Eilis & Ted: 1, Frigidaire: 0

In the 2007 cage match of E&T versus Frigidaire, we have come out unscathed and $430 richer. Here's to perseverance! Accompanying this letter was a form stating that "It is understood that the payment of the consideration herein stated is not an admission of liability by Elextrolux Home Products, but that this settlement is in compromise of a disputed claim and that liability is expressly denied by Electrolux Home Products." I basically had to sign my name saying that I would quit bugging them and yelling at their representatives now that I have my cash. Sweet deal. Sign me up.


Click on the image to read of my sweet victory

The Plumbing Fiasco 2007

The fam arrived in town safely Friday night. This brought the population in the household up to 6 adults, one toddler, two cats, and an odd looking dog. We ate pizza. We laughed. We slept. We showered. We went on adventures. Rinse and repeat. On Sunday morning, my father noticed that the toilet in the half bath downstairs was clogged. He spent quite a bit of time and energy trying to unclog it with the plunger, to no avail. As he was plunging, I noticed an odd gurgling in the kitchen sink, suggesting the problem may not be at the toilet itself. As I ran water in the kitchen sink, the toilet began overflowing. We now knew that a trip to Lowe's was in order. We got some draino and a snake and my dad got to work. After a trip to the park to let the draino take effect, it became quite obvious that we had a bigger problem on our hands. My dad checked out my pictures from when the house was built and was able to figure out where all of the plumbing ran. We have a sewer access point in the yard, but when we went to take off the "hand tighten only" cap, we found that it had been tightened way too much with some sort of fabricated tool. My dad tried everything he could think of to try to get that cap off, but just couldn't budge it. He even took another trip to Lowe's and bought some special tools, but it was on there for keeps. While at Lowe's he found the exact cap and piping he was trying to loosen. He bought it, knowing he was going to have to break the cap open to get to the root of our problem. He did just that and found that when the plumbers had put that cap on, they hadn't put it on correctly and the back flow valve which should be positioned just so was laying all haphazardly in the middle of the pipe--causing a major obstruction and back up of all the downstairs drainage. It appears it had been that way since they did the plumbing on the house, so everything that had been flushed or put down the drains downstairs since we moved in was backed up along the pipe. I'll spare you the gory details, but let's just say that my father rocks and we have some hilarious pictures and inside jokes from the incident. Once he removed the obstruction, everything was working fine again. Of course, I was an emotional wreck the entire time thinking that our plumbing in this brand new house was shot. I called the builders first thing Monday morning and they sent the plumbers our right away. He spent most of his time trying to get that cap off, and ended up having to use a hacksaw. It turns out that they do have a fabricated tool they use to unscrew these caps, but must be using it to tighten them too, and someone got crazy with it. Since the toilet downstairs had been overflowing he had to move that and make sure the floors were okay beneath it. Then he put a new wax seal on and re-caulked it for us. Everything has been working fine since then and I guess the good news is that Ted and I now understand our plumbing system better than we ever thought we would! Anyway, a special thanks to my father for working his butt off on Sunday, and for the rest of the family for cheering him on! I'm hoping that's the only plumbing disaster we'll run into...this year.

Stay tuned for "Plumbing Fiasco 2007: We're all gummed up."

The story in full will be coming soon...

The Letter

March 15, 2007

Mary Davis
Electrolux Liabilities Department
PO Box 212378
Augusta, GA 30917

Dear Ms. Davis:

My fiancé and I purchased a new construction home on January 30, 2007. We moved into the new house the following day on Wednesday, January 31. We had a Frigidaire SXS refrigerator (model # FRS6LF7FM-6, serial # 4A70319874, silver mist color) delivered from Lowe’s that afternoon. The fridge was installed and appeared to work fine until Saturday, February 3, when we noticed that the food in the freezer was not fully frozen. We consulted the fridge’s owner’s manual and were instructed to adjust the temperature to a cooler setting and then wait 24 hours for the fridge to adjust. When we woke up on Sunday, February 4, there was a pool of standing water in front of the refrigerator and water leaking from the freezer section. All of the food in the freezer had completely thawed and all ice had melted. As my fiancé cleaned up the mess, I called Lowe’s regarding this five-day-old fridge. I was instructed to call the service center, which I did. I was finally put in touch with the Electrolux service center, but was told that no one could come look at the refrigerator for at least two days. We have hardwood floors in our brand new kitchen and allowing water to leak from the fridge on the floors for two more days would ruin them. I called Lowe’s and they agreed to replace the fridge that day. When the delivery team came to replace the fridge, my fiancé and I noticed the water damage to the floors, shown in the photographs provided.

