Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Bad Reefer Karma

Ice is nice.
We've just come from a an extended period of bad reefer karma.

Almost 4 weeks ago the reefer in the trailer shutdown for no good reason, well there may have been a reason the GFI also tripped. We almost got there in time. Since we had been out of town for a few days all of the food in the freezer thawed and spoiled but hadn't get gotten disgusting. It made a huge mess. We salvaged the stuff we could and threw to the other stuff.
Cleaning the reefer was an involved affair requiring disinfectant and deodorant. It involved a lot of scrubbing and alternate cycles of running the reefer and allowing it to bake out in the heat of the un-air conditioned trailer.

At about this time the reefer in the Kenner Kondo Krapped out. First it stopped making ice them it stopped making cold. We caught this one in time. We were able to move everything in the freezer to the mother-in-laws spare reefer and the other stuff to our office reefer. Some of the stuff stayed in a cooler on the floor.

Fortunately we had a warranty on the Kondo and called U. A. Durr. They responded immediately, but the repairman couldn't come for 4 days. Unfortunately we discovered that we couldn't meet him. He could not reschedule for the next day, they needed another 7 days. U. A. Durr found another guy.He came exactly one week to the day after we called. During that week I began to imagine how people lived without reefers, but they had ice boxes but the iceman came around and put ice in the box every day. We had to go to the store and buy ice.

The Kondo was diagnosed with a bad compressor. I was floored, although we had purchased the reefer with the Kondo it had only been manufactured in February 2004. In 33 years of marriage we have only owned 3 reefers. One we bought shortly after we were married, one we bought when we moved to our current house 6 years ago and lost in the flood and this one. The First may still be running. We sold it with our house in the Irish Channel. I can't imagine a 3 year old reefer failing.

We reached a settlement with U. A. Durr and went to buy a new reefer. It was just like the one that failed. We got it a Lowe's, because they had the best price and more importantly said they could deliver it the next day. That turned out to be a little optimistic. It actually took 3 days. She had to go there and pay for it and pick up the ice maker kit (by the way ice makers aren't covered by most home warranties).
When they delivered the new reefer they also dented the door. That was easily handled, the guys were supposed to come back the next day and replace the door. That also turned out to be optimistic.

When we called to confirm delivery the next day Lowe's said they couldn't simply send a door, they would have to send a whole new refrigerator. For the next two days we dealt with a succession of Lowe's manager who promised to make the delivery and went off duty without doing anything. Finally the same guy who delivered the reefer showed up with the door in his hands. It was 1 day short of three weeks.

It took me 20 minutes to install the ice maker and 6 hours to make ice. I never enjoyed the hearing the sound of ice falling into the plastic ice tray.
Along the way we had another detour. The first repairman told U. A. Durr the reefer was still under warranty. I called Electrolux, since the reefer was a Frigidaire. They told me the sealed components were still under warranty.
The call center gave me three names to call for Frigidaire service. One told me that they weren't doing any seal component repairs. The other two never returned the calls. After reading the warranty. I determined that the warranty was void by reading it. It is non transferable.

4 comments:

Leigh C. said...

Oy vey. Reefer madness! And the paranoid kind, to boot.

A. said...

hey - do you think an icemaker from Lowe's would work in a Kenmore? Ours stopped working years ago and Imiss the sound of ice as well.

Anonymous said...

"After reading the warranty. I determined that the warranty was void by reading it."

Classic!

mominem said...

This post was blatant bait and switch and it worked. This may be the fastest I ever got 3 comments on a post.

A. Sears sells Kenmore ice maker kits. There is a parts place on Airline Highway near Zepher Field. They should have them.

Ice maker kits are easy to install "with a few simple hand tools" (although a electric drill would help in some cases) and pretty universal. If your reefer is old you might want to find the model number, just to be sure.

Ashley, I hate to admit that was an editing error, but since you like it I'll leave it.