Is Killing an Appliance Repairman Murder?

Sung to the tune of Oh Christmas Tree:

Oh Thermador Oh Thermador,
Your products are so crappy.
Oh Thermador, oh Thermador,
Why can't you make me happy?

Your dishwasher, it came all sad.
It took two months before we had
A dishwasher, a dishwasher
That really cleaned our dishes.

And with your range, I can't bake bread.
For the right temp is never said.
I just gave up, your tech he sucked,
No calibration offered.

And now our freezer won't make ice,
The tech he came, he was not nice.
The breaker switch you must go flip,
That does not solve our problem.

A day later, it's broke again,
I called support and asked them when
Oh Thermador, Oh Thermador
Why can't you make me happy?

As an alternate last line I had "Why can't you fix your products?". Which one do you think is better? I'm taking a poll. Dave and I couldn't decide, and I'd really like to get it right as I want to post it (maybe as a video!) on Thermador's Facebook page. I am so tired of being taken for granted, taken advantage of, and screwed over!!! People contract to do work, take the money, and blow me off. Companies sell outrageously expensive products that are defective or flimsy and then don't provide any kind of good customer support.

I waited a week for the repairman to come for the fridge not making ice, and when he arrived he said, "Oh, you have an E30. It's an error where the part of the icemaker that twists to release the cubes gets jammed. Did you have your ice scoop in the ice bin?"

No. Never.

"Well it was probably in there sometime and it caused the error."

Really, no.

"Or you had a power surge or lost power. That happens in the Hill Country a lot. You can Google it."

Uh huh. So how do you fix it?

"I'll call and get the reset sequence from tech support, I can't remember which buttons to push."

A phone call, a few buttons pushed, and then:

"There all set."

But what if it happens again?

"If it happens again, you can reset it by flipping the breaker."

This was the same solution he gave me on his last service call when the range locked up... Really Thermador? Your solution for problems with your Pro series appliances is to have the customer flip their breaker?!? I asked why I couldn't use the same reset sequence he had.

"The reset sequence is just for service technicians, customers are supposed to flip the breaker."

I don't want to flip the breaker. We had our breaker box replaced this year when we got solar and it isn't relabeled yet. I have no idea which breaker is for the fridge.

"That's not Thermador's problem."

It's not rocket science to use the reset button. I do it on my laptop, my router, my cell phone, why can't I do it for the fridge?

"I can't tell you the reset sequence because if you used it and screwed up the refrigerator settings, I would have to come out again and you would have to pay for the service call because you aren't supposed to use the reset buttons. Anyway, I fixed the same problem for another woman over a year ago and it hasn't happened again. If it does happen again you might need a software update, or we'll have to replace the icemaker."

Why can't you do the software update while you're here?

He looked appalled that I had even asked and replied, "I can't do the software update because I'd have to do it for all of your appliances."

Okay, my bad here because I let him get away with saying that as if it were reasonable instead of saying, okay, update all the software. But when the E30 error came up again tonight--just over 24 hours since the technician "fixed it"--I called customer service and a very nice woman took down my issue--both with the fridge and with the tech--and said, "I will pass it on to the appropriate people".

So the appropriate people will call me Monday"

"Monday or Tuesday."

Sigh. Here we go again. I thought I posted the saga of the Thermador dishwasher on Blogger with how long it took to get it replaced (also Thermador) after it arrived and was installed broken. But apparently I just fumed to myself. It was a couple of months to get a replacement and took the intervention of a VP from corporate who called me after I left a scathing review on their Facebook page. Let's hope the icemaker problem is resolved easier.