When I try to contact your company about the damage your malfunctioning unit has caused, I have been put on hold and transferred to a number that no one answers. I have left a message on a voicemail about my issue instead of talking to a real human being. When no one returned my call, I called again, making my way through automated systems and countless transfers, and was told that the liabilities department at Electrolux does not have a single phone number that will reach a human being in that department. There is only a number to a voicemail. I feel that you and your company’s “policies” have insinuated that you will not rectify the damage done to my floors unless I jump through countless hoops that you throw my way. You yourself have told me that I went about replacing this refrigerator in the wrong way from the beginning, stating that I should have waited until your service people could get to my house, two days after the malfunction of the fridge, instead of replacing the refrigerator. You have told me that Lowe’s should not have helped me by replacing the refrigerator. You have told me that I needed to prevent further damage to my floors while your refrigerator sat on them waiting to be “serviced” by continually mopping up any water that leaked onto them. When asked what I was supposed to do to keep my food cold for two days, you had no reply. When I explained that I no longer have the refrigerator that malfunctioned in my possession, I was told that without record of me servicing the fridge and the actual part that was broken, I probably did not have much of a case.

I am appalled that a company of your stature treats their customers in this way, especially in stressful situations as the one described above. Not once was I told that Frigidaire was sorry for my inconvenience, sorry that their product had failed me. Not once was I reminded that I am a valued customer and that my business with Frigidaire is appreciated or even acknowledged. Not once was my situation considered with competent customer service. I am now questioning how Frigidaire became a household name, as it appears that it has nothing to do with the quality of your expensive products, and I now know first hand that it has absolutely nothing to do with your customer service.

As you can imagine, this has been quite upsetting to us as first-time homeowners. I do not expect a refrigerator that cost more than $1,000 to malfunction within three days and I have been very displeased with the way I have been treated by you and the rest of your company. The only feedback I have received so far, Ms. Davis, is that I need to spend a lot of my life energy fulfilling your checklist of documentation regarding your refrigerator that malfunctioned and ruined my new floors. I have complied with your requests and you will find the proper documentation included in this packet. A leak in the sealed system of the fridge was repaired by the service center contracted by Lowe’s, therefore no actual parts are included with my paperwork. I expect you and your administrators to review my information and my situation carefully and I expect the damage that was done to my new home by your product to be repaired in a timely fashion. I would also hope that you would share my concerns about the customer service aspect of your company with your supervisors.


Sincerely,

Me.

Weekend Extravaganza

An abbreviated portion of "the fam" are on their way south as I type. They should arrive around 7 or 8 tonight. "They" consist of my mother and father, sister, brother-in-law, and 3 year old niece Bella. They'll stay through the weekend, head off to their vacation spots, and then return next weekend on their way back home. We'll certainly be maxing out our extra space with 5 house guests, but it's looking like we've got plenty of room to accommodate. Mom, Dad, and Bella will sleep in my office/guest bedroom while Dria and John will sleep in the loft. We still have Ted's office and the entire downstairs! We're missing Teague and Mindy, but had they decided to come to town as well, there would be plenty of room for another air mattress. Looking forward to their arrival.

Got another floor estimate this morning. The woman tested the moisture in the floors and said that, though there was some moisture, it wasn't really enough to prove that there has been damage to the wood. She said that we must have cleaned up the water quick enough to prevent it from getting into the wood. She said that it's common for those floors to warp like that and then regain their shape as they dry out. We have residual ridges in the wood that you can see at the correct angle and feel if you run your hand over them. The first company said that it wasn't too bad either, but that those ridges could wear down faster than the rest of the floor causing a problem in the future. The woman this morning told us to give it another month or two and she thinks they will be back to normal. She also is the second person to say that they would have to rip up the majority of the floor to fix that one spot. So now we are stuck with the dilemma of "to fix or not to fix." I hate to give up on my Frigidaire quest (though it would be some welcomed peace) in case they don't go back to normal and we want them fixed down the road. But I also don't want to rip apart half of the kitchen and worry what the floors will look like when all of that is done. Will they match the rest of the floors? I'll be so angry with myself if we go through all of this and the floors look worse in the end. Any suggestions or thoughts?

A couple of pictures to post. I don't think I've posted any pictures of our bedroom now that we have some art up and the bed is actually made (thanks Ted!). Also, a shot of the loft transformed into a guest room.