General Electric Company Consumer Reviews - Page 2

Purchased a microwave that had a defective control panel in April. Called warranty service to have repaired. GE declined to repair and insisted on sending rebate check to buy a new GE product. I removed the serial number per their instructions and sent it to a facility in South Dakota with a copy of the purchase receipt. After waiting a month for the check I purchased a small 2nd hand unit. Called GE on June 14th to complain.

They could not find the service application, and after 40 minutes on the phone (at my expense) they wanted to send me a rebate check good on another GE product but only after I sent them the receipt for the 2nd hand replacement microwave I purchased at a Habitat for Humanity Restore over 6 weeks ago. I do not have the receipt (saw no reason for keeping a receipt for a $20 replacement).

Eventually, I was offered the rebate check but I was so disgusted with GE that I decided I would never purchase a GE product again since they refused to refund my purchase price under any circumstance. I assume they planned to deduct the cost of the 2nd hand unit from their rebate offer. SoGE profited from keeping my $184.89 since that's all they were interested in from the beginning. Obviously, GE is not interested in any measure of customer satisfaction. Their policy borders on legal theft, in my opinion. I will never purchase another GE product under any circumstance or for any reason since they refuse to stand behind their product or warranty honorably.

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA -- I purchased a new condo in 2003 and the Spectra was what the builder installed. It worked fine until I preheated it, put my food in. I was lucky as I was in the kitchen and noticed a flame. It was as described by others, sparks, flame. I turned the oven off and kept the door shut, but in that amount of time it burned right through the electric coil. A piece about one inch was on the oven bottom. A neighbor had this happen to him years ago. He had to call the fire dept. by the time it was caught.

RE: GE about to sell appliance unit to Electrolux of Europe for $3.3 billion. One overwhelmingly major GE problem is that many of their immediate past and current washers, dryers and some other products were and are troublesome, of poor design and operational qualities, came with near useless one year warranties where products failed to "last" even one or two years while costing unsuspecting consumers manifold problems and expenses. GE steadfastly at times refused to acknowledge problems, refusing at times to service the products. Perhaps Electrolux will be able to do better, but it is likely that any GE appliance unit buyer will disavow GE's warranties.

Let me preface this letter by first stating that my wife and I are extremely water conscious because we live in a extreme drought ravaged area and there have been no more than 35 loads of laundry run through this machine since the day it was installed. This is also the second one of these models we had installed. The first one was so poorly assembled that it actually tore itself apart during the first load that my wife attempted with it. We have 2 major issues with this washer and either one makes it a useless hunk of metal and plastic.

The first issue is with this machine's capacity or rather lack of same. When my wife uses the Super load option the weight of just 4 bath towels causes the tub to sink down and the pulley assembly which turns the tub is forced onto the floor of the unit causing it to rub and grind metal on metal. This is obviously a design flaw as I have read other peoples similar complaints about this model on the internet. This flawed design problem was confirmed by the repairman who stated that he has seen this same flaw on this model at other people's homes. This alone should because for a recall on this model washer, but there is more.

The second problem we are experiencing is that EVERY time we use the washer it leaks water onto our wood floors from the water inlet located "inside" the washer. Let me be very clear here and state that this leak is not coming from the water supply lines going into the washer. The leak is happening "inside" the washer's inlet. This design flaw as well as the first one mentioned above was shown to me personally by the repairman who looked at it today. The repairman also stated that the reason this was happening was because of "calcification" due to the hard water we have in our area. This again is a major design flaw in this machine.

We owned a Kenmore washer and dryer set for 20 years and we never had ANY hard water problems with the washer and in fact never had ANY problems with it whatsoever! When we moved we, sold our Kenmores and thought we would purchase a new modern and upgraded washer dryer set which would use less water and sadly we picked these units of yours.

We are now left with 2 options as to our laundry. We either continue to use this machine and let it leak onto, and further ruin our floor, and/or let it grind itself into oblivion or we take our laundry to a laundromat. Neither of these options is acceptable.

We are not expecting GE to replace our wood flooring, though that would be an honorable thing to do but, because these flaws are inherent in the build of this unit and will continue on into the future, we fully expect that you will either refund our investment in this washer and have it hauled away or at the very least that you replace it with a model that actually does the job it is advertised to do. Our faith in GE and its desire to build and support a good product is entirely in your hands and we hope to hear back from you on this matter in a timely manner.

