. After quite a bit of questioning by the "service" (man is that a misnomer)person I finally blurted out that she didn't need to question me, this was a well documented flaw with the product and all she had to do is look at the company complaint files.
She asked what I wanted and I said "fix it, give me one that works or give me my money back". That's when she smugly said that they were fixing it at no cost to me under the terms of the warranty...and that's all they were required to do....and oh, by the way the warranty runs out next month.
I won't drag this tale of woe out any longer. At the end of the day I have an extended warranty for six more months and I'm going to have use the "self-clean" feature every time as soon as they fix it, have it break, call for repairs, call KitchenAid everytime and complain and document the hell out of everything. Hopefully at some point KitchenAid will just provide me with a model which doesn't have this flaw...if they have one.
During this last repair the repairman told me that according to Colorado laws, to be considered a "lemon" a product had to be fixed at least 3 time in a twelve month period. I've got that covered and then some.
The Bride and I plan to use the oven this weekend and then turn on the self-destruct.....I mean self-clean cycle once again so I'm searching for more crock pot recipes...
Fair warning folks, if you are contemplating buying any kitchen appliances you need to visit
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/kit_stoves.html
DON'T BUY A KITCHENAID PRODUCT!
Thanks for visiting.
3 comments:
Boy would I be mad. Can't you complain to the Better Business Bureau or an Ombudsman or something. That certainly is not right.
Sorry to hear you are having these problems. We just got a new (black) double oven that is in a brick column but it's a Whirlpool and so far so good. Thank goodness the cleaning cycle worked OK. I don't want to frighten you but we had a friend who had a two story home that looked like the one in Gone With The Wind and she put the cleaning cycle on and went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night smelling smoke and her home burned to the ground. They said it was from the self-cleaning oven. That's a horrible thought tho. I hope they can fix your problem. It's a very nice oven/microware unit you have but not worth a plug nickel if it don't work right.
Thanks for the warning! And sorry for all the trouble you have. Seems as if the solution will be that you clean the oven by hand from now on in the old fashioned way....
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