The Hummy-Hum Oven Woes Part 2

If you are just tuning in, I’m in the middle of trying to get some satisfaction from an oven manufacturer about an annoying hum that a brand new oven I purchased less than 30 days ago is making. “The Hummy-Hum” is what I call the sound the control panel makes. You can read Part 1 in what I hope will be a short saga here. What I am learning is that there are a heck of a lot of hoops to jump through and I am up for doing that. Today I’m hoping that I may have jumped through a big one. Time will tell. Read on.

Yesterday afternoon I went to my local appliance store to make the call to the customer service line at the as yet unnamed manufacturer. I thought I would call from the store in case there were any questions posed to me that I couldn’t answer, my local guys would be right there to help me.

This time when I called I spoke with Lindsay. I related the story to date to her.

• Oven purchased Dec 20.
• Delivered Dec 30.
• Hummy-hum started within a day.
• Repairman/Service Tech confirmed it was there and ordered new part for control panel.
• Jan 6 new part installed.
• Within a day the Hummy-hum returned.
• Repairman/Service Tech came to my home and confirmed it was there.
• Repairman/Service Tech called Tech Asssistance who told him that nothing more could be done.

Lindsay’s response was that since the Repairman/Service Tech had returned to the shop to make the phone call to Technical Assistance about the oven, he must return to my home to make the same call to Technical Assistance again as this is the procedure that must be followed. Fair enough. I said ok and thanked her for her time.

Stuart set up an appointment for my Repairman/Service Tech and Robert returned this morning. He got right to it when he arrived and placed the required call to Technical Assistance. This time he was told that another control panel would need to be ordered and installed with the addition of some foam strips. Each time Robert is doing the repair, his shop is paying for the part until the transaction shows up in the manufacturers system as “under warranty”. Then the charge to Robert’s shop is reversed. Robert had some concerns that another part in such a short period of time would screw up the system and he wanted to make sure that he would not end up having to pay for the 2nd replacement panel. Robert was requested to contact the Partner Team which he did. I’m hoping that that part will work out for him.

Now, here’s the next thing I did.  I had received an email from Customer Service early this morning asking how yesterday’s phone call went. You know one of those “Please assist us in evaluating and improving our customer service by completing this short survey” emails with a no-reply email address. But, at the bottom of the page was the name of the Director of Consumer Care. A quick web search landed me at a webpage with not only an email address but telephone number for “The Director”. I applaud the company for this big time! So I placed the call.

I didn’t get “The Director” on the line but I did get the next in the chain of command who was able to pull up the repair file. After a polite conversation recounting the events this far and me asking if they could help me, I was informed that the company has to stand by the advice given by their Technical Assistance department—which is of course to order and install a second replacement control panel and this time adding foam strips. If this does not work then “The Next in Command to The Director” told me that the company would buy back the oven, send a check, and it would be picked up and shipped back to them. Robert was right there when I placed the call so he could hear everything I said. I wanted to emphasize to the “The Next in Command to The Director” that at no time had my local Repariman/Service Tech ever said one thing negative about either the manufacturer, the technical assistance folks, or customer service. In fact, he had said to me that the customer service for the still yet unnamed manufacturer is stellar…the best out there.

So, now I await the arrival and installation of the next control panel. Stay tuned!