We used to have GE extended warranties for all our appliances. It used to be a good value. I even got a dead fridge replaced for shipping costs. Then, recently, I needed a repair, and found out I could no longer schedule it online, but had to call an 800 number and talk to someone not in this country. The next repair I had (OK, I confess, I will never buy another GE appliance, but I am keeping the ones I have until they die), the man in the other country (someplace where they speak Spanish) told me he could not find my contract, they would put a work order on it, and to call back in 48 hours.

Well, I had paid for the warranty, I wanted the repair, my appliance was broken, but I couldn't get any service. And, of course, they never called back. Eventually I got a supervisor, after days of calling. The supervisor said they had my warranty, but there were no providers in my area. I still naively thought I was with GE, and I knew there were many GE service people in my area -- I live in DC metro, so to tell me there are no providers in my area is beyond ridiculous.

I got the “call back in 48 hours” routine from them, at which point I pressed a little harder, and found out that they were no longer GE, but another company entirely, who had decided to cut their costs and NOT use high quality technicians, but whatever cheap contract labor they could find. They promised to get back to me, but before they had called me back some 6 days later, I had gotten in touch with GE, got a GE technician out, who immediately fixed the appliance. Then I began the long, hard journey of trying to get a refund on all my extended warranties (I had 5).

Although I had two months on 4 of them and 6 months on one of them, my eventual refund, after hours of phone calls and several letters and e-mails, was about $10.60. When I called, they told me that was because I had actually used the warranty services several times for service calls! GE tells me that when they sold their warranty services to Assurant, they assumed that Assurant would continue using their technicians. Well, like they say, to ass-ume makes an ass out of you and me.

To make it even more flagrant, I continued to get warranty sales pitches from these people in the mail, claiming it was GE warranty protection, with GE service, that would give me peace of mind. There was no fine print telling me that this was NOT GE service. I have kept these notices and all my correspondence, but it only makes me angry.

They took my money, and they cheated me. I am NEVER buying a GE appliance again, and I am NEVER buying warranty service because it can apparently be sold at the drop of a hat to people who are not in your area (let alone the USA), who have no clue about what is going on, who are paid to read from a script they really don't understand.

I live within 15 miles of the nation's capital, millions of people around us, and these folks in some country hundreds of miles away tell me there are no service providers in my area and I need to wait 48 hours before they can find someone? And I get someone 5 minutes later on my own, paying real dollars? Give me a break. DO NOT TRUST GE WARRANTIES!!! The whole thing is a scam!!!

PHOENIX (BUT GE HQ IN FAIRFIELD, CT), ARIZONA -- Our GE Profile Spacemaker OTR Microwave, Model PVM1870DMCC was purchased and installed February of 2008. Recently, it stopped heating and was making a buzzing sound while other functions (turntable, etc.) continued to operate--just no heat. Per our (my husband and myself) research, we knew it was clearly the magnetron tube. There are a ton of complaints about GE and a lot of its products all over the web, but the MW magnetron tube issue takes center stage.

Having dealt with GE before on other service issues, we really didn't want to go through it again, but felt we didn't have many good alternative choices. We were hoping the company had made some improvements in its customer service arena, but none was experienced. Magnetron tubes are usually warranted for 5 to 10 years (depending on model), so we knew ours was under warranty, but this only covers the cost of the part, not the labor to install a new one.

Of course, as part of GE's deplorable customer service philosophy, it (GE) not only charges you an exorbitant rate for the actual service, it also charges you a separate $75 to "diagnose" the problem (and it doesn't subtract that fee IF you go ahead with the repair like most service companies either--it is simply an add-on fee), even though the signs of this malfunctioning part are consistent and GE gets calls on it all the time. This issue has been going on since 2005 or 2006, and GE is fully aware that the part and/or the entire microwave should have been re-engineered a long ago.

Still they continue to put out the same piece of crap and advertise it using the same worn-out GE slogans claiming exemplary state-of-the-art quality appliances. I wish we would have done our homework before buying this lemon, but unfortunately we relied on the good old GE name (so, pleasedon't make that mistake yourself if you're reading these reviews for purposes of researching what might be a reliable appliance).

