Once again, I find myself waiting for the refrigerator repairman – Re-Refrigeration. I am now stuck in a warranty dilemma, after yesterday’s surprise news that I would be out $750 for parts and service. This saga actually began last December, before my surgery, when we were first experiencing problems with cooling levels in our KitchenAid side-by-side. I was under the impression that we were out of warranty, so I found an authorized repair service and set an appointment. My wife talked to her dog park friends and got the name of a neighborhood repair guy that everyone used because he was so much cheaper than the bigger dealers. As a result, I cancelled the appointment. Instead, we had her guy look at it, who advised us to call KitchenAid directly because it was apparently still under warranty. Sure enough, my wife made the contact, read off the serial numbers, and found the warranty was indeed good. We would next need to contact Flamingo Services for the authorized work order. 

They came out twice in July, and in the meantime my wife had moved most of the contents into our garage refrigerator, just to be sure it didn’t get contaminated. All indications at that point were that we were still covered by the warranty but would need to pay for the service call. Parts were ordered, then delayed while we began our month-long travels. A friend stayed here and noticed that the refrigerator was not cooling properly. Follow-up calls, when we returned, finally revealed that they had “tried” to contact us “several times,” but no one responded. My wife has no records of these supposed calls on her phone log. The parts apparently were then sent back. 

Since she was substitute-teaching again, starting in August, I took the slippery Flamingo ball and did more follow-ups. The parts were ultimately reordered, and a service appointment made. Of course, they cancelled that morning, screwing up my plans, and had to reschedule a week later, screwing up more plans. We had set a 1p-4p timeframe, but they arrived at 10a after a 15-minute warning message, so I missed my pre-paid Chair Yoga class, but was glad to see them. Two hours later, after a thorough examination it was determined that they would need to get more parts. They also informed me that our warranty had expired on this three-year-old model, and it would be roughly $750. I was dumbfounded but wanted to finally get this thing fixed, so I agreed to have them locate the parts. They weren’t even sure if they were available. Promptly, at the end of the day, they had secured these pricy parts and would be out today to fix it. 

I’m waiting, but justifiably disturbed with the whole situation. The neighborhood guy could have fixed it months ago for half this price, but instead the factory told me to use Flamingo. Am I obligated to pay, or should I refuse until I speak to a manager? If I do pay, I will never get a response. Holding back payment seems like the best plan going forward. My wife will also be here, if they truly made the 1-4 window, instead of showing up early like yesterday. Stay tuned for Re-Re-Refrigeration, I hope I’m soon shivering and stuttering like this from the cold air coming out of the open doors.