I undertook to call Doctor Appliance once again and when I reminded him that the refrigerator was now 22 years old, he had two comments… firstly, he asked me…. “What did you expect?” And he was quite correct… in the older days, appliances could and would last up to 30 years and some even longer. Today’s products will last maybe 7-8 years if you are lucky.
Next, he suggested to me that it would probably cost close to $1,000.00 for him, or one of his associates, to come out and assess the problem and even if it wasn’t a compressor issue, that payment might cover replacement of some smaller parts… Was I really interested in spending that kind of money on a 22-year-old product?
Point made, and I thanked him for his candour. The very next day, my wife and I visited three local appliance retail outlets to see what was available. This experience was almost as bad as buying a new mattress and box spring, or even…. a used car! Some models were not available for viewing; others had a 4 month delivery lead time; some didn’t fit our existing space opening; some had a sticker price in excess of $16,000.00 ( 4 times what I paid for my first new car) and in most cases, the models would not accept décor panels that would match our adjacent cabinetry.. so it would be stainless steel finish or stainless steel finish, basically take it or leave it.
Ultimately, we decided on a model of refrigerator that featured French Doors for the upper, refrigerated cabinet and a pull-out freezer drawer below. We then found a source of supply that was in fact, very competitive, price-wise and we committed to that organization to acquire the product and have it delivered and our older, malfunctioning unit removed. And things went well. The new product came on the day we were promised. The delivery people removed all of the new packing material, pulled out our old refrigerator, slid in the new refrigerator, which actually fit quite well in the space available and then... they were gone!
My wife and I were so happy to get the new refrigerator on time and more importantly, that it worked, that we immediately positioned the interior shelves and loaded them with product that had been taken out of the old refrigerator.
We did not, initially, notice that the refrigerator was not sitting quite level; that one of the French Doors hung slightly below the other; that this same door actually did not sit flush with the adjacent door.. it stuck out about 3/8” at one point and perhaps most unusual were the cantilevered, adjustable, interior glass shelves. These shelves stopped about 2” away from the interior back wall of the refrigerator and had no retainer strip, or bump or raised edge at the rear which would prevent small products from either rolling and falling off the back of the shelf. Aside from these issues, we were pleased with the product, and I thought that it would be no big deal to “talk” with someone about rectifying some of our concerns. We had, after all, registered our product with the Manufacturer and had even succumbed to the temptation of an additional 4-year warranty.