GE has known for years that their magnetron units are defective and yet they do nothing to improve them. These parts are now, and have for sometime, made in Korea (Malaysia). The part number and other info on the box of the one just replaced in our unit, in case this is useful to anyway, is: WB27X10880 (ASM-MAGNETRON) Malaysia, www.GEAppliances.com.

So, bottom line, while we can now buy this same microwave for as little as $329 (including shipping and tax), it cost $200 to have a new (still defective most likely) magnetron tube installed in our microwave, and that's with the part being free (under warranty). From all we have now read, we can expect this magnetron tube to go out in anywhere from 3 months to 2 years (we were lucky, compared to most, our first one lasted two years), which of course will cost us another $200 or more. What a money maker for GE!!

The research also suggests that the next thing we can expect to go on the unit will be the circuit board, another GE product part known to have a very high premature fail rate, which repair, per reports on-line, will cost MORE than the magnetron tube, because the one-year unit warranty (which I understand this falls under) has already passed.

Many of the reviewers on line have simply tossed this microwave (and other GE microwaves) in the trash, and some of them only being a few months old, because they can buy a new NON-GE unit for practically the same cost what GE charges for repairing your unit the first time.

So, consider yourself warned about GE. I have also written an article under "Policy" section here entitled "GE - A NAME YOU CAN'T TRUST" which elaborates even more on our feelings about this company. It all sounds very negative, I realize, but if you search the web, you will see it is a pretty universal sentiment, and it is so very unfortunate.

I bought the G. E. toploader infusor model washer in Sept 09. It was marketed as an energy saver. After four months of watching my clothes go through cycles of wash, rinse, spin and come out twisted, wrinkled, covered with lint and detergent residue and looking worse after washing than before, my energy is depleted. After acquiring skin rashes from detergent and probably soil retention, I'm out of patience.

I was skeptical from the start when I saw the amount of water versus the size of the load that supposedly could be accommodated by this machine, but I continued to try all the manufactures “remedies” for “problems”. I tried different combinations of water level, soil level, etc. Nothing made any difference. On January 24, 2010, I called GE to ask for a refund or different machine. I had explained that there was nothing malfunctioning in the controls, but the machine was not accomplishing what it purported to do, i.e., CLEAN CLOTHES. I was told a repairman would have to determine manufacturer's defect and then issue an authorization.

The repairman who came the following day, wasn't interested in the fact that the machine doesn't do what it's supposed to do. He disinterestedly explained that as the repairman, as far as he could see, everything was working properly. He took the load of clothes I saved to illustrate my problems with the machine and “arranged” them around the drum, explaining as he went, the process, as if I hadn't been doing exactly that for four months.. He was just running a demo, ignoring the crux of the matter. He opened the lid now and then pointing to an item of clothing that was floating around the surface of the water., to illustrate that the machine was indeed “cleaning”.

I disagreed and said so. The water barely covered the clothes. Again, he wasn't interested in the fact that no matter that the mechanics responded to commands, there were no good results coming from the actions. He did not wait for the load to finish. It took too much time. He simply advanced the program and declared his work finished.. He told me my complaints needed to go to customer service, not him. He wasn't interested in seeing the results of his “experiment”. The clothes were still wrinkled and covered with residue and lint, when I took them out.

The repairman also said the “large” and “super” water level designations gave about the same amount of water, so it didn't matter which you used. What??? Same thing for the fabric softener, either choice gives the same amt. So in other words, the “extras” on the dial are deceptive, giving the impression that there is an added advantage to this machine. Their true function, it seems, is to provide the repairman with something to point to as a remedy when you give him any particular complaint. One should not have to override or duplicate functions on a new machine, or extra rinse to get the basic results which the machine claims to get… clean clothes.

When I told the repairman there were many complaints similar to mine online, some even worse with destroyed flooring from overfilling machines, he insisted shaking his head no, that he hasn't heard of these things, indicating that I was wrong or lying. It was like talking to a robot. He was totally scripted from which he did not depart and his attitude was galling.

Finally when I insisted that he must, as a company representative, show at least some concern that there are inherent problems with the performance of this machine, he told me this machine does not have a deep rinse, but just a spray rinse. That was his defense. He had no concern for the very real situation, that I was stuck with a farce of a machine that does not produce. His standard response was to refer me to customer service, which did nothing but use his evaluation (no malfunction) as their rationale for refusing a refund or replacement.. So much for results.

