Our Whirlpool Cabrio washer, less than six years old, suddenly began flashing nonsensical error codes on its electronic display. The repair company who had previously serviced our laundry machinery very well now has a Yelp profile which indicates that honesty or customer service is no longer a priority. The stage was set for some further online digging, and those efforts unearthed American Appliance Service.
I called Nicole last Wednesday, requesting an in-home check of the washer for Monday. Nicole was pleasant and business-like. However, in my book, four hour arrival windows indicate customer contempt, poor management or both. I wasn't happy with this "policy," but in fairness, having a relatively new, premium brand washer catastrophically fail was as much grief as I was willing to acknowledge at the time.
John arrived about fifteen minutes before the end of the four hour block, but got busy immediately and gave every impression of knowing exactly what he was doing. After disassembling the washer down to the driveshaft the verdict was, unfortunately, quite clear. Low-grade Chinese "stainless steel" had corroded and worn to the point of stopping the machine. Further, the parts and labor to replace this driveshaft exceeded the cost of replacing the machine.
Conversation with John indicated that he had just encountered the same problem with his home washer. Discussions of his experiences produced a "lesson learned;" it seems that whether the brand is Whirlpool/Maytag, General Electric/Haier or most of the popular labels, laundry machinery is now being built to the low standards of "planned obsolescence" (5-7 years, at best). While such practices with $400-$1,200 equipment are an absolute obscenity, the fault wasn't John's.
We were charged only for the $75 house call, and went shopping for a replacement that evening. Located was an LG model with a direct-drive motor and ten year warranty-- hopefully we have better luck.
John's diagnostic work was top-notch, and although we didn't have the opportunity to test his repair skills-- and hope that we won't have to for the next ten years-- American Appliance Service would be our preferred vendor. read more