Thursday, March 10, 2011

Oven trouble

We have been dealing with yet another issue in our house, sometimes I wonder if/when it will ever stop, and then I realize how boring life would be without all the challenges it throws out at us. On a completely different note, like yesterday I was driving into town with my sick (fever and vomiting) baby and we drive by a house that was completely engulfed in flames. As in there were like 6 foot flames bursting out the windows. During the brief seconds it took me to pass the house and the rest of my 25 minute drive all I could think about were the owners of the house as well as being so thankful for all that I have. I thought i had it bad with a sick baby, who by the way was so weak she refused to even stand on her own. I quickly realized that no matter how difficult I think my life might be, someone else is ALWAYS going through something much worse.
Back to my oven.....a couple months ago after a self cleaning cycle the interior glass on the lower oven cracked. The glass stayed intact, but the crack spread to 3 of the 4 sides. I noticed the oven was losing heat while baking, but it still worked so I figured we could fix it later. Well about a week later I began getting an error message nearly everytime I used the oven (top or bottom), so I decided it was about time to call the home warranty company. They sent put a technician who basically evaluated the situation and told us he had to order parts and come back to install them once they arrived. I asked him what parts were being ordered and he said the interior glass and 2 sensors. He said that he wasn't for sure the sensors were bad because that particular error message could be for multiple things, three things to be exact. So he came back installed the sensors and replaced the glass and that was that. Perfect! My oven is back working properly, for just 60 bucks and it only took about 10 days from start to finished. PERFECT!
Well perfection only lasted 3 days! That's how long it took for me to start getting the error message again. But this time the, message would pop up when the oven wasn't in use, or when I was just using the cooktop. It was strange! I thought about what the technician said about the error message being related to multiple parts and immediately I knew that it would mean us replacing ALL those parts, because that's the sort of luck we have with this kind of thing. So I called the home warranty company back and told them the problem still wasn't fixed. They sent out a different technician (same company) and he was "not so pleasant" to deal with. He said the same thing as the 1st guy that the error message was for multiple parts, and that he thinks it is the control panel, but it is too expensive for him to order because he could not replicate the problem while he was here. I forgot to mention that the 1st technician said he thought it was the control panel as well but he wanted to try the other parts first. So the 2nd guy leaves, after ordering a sensor pad, his theory is that the buttons are sticking which is what is causing the error message. To make a LONG story a bit shorter I decided to stop dealing with the contracted company directly because of the poor customer service and lack of listening skills I called the home warranty service and told them what BOTH technicians said about it being a certain part but "not wanting to spend that much money". They confurmed that because the repairmen could not replicate the problem, they can only spend a certain ammount of money i told them that they need to send someone out to camp out in our kitchen because there is no rhyme or reason as to when the error message pops up The warranty service decided to go ahead and replace the control panel, and they ordered the part. Keep in mind we are in week 4 of the repair now. So the control panel arrived, and get this, IT IS THE WRONG PART! It is a control panel for a completely different oven, different manufacturer at that. The only thing that is the same is the color. So back on the phone with the warranty company, they conference called in the contracted company and posed the question regarding the discrepancy in parts. The company stated that parts on appliances are interchangeable and it is perfectly fine to use parts from different models, even different brands! I could understand that, but not changing the face of our entire oven! And once again the company wasn't listening to us! Finally we came to an agreement that the technician would come back out to asses the part and order the new part. They won't just order the correct part first and then come once to install it. NO!!! NO they have to come out at least 2 more times before the problem is fixed. It is crazy! So now I'm waiting for the next appointment and as I cook dinner tonight the error message completely interferes with my plans, but then there is a new error message! Seriously! I mean what is nex?. So I called the warranty company back to let them know that there was a new error message and they should inform the repair company. So now i am just waiting for the next "pointless" appointment, and am hoping that we can get this problem fixed soon.

As I said before it could be worse.......much worse! I am thankful that this has just caused setbacks, and most of the time the oven still works.

1 comment:

Amma B said...

So, by now i know your oven IS in proper working order...however, in your missive you missed the correct spelling of "assess"... again, however, you were probably correct with the first spelling. More LOL!