Is there any other way for oil to get into the coils of a Refrigerator?
We purchased a NEW fridge from Sears in 2002 and purchased an EXTRA 3 yr In-Home Master Protection Agreement at that time. It made alot of noises from day one...the 1st compressor went out in January
2004....the compressor was replaced...the service man told us that either the compressor's must be bad or something...he was replacing them right & left. After about a week...the noises got worse....we lived with it. It was about time for our 3 yr agreement to run out so we purchased ANOTHER 2 yr In-Home Master Protection Agreement. Then on November 13th 2005...all of our food in the freezer thawed out. We unplugged it for fear of a fire. When I called the 1-800 #...I told them I wanted a replacement.....afterall, what is that "Satisfaction Guarantee" worth anyway...they told me it was up to the repairman. The repairman came and plugged it back in....it came on and was working fine, at that time. So, he wrote on the service order paper, "working properly at this time"....and could not determine what was wrong. He told us to put a bowl of water in the freezer and "watch it". This could be days, weeks, or months and was told they could NOT do anything about it for now. Then, on November 18th it qujt working again...serviceman came on the 19th....he said he found oil in the coils and said we had turned it over or dropped it.....NO WE DIDN'T!!! They won't fix it OR replace it.....
I am sorry, I have no suggestions on getting it replaced.
The oil is in the Freon that is in the coils and compressor. When something leaks through a hole or fitting, it will spray or drip Freon and oil. IMHO the serviceman should have checked the Freon level in the system, especially when he found oil. There is nothing about moving or laying one down that will necessarily cause any oil leak. If you lay one down to move it, you need to wait a day or two to allow the oil to gravitate back to the compressor before restarting.
(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net
Sorry I can't tell you how to get them to honor the contract. I'll bet it is written so that it will cost you more to fight them than the whole thing cost. It is another good reason not to buy extended warranties (really insurance policies)
How in the world did he think you had turned over or dropped a full sized refrigerator full of food? I would call the company management or if you originally bought this warranty at the Sears store I would try and find someone at sears to talk to about the situation. Clearly if they replaced the compressor shortly after you bought it there were problems of some sort. In fact, I think there were major news articles about this bunch of bad compressors at the time. And that "oil in the coils", if he means it was on the outside of the coils, could be due to a slow leak from the first compressor repair not being done correctly. If he meant oil on the inside of the coils, how does he know? Does he have X-ray vision? Did he take the coils apart? Does he know that the guy who did the first repair put the right amount of oil in it or did the first guy put too much in???
I'd try the phone calls first and if they stonewall you should politely tell them they are leaving you no option but going to court and that you need a decision NOW as you need to get on with your life and get another refrigerator, which you will expect them to pay for when you sue them, along with all the other expenses such as the time this has taken you at $25 an hour for your time.
Who is handling the service contract? Is it Sears or is at a third party. If it is Sears, call the store and get the appliance department manger. No results? Get the store manager. Still no results? Look up Sears' corporate management listing. Do not call. Send a letter carefully detailing the history of the purchase and the problems.
Do not leave anything out! List sales ticket numbers and dates, the repair dates and if possible ticket numbers from those. Do not leave anything out that someone might come back and ask about. Anticipate every query.
Tell them what you want. Keep it all very business like.
Send this to the highest exec at Sears headquarters that you can find. Send it Express Mail, return receipt requested. Send a copy to the appliance department manager. Send a copy to your local BBB. (probably useless, but may prod Sears just a little) Be sure in your letter that you list the parties that are getting copies.
I have used this technique with other companies over issues that the local guy stonewalls on and it has proven to be effective
Even if the Big Honcho never even gets the letter, a call from his secretary can be just as effective in getting resolution.