But it wasn't lost on me that in spite of his dismissive attitude, he was well aware of every problem I presented.. He had heard it before.. For every problem I had, he pointed out an option. Residue? Use HE liquid. I never used anything but HE liquid. So that was no cure.. Skin rash from residue? Use second rinse.. No, I shouldn't have to use a second rinse to offset a brand new, inefficient product. In the end, he claimed that he was being abused. If not so egregiously insulting, it would have been hilarious. Surely, a customer stuck with a ‘lemon” of a machine because the manufacturer refuses to acknowledge its defects, has a far more legitimate claim to abuse.

I regret that I bought into the “energy saver” farce. I guess it all depends on what “energy” is. This washer uses more energy with all the extra steps, rinses, washes, etc. necessary just to get it to do what the agitator with a couple of dials did routinely. Then there is the “energy” used in the “aftercare” of the finished wash to remove lint, residue, etc from the clothes, and try to reduce the twisting and wrinkling.

This interaction with G. E. has been infuriating. I would never again do business with or buy a product of any kind from G. E. A company that feels no ethical responsibility towards its customers, reflected in the dismissive attitude on the part of the G. E. repairman deserves to fail.

Friday (10/30/2009) we woke up to no hot water. Our current water heater had gone the trip. No big deal - we've replaced a water heater before. So, we went out to Home Depot and picked up a new one to replace the old one. It was a GE 40gal with a 6-year warranty. Brought it home, installed it (we've done this a few other times throughout the years); filled it, and heated a tank of water. Turned on the hot water faucets to get the air out of the lines and get the water running again, and the water ran brown. Assumed that with the change, had to run the water out (flush the pipes). No big deal.

We ran the full 40 gallons of hot water out and the water was STILL running brown. Getting concerned. Kept the hot water faucets open for the next hour to try to clear the water. No success. Called my relatives who are/have been plumbers and told them what was going on. They immediately said it sounded like a bad liner. All this time, the cold water is running clear.

Called Home Depot told them of the issue (it's now the evening of 10/30/09) and were told to bring the water heater back in the morning. Saturday 10/31/2009, 7:00am, disconnected, drained (saving a bottle of the water so we could show them what was happening), and hauled the water heater back to HD. Started talking to the service desk and the department associate that we had spoken to the evening before. After reiterating the situation, a couple more HD employees become involved in the conversation.

We are then informed that we need to contact GE directly ourselves, because it is a warranty issue and HD needs a return authorization number directly from GE to complete the exchange. We got a bit upset because all we wanted to do was exchange the darn thing for a different one.

Home Depot is required to get a return authorization directly from GE so they can be reimbursed for the return otherwise they get stuck. Okay, we really don't want to stick anyone with the return, including ourselves because it is obviously a faulty product. HD called GE for us so we could do it all there. Great! No big deal, right! Enter GE "customer service" and the worst customer service experience we have ever had in our lives!

After Home Depot got the GE representative on the phone for us, we explained the simple situation and that we simply wanted to exchange for one that wasn't broken as this one obviously was. Once the details had once again been reiterated, we were informed by the GE representative that there was no way that it could be the water heater. It had to be our water. We explained that we were on city water and that we had never experienced anything like this before, including the night before prior to the old water heater going out and that the new water heater that we had installed was the ONLY point of variance in the entire situation - it had to be the water heater.

We argued our point, to no avail, for 10 minutes ourselves over the Home Depot phone lines and then the GE representative said that if it is a warranty issue, then it is between us and Home Depot. With that comment from the GE rep, the HD service desk associate got back on the line with them and asked for an authorization number because it did look like a faulty issue and should be warranty. The argument started again with the GE representative and the HD service desk associate, with the GE representative saying it was our water and that they would need to send one of their water tester "specialists" to our house to verify the issue.

With this idiotic development, the HD gal put the HD store manager on the phone and he resumed the argument. In the meantime, the Rainsoft independent contractor walks in to HD and is updated on the situation. He pulls out his water testing equipment and verifies that through his experience and years of working in the area along with the results of the water that came directly from the water heater, that it was definitely NOT normal and that there was way that it was our water if we are on city water.

