Question about a customer who broke down crying over their fridge

Had a lady in Denver last Tuesday tell me her 12 year old GE fridge was the last thing her late husband bought before he passed, and she begged me to fix it instead of replacing it, so I spent 3 hours tracking down a discontinued compressor part and got it running again, but now I keep wondering if I should have just told her it was toast, has anyone else dealt with that kind of emotional attachment to an old appliance?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_nancy7d ago

Well is that even true though? @the_mary I think you might be onto something because a sealed system job on a 12 year old fridge is no joke. Compressors are usually welded shut and you need a torch and vacuum pump to even touch them. I've seen guys on YouTube do it but they're pros with thousand dollar tools. Are we sure this wasn't just a $20 start relay or a capacitor instead? Something smells fishy here.

alex8205d ago

Actually something nobody's brought up yet, has anyone checked if the fridge is still under a parts warranty through GE? A lot of those 2010s models had 10 year sealed system warranties that transfer with the house. If that's the case, the whole compressor swap could've been free or close to it, so the homeowner wouldn't care about the fancy tools or labor cost. And honestly, a lot of these repair guys have those vacuum pumps and torches in their van anyway, it's not that crazy for a solo tech who does this daily. The real question is why no one called the manufacturer first before paying out of pocket. Seems like a classic move where someone panicked and just paid whatever the first HVAC guy quoted without shopping around.

the_mary7d ago

Oh honey, I don't think that's quite right... the compressor on a 12 year old GE fridge is usually a sealed system part that you can't just swap out without special tools. You sure she didn't just need a new start relay?