I purchased a KitchenAid stove from Abt Electronics about 20 months ago with a five-year extended warranty. I began having issues with the stove 12 months into owning it. It has been serviced in excess of seven times. Each time I call with a problem, the following happens:
1. Abt schedules a repair person to come out. In all cases this takes at least a week.
2. The repair person arrives but doesn’t have the necessary part; it must be ordered and a new appointment scheduled.
3. The part comes in. Sometimes the part fixes the stove for a few weeks; other times it’s the wrong part, a new part is ordered and an additional appointment is needed.
Each time my stove breaks, it results in seven to 10 days with no oven. I have three kids. There is no cooking, and each service visit requires my husband or me to take a vacation day to be here. This is costing us time and money.
I have requested a replacement stove as this one seems to be a lemon, but Abt declines my requests and states: “You have a five-year warranty on parts; we will continue to fix this stove.”
For some professional insight, I reached out to two experts in consumer product warranties.
Warrenville attorney Harry Bradley of H.C. Bradley LLC told me the federal Magnuson-Moss Act protects consumers against defects in warranted consumer product, as long as the defect is identified within the original factory warranty period. He explained: “If the warrantor is unable to correct the defects after a reasonable number of attempts — typically three — the consumer may seek damages up to four years from the original date of purchase. Damages are typically awarded for the cost of repair or diminished value per the Uniform Commercial Code.” He added that in some cases a replacement product or full refund is also possible.
Bradley emphasized that the time Jen’s demand for repairs would be critical to her ability to make a claim — i.e., if KitchenAid was made aware of Jen’s stove’s issues within the original 12-month warranty period, she could seek one of the above remedies after three attempts at repair.
Bradley clarified: “An extended warranty — an insurance product — does not grant the same rights to a consumer as the original factory warranty — a promise of performance. So if KitchenAid’s first notice was outside the original 12-month warranty period, (Jen is technically) limited to additional cost-free repair attempts with no option to obtain an additional remedy or refund.”
However, Anthony Giorgianni, associate finance editor at Consumer Reports, told me, “Companies know that if they have a problem with a customer and take care of it, they’ll often end up with a more loyal customer than if there was no problem to start with. ... If the stove is failing in some significant way that an ordinary person would find unreasonable, it’s worth (starting with) customer service and, if that doesn’t work, going up the corporate food chain.”
As Jen has struggled for 20 months with her stove’s issues, I contacted an upper link in the Abt food chain on her behalf.
In response to my inquiry, Abt spokeswoman Brandy Moreau investigated Jen’s complaint and then emailed me to say,“We reached out to Jen to apologize and we have offered her ... an even exchange for a new KitchenAid or credit of full purchase price applied to a different stove of her choosing. Abt apologizes this did not happen earlier, as we agree the amount of time spent trying to repair this unit was unreasonable, and should have been noticed sooner ... We always strive to repair a customer’s purchase in a timely fashion and do it right the first time.”
Said Jen: “I’m incredibly grateful for your assistance in resolving this! Please know, you made my week!”
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