So, HE got on the phone with the GE representative and was also told by the GE representative that GE would need to send people out to test our water. The Rainsoft rep, after another 15 minute argument by the GE rep, told the GE representative that he already had tested the water, and this is what he does for a living. He gave the GE representative the results and told him the results were conclusive. After all of this, and the GE representative couldn't argue anything further, he finally, hesitantly authorized the exchange.

All in all, it took a total of 4 Home Depot employees, one independent contractor of Rainsoft products, and our own full history and detailed experiences and an hour and 20 minutes to get a GE "customer service" representative to EXCHANGE their faulty $354.00 water heater! The unfortunate part is that we had no choice but to go with another GE water heater! Our compliments go out to Home Depot for their employees going to bat for us. If they hadn't, we would have simply been stuck.

As for GE, it is very safe to say that if we EVER need another appliance (extremely likely), GE will NEVER be one of the brands we consider! It's sad that GE believes it to be acceptable business practice to train "customer service" representatives to argue until the customer gives up, all for the sake of a dollar. It's ethically disappointing.

Deserted in the desert. I have enjoyed a wonderful relationship with Chevron for over 27 years and from time to time have used their stations exclusively. I have enjoyed an ever escalating credit increase from them and have never come close to using my credit limit. I have mostly paid the balance in full each month. Sometimes I paid over a few months if I had financed a road trip on the card.

My account has been current and clean for every one of the 27+ years, using the card only once every three months for my scheduled service and a detailed cleaning of my car. I confirmed my high open to buy limit online and decided to finance the gas on my upcoming road trip with Chevron.

I decided upon a nice road trip vacation last fall that would take three weeks to cover all of the Southwestern states from Texas to California. I used my Chevron card to service the car and get it road worthy. I made it all the way to the mid Arizona desert before I needed to fill up for the third time.

In the past, Chevron would lock my card from use for security reasons because of being used more than three times in one day. When the pump refused to accept my card, I assumed that, once again, I locked out my account by not giving Chevron the heads up that I was on a road trip. I was very familiar with this security process after using their card for over 20 years.

I went into the station to have the clerk run the card and again, it was declined. I asked to use the phone so that I could call Chevron and unlock the card. Normally after a few questions, they would agree that the card was not stolen and release the card for me to continue using on my trip. This was not the case this time. The associate on the other end of the phone advised me that I had reached my limit and in fact was over my limit by $29.00. I was advised that I could no longer use my card until the limit was paid down.

This was more of a shock than anything that I could have taken at that time. I was stuck in the desert with no gas in my tank, at a small road side gas pump with no credit on my Chevron card. I was not in a town or settlement. I was in the desert, pure deserted desert.

OK, I have money to take along on this trip but the gas budget was on the Chevron card. Using my debit card everyday for $50.00 towards gas was not within the plan. I was on a three week road trip and this was only the second day!

I got Chevron on the phone to find that it was not Chevron at all, but GE Moneybank to my shock. I know that GEMB finances private labels (even for my company) but I actually never read the fine print to realize that GEMB financed my Chevron account. Nevertheless, the reason for my credit limit being reached was that the company reduced limits "across the board" and that it was nothing personal towards me. This was more than I could take. It was over 100 degrees outside, I was sweating bullets, I had no patience with hearing that "There is nothing we can do about it"€.

I asked many questions like: "€˜When was I going to find out about the credit decrease?" She said that they mailed a letter. "When was it mailed?"€™ Friday, the day I left on the trip. Remember, I checked my balance online on Friday morning.

Needless to say, the conversation ended with no favorable resolution for me. The supervisor actually said "I don'€™t know what you want me to say."€ I want you to reinstate my credit limit so I can get back home! That's what I want you to say! Nope. The rest of the vacation was on debit. At least I know that it is all paid for.

I got home three weeks later to find three notices in my mail. One stated that my Chevron credit limit was being decreased by 75% ($1500.00). One said that one Wal-Mart card was being decreased by a couple of hundred dollars and the third was an increase in the credit limit on my second Wal-Mart card. Yep, they gave me a second Wal-Mart card instead of increasing the limit on the first card several months back. What an idiotic thing to do.