I have spoken with 11 different 1-800 #'s from Sears....including the Regional & Coorporate office. Would anyone know how to find those articles about the bad compressors?? No oil on the outside, he said it was IN THE COILS. Oh, and I have mentioned the Lawyer thing....they still say "Sorry, Mam". For everyone's Information....Sear's Lemon CLause states...."Your appliance can only be considered a "LEMON"...IF....they determine the covered product is unrepairable due to unavailability of functional parts or technical information....OR....in the event of more than THREE SEPARATE product failures, as determined by them, due to a defect in parts or workmanship within any CONTINOUS 12 month period. THEN, if they DO replace it...it does NOT include...preventive maintenance, product diagnosis, customer instruction, accessory, cosmetic, or non-functional repair or replacement, or any repair covered under manufacture's product recall. Replacement products may be new OR "rebuilt" to meet the manufactures supply. In ALL cases, product comparability will be determined by them at their sole discretion. I'm outraged.....Four days before Thanksgiving!! We have a local TV station Lady that does "TroubleShooting" for consumers...I have e-mailed her as of yesterday.....we are hoping she can help! Really, it's like the gentleman said earler....they pretty much have their butts covered....why waste more money on a Lawyer!!
YAWN (lemon stuff)! Jump over to http:\\\\ftc.gov Click the file a complaint tab, write the complaint in limited words, submit with a correct email. Your complaint will assigned a number and filed for further reference in case of an investigation - you get a reply. An investigation most likely won't happen, unless there are multiple complaints. But when this complaint NUMBER is accompanied with letters to Sears things may change. Don't necessarily threaten with lawyers or what they might do in the future.
Oren "My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."
But if all those things fail, and you're not skipping something that makes it your fault, or not theirs, , I think you should sue them in small claims court.
Personally, I am not at all convinced you have a lemon, so I don't care if they won't declare it a lemon.
In fact a lemon is approximately what they say it is, something that breaks all the time, or breaks in many ways. Something that's broken twice, or even three times, in three years, is not imo a lemon, because it's inevitable that if a million refrigerators break once in
10 years, some of those will break twice, and some three times, and some times they will break 3 times in 3 years. That's what randomness does. "Lemon" was a category created for cars that were much worse than this.
What you do have is a broken refrigerator, and an extended warranty. So they should fix it. Their only defense, iiread carefully, is that they say you dropped it. You say you didn't. Who's the small claims judge or hearing officer going to believe? Which is more likely, that you picked it up and dropped it, or that it broke a second time? I don't think you dropped it. I don't think you even picked it up.
Not sure about this, but I think since you've asked them to fix it and they won't, you shouldl buy another and expect to win the depreciated value of the refrigerator in court. Now my Kenmore fridge is 24 years old and works fine**, but courts probably won't take the life an appliance as that long. What will they say, 10 years, 15 years? Assuming that, since it worked for about 3 years, you will get between
1/3 and 1/5 of the cost taken off for depreciation, and then you will win 2/3 to 4/5 of what you paid for it in 2002.
It doesn't matter that the fridge worked as well and was as pretty 3 yearts later as it was when it was new. Anything that can wear out is presumed to depreciate at a linear rate, the same amount each year.
Get all your papers together, including the original sales receipt. If you can't find the receipt maybe an advertisement from that month will do, if you can find one in a newspaper from that month. Check the library's microfilm, which includes advertisements. But you may not findyour model. Oh, well, you probably have the receipt. Keep all the papers where they said it was broken, even if they blame you. You want to prove it is broken. And the warrantee proves it was warranteed.
**Even though for 3 months the fan didn't spin because of the mouse that got caught in it, and a month after I fixed it, the fan didn't spin for 10 days because of piece of foam that fell into the fan. I was afraid this would put a strain on the compressor and it would fail, but so far it hasn't. It didn't get very cold when the fan didn't spin. Milk only kept for 6 days instead of 12 for example.
(BTW, when you put your nose in the carton and it smells sour, that doesn't mean if you pour a glass, it will taste sour. There must be a think film clinging tothe polyehtylene bottle that smells bad because the milk itself will taste just perfect for at least another day.)
Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.
I'm not an expert that sounds entirely normal. Refrigeration oil is in there with the refrigerant and may circulate with it to some degree. A BS excuse topped by BS explanation (you turned the fridge over!?!?! ha!). Can you get someone else?
Hind Sight is a whole lot better to judge the things you should do but here is some hindsight that is a future sight to all. You may buy something from Sears at a good price , but just don't expect them to warrant it !
Thanks everyone....I appreciate you writing back. I am gonna make another attempt to call tomorrow....I'll keep ya informed.....Ya'll have a GREAT Thanksgiving!!!!! Oh, and Turtle.....YOUR RIGHT!!!!!
: It is safe putting a oil in the parts that makes noise but not all oil .
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