My five year old Kenmore dishwasher caught fire. Luckily, the damage was mostly limited to the dishwasher. The problem was due to a faulty fuse within the dishwasher that didn’t blow even though it completely destroyed the electronic control unit it was connected to, in addition to destroying much the wiring in in the main wiring harness.
Defective products happen, I know. The worst part was the response from Sears. I spent over an hour waiting on hold to speak to a customer service rep. Then, I was bounced around for another half hour by various “service” representatives. After all this, I was told they were unwilling to do anything to fix their defective product that could have easily burnt down my house. I could pay to have them to fix this, but they weren’t willing to cover any of this.
This is a known defect on this particular model. They’ve since changed the fuse and electronic control board on this model, knowing full well that this can catch fire. It’s shameful and disturbing that companies can act this way. I’ve filed a report with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but I’m stuck paying for a new dishwasher.
If you’re considering a new appliance, please reconsider buying anything from Sears. Their handling of this situation should be alarming to all.
[COLOR=black][SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]Dear Darwin01[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=3]It is disappointing to read about the problem that you have experienced with your dishwasher. Just like any other retailer we do not manufacture the products. We will provide service on the products and carry a wide range of parts for purchase. The dishwasher you own may be subject to a recall or service flash from the manufacturer. My name is David and I work for the Sears Cares escalations team and we are here to assist you. At your convenience please contact my office via email at searscares@searshc.com so we can further discuss your concerns. Please provide a contact and the phone number the dishwasher was purchased under (if different than the contact) and we will call you at your convenience. In addition please include your screen name ([COLOR=black]Darwin01[/COLOR])[COLOR=black] [/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR][SIZE=3][COLOR=black]in your email so we can reference to your posting. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Thank you,[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]David V.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Senior Case Manager[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Sears Cares[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[QUOTE=SearsCare;149106][COLOR=black][SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]Dear Darwin01[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=3]It is disappointing to read about the problem that you have experienced with your dishwasher. Just like any other retailer we do not manufacture the products. We will provide service on the products and carry a wide range of parts for purchase. The dishwasher you own may be subject to a recall or service flash from the manufacturer. My name is David and I work for the Sears Cares escalations team and we are here to assist you. At your convenience please contact my office via email at searscares@searshc.com so we can further discuss your concerns. Please provide a contact and the phone number the dishwasher was purchased under (if different than the contact) and we will call you at your convenience. In addition please include your screen name ([COLOR=black]Darwin01[/COLOR])[COLOR=black] [/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR][SIZE=3][COLOR=black]in your email so we can reference to your posting. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Thank you,[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]David V.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Senior Case Manager[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Sears Cares[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]
David,
I received a call from Tammy about a month ago responding to the email I sent, and she was very nice and helpful. She asked me to forward on the receipts for the parts I purchased, and said that Sears would reimburse me for some of the parts. I did that. However, it’s been a few weeks and I haven’t heard anything. I emailed a request for an update over a week ago, but haven’t received any reply. Can you help?
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Darwin01,[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Our apologies for the delay in getting this resolved for you. With the holidays we have been a little busier than we had anticipated. That is no excuse for not handling your issue in a timely manner. I have talked to Tammy and she is going to be sure to contact you 12/18/09 to ensure we get this resolved. She has the receipts so we just need to finalize this for you. Again, we are very sorry we have not resolved this in our usual manner, but we will most definitely get this done for you. Feel free to send us another email to [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#0000ff]searscares@searshc.com[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000] for any questions you may have.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Thank you,[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Brian J.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Senior Case Manager[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Times New Roman]Sears Cares[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]
It’s now been quite a while and I’ve yet to receive any direct reply from anyone from Sears. They reply quite quickly to the posts, but then fail to take any action beyond that. I’m wondering if this is just a means to protect their online reputation and have no intention of following through. I really hope I’m wrong. I will follow-up if I receive any compensation.
I did finally receive a gift card to Sears for $150. It in no way covered the cost of the parts, or the time it took to replace all the wiring, control panel and display. But, it was much better than I was expecting, so I no longer hold a grudge towards Sears. Whirlpool, take note. It was your crappy product that caught fire and 1.5 hours waiting on hold to find you were unwilling to do anything makes your company the lowest of low in my opinion.
If you have experienced a dishwasher fire or near fire, please have a look at the following website and add your model and serial number with a description of what happened. Perhaps we can gather enough cases to generate a recall, lawsuit or class action suit against Whirlpool.
Please take the 10 mins. to fill in your info, who knows where it could lead. May be it will save just one life and even get us reimbursed for our losses.
I have a Kenmore Elite Dishwasher that nearly burst into flames on May 29th 2010 at 10:00pm. Luckily I discovered the smell and smoke before I went to bed. My model is 665.16279400, purchased in Nov. 2004. Circuit board burnt both knife connectors right off the board and melted a hole in the plastic case that holds the board. It also started to over heat the wiring and melt the casings of the wires.
If you have experienced a dishwasher fire or near fire, please have a look at the following website and add your model and serial number with a description of what happened. Perhaps we can gather enough cases to generate a recall, lawsuit or class action suit against Whirlpool.
Please take the 10 mins. to fill in your info, who knows where it could lead. May be it will save just one life and even get us reimbursed for our losses.
I have a Kenmore Elite Dishwasher that nearly burst into flames on May 29th at 10:00pm. Luckily I discovered the smell and smoke before I went to bed. My model is 665.16279400, purchased in Nov. 2004. Circuit board burnt both knife connectors right off the board and melted a hole in the plastic case that holds the board. It also started to over heat the wiring and melt the casings of the wires.