The oven saga of 2012

It started Easter Day this year.  I had put a turkey breast in the oven on timed cook, to do its thing while we were at church.  When we came home, the clock on the oven was flashing, and the temperature inside was not nearly what it should have been.  A simple push of the clock button got things going again.  But lunch was delayed.  I didn’t think too much about it, until it happened again a few days later.  There was no discernible pattern to when the oven would shut off.  But we could tell when it happened by a flashing clock.

Finally in late-May it did this one last time, but when I pushed the button to restart everything, it didn’t work. (The re-start technique worked about 30 minutes later.) But I figured it was time to tease out what was going on.  I called the folks who had helped with our appliances before, but the technician said it would be best to call Sears, because of the brand of the oven, Kenmore.  They made things tough for independent repair people to do their job on their machines, he said, and it would be easier for me just to deal with them.  A&E (whom I now know is a front for Sears) was willing to come right away, but tried to pressure me into a $270 “contract” that would provide for either fixing the oven or giving us $500 toward a new oven.  I hemmed and hawed, opted out of that, in favor of a flat fee for the service call.  I got off that call. But then thought better of it.  I called them back, got the contract and got (by all good and holy things) the same service appointment for that afternoon.  The technician did comment that he was puzzled by the series of notes he had received about the call prior to his arrival.  But he diagnosed a faulty control panel, which was itself $250.  That plus the cost of the service call, plus whatever follow-up was going to be needed, would be covered by my contract.  I thought I was safe in my smugness!

He ordered parts and they arrived.  A different technician arrived (you may have seen my status update about begin the guy’s first call of the morning), who worked hard but announced that the sent parts would not work.  He ordered different parts and left.  The new set of parts arrived; the second technician came back and concluded that these were again the wrong parts.  He fussed with his parts representative (much the way I might have sounded at this point). He even spoke to a supervisor!  They decided the correct parts were no longer available.  The tech suggested filing under the provisions of our home warranty policy, noting that Sears would refund the contract price since the oven couldn’t be fixed or replaced satisfactorily.  I called Cross Country; they wanted to send a technician to confirm that the oven was indeed caput.  It was the same guy who had already been twice before!  He didn’t even come in the third time, filing his report from his van.  He requested a huge list of parts, which he said would punt the problem into a “replacement” issue instead of a repair job under the terms of the warranty.  But no: Cross Country wanted to attempt the repair, even though the tech had explained that the replacement parts he was requesting were not available. So more parts came, four boxes worth, and I talked with the repair folks at A&E again about sending someone to fix the old oven.  They however had very clear notes from the tech that the oven could not be repaired, because the correct parts were no longer available.  They spoke with the warranty people and finally convinced them of the same.  The warranty folks then offered us two choices:  to put in a specific make and model (a nice GE that retails for $1200) for free or else give us $504 (exactly) to purchase the model we would prefer.  Since I already knew ovens started at around $800, I knew I was kind of stuck with the oven they wanted to give us.  I hesitated about the thing fitting into the existing opening, but the warranty folks assured me that the technician had provided exact specifications; but, they said, if it didn’t fit, it would be my fault and I would have to pay to have the replacement oven returned.  So I took a day or so measuring and researching the size specifications ad nauseum.  Ultimately I was convinced we would be okay.  We ordered the replacement.

I should say that through all of this the oven usually worked okay.  Very often though it would click off, especially if I was running it for a relatively long time, or at anything over 375 degrees.  And even if it clicked off, it was easy enough to restart generally.  It would have been a whole lot worse if the thing was not working at all.  But I did have to adapt my meal planning for the duration.

The replacement oven arrived in Greenville SC and I got a call saying they wanted to deliver it on Monday afternoon and that the driver would call 30 minutes before he arrived.  He called when he was sitting in front of the house (I was at work).  The nice lady working to phones at church said, “Well if it’s a package, just bring it to Mike here at his office.”  The driver didn’t explain it was an OVEN!  He arrived at the church and tried (yes, he tried) to deliver it to my office. I asked him to just drive back to the house and we could be done.  I asked him why he hadn’t called 30 minutes earlier to avoid this problem, to which he had no answer.  But he said he could not in any circumstance return to the house (a mile away).  So I had to reschedule the delivery for the next Monday, the only day of the week they came to this area.  No call or anything from the delivery folks ahead of the day; I called Monday asking about the plan for delivery and was told because I had not confirmed the date, it was not coming!  I yelled at three different people for all I was worth to no avail.  It would be another week.  Finally it arrived and the thing was placed in the entry hall. (The delivery guy managed to look a little sheepish when he was here.)  In the midst of this portion of the saga, I called the warranty folks a couple of times to fuss about their delivery service provider and was told they would speak to them and see if there was anything to be done to get a special delivery arranged, but that never happened over the two week delivery delay.

Once the new oven was sitting in the house, I then had to contact the warranty people to schedule installation.  After four days, I finally had the name of the firm they wanted to use.  They said, “Call them and set your appointment.”  I asked, “You have communicated to them to expect me?” “Yes,” I was told.  You guessed it: the install company had no idea who I was.  That took two days to straighten out.  Then the only day they could get to it was 6 days hence, today, August  1, a little more than two months since I began trying to get the oven repaired or replaced.  The nice thing is, the new oven slid into the opening like a glove.  One of the other nice moments was the warranty firm waiving their initial tech call fee because I had already had a company come out and do some diagnosis.  Sears did ultimately refund my $270 for the contract because they were not able to repair or replaced the oven satisfactorily, but that took two phone calls. (Oh, they wanted, at one point, to take the old oven into their shop to see if they could fix it, leaving me without an oven at all for at least two weeks.  I declined that gracious offer.)

Tonight I used the new oven for the first time, serving up my version of chicken divan, which is always a big hit.  