Well, I am paying off what few GEMB accounts that I have and boycotting the companies who use them. Even my loyal friend Chevron, who gave me a gas card over 27 years ago, has lost my patronage. The garage that took Chevron for all those years of scheduled services no longer accepts Chevron. Good for them. I like Chevron. I would go back to Chevron if they would drop GEMB.

I mentioned above that my company even offers financing through GEMB. I do not promote it and I encourage anyone who applies for credit anywhere to know who they are getting financing through. When you apply, or receive, a store's private label credit card, it could be GEMB and the worst financial experience of your life.

Look at the interest rates. Reminds me of the Gangster movies of the 30'€™s when the gangsters offered 20% credit rates and broke your legs if you did not pay on time. Nowadays, GEMB and any other credit facility have a license to break your legs. But then again DOES IT REALLY MATTER!

I am the current owner of four GE appliances in my home. I have your water heater, refrigerator and two dishwashers. I am old enough to remember the time when the name General Electric was synonymous with a quality product. Can you explain to me what has happened? I bought first from Home Depot an electric water heater with a generous warranty. It was precisely because of the warranty that I did buy this water heater. After approximately one year it gave out (our old one lasted 20 years). I called and was assured that this was under warranty.

Someone came out to look at it and said we need to replace it. All we needed to do was bring in the old one and get a new one. My husband is in his mid 70s. There was no way we could strap it to our car and haul it in. We got a new water heater and had to pay the service person $250.00 for installation and to remove the old one, which was just dollars short of what we paid for it in the first place. So obviously the "warranty" is only valuable if you happen to be a strong, strapping plumber.

We then needed a new refrigerator. Our old one lasted about 18 years. I was away and my husband went back to Home Depot and bought one for approximately $1,000.00. I never liked it. It never seemed to run right, however after only 3 1/2 years, I found that milk I had bought the day before had curdled and my butter was soft. The freezer section had thawed out food in it. I immediately called GE, certain that it probably was the compressor and happily the compressor had a warranty for five years.

To your credit, a service man came the next day, replaced a computer board that controlled the self defrost mechanism and told us not to plug it back in for 24 hours. IT WAS NOT THE COMPRESSOR. That 20-minute visit and repair cost us almost $300.00. When I complained that this was one-third the price we paid for it, he suggested I buy a service contract for about that same amount. My husband and I are retired. WE cannot afford to pay $1000.00 for a refrigerator and then another $600.00 to keep it running.

That weekend, after shopping for the week, we went away for four days certain that the refrigerator was working well. When we got back, about $100.00 worth of groceries was rotting away in my hot refrigerator. I called Service immediately. Apparently the first person did not notice that the "sensor" was the real problem and this new man replaced that. This morning I woke up to a freezer with ice in it despite the new self-defrosting computer chip. Probably I can keep calling until someone admits it probably is the compressor and replace it rather than trying to get out of the warranty.

I find these practices intolerable. These expensive items should last for over 3 years and if they aren't made to last, then the consumer should be told so we can find a product that is decently made. My story is not over. Eight months ago I bought two new dishwashers (one had lasted 30 years, the other just under 18). One dishwasher became increasingly difficult to close the door on until I couldn't get it to run at all. The other one had too much water left in the tub at the end of each cycle. Fortunately, I was still under Warranty and to your credit again, someone came right out.

He readjusted some things claiming they weren't put in right, blaming it on the installers. I did not have to pay, but he did inform me that if they weren't under warranty, I would have paid $120.00 EACH machine just for him to do about 5 minutes worth of readjusting. Needless to say, I will never buy another GE product. Maybe this is not a big loss to your company, but I am not going to leave it there. I think we consumers are lemmings.

I intend to send a copy of this letter to my congressmen, to ARRP and maybe start a class action suit against the unfair hidden costs of owning an appliance from GE such as Warranties that cover nothing, outrageous service contract prices and most of all the inferior nature of all products. I think I should be paid for the extra monies I have had to put out because I chose to believe you made a good product, not to mention the loss of my groceries and my time and inconvenience. I consider your advertising fraudulent. You make a substandard product and don't stand behind it.

I just read where your CEO makes 20 million a year in bonuses. He does not deserve it!!! The best thing I can say about your company is that your service department responds rapidly, but then why not, they are making a bundle out of every product you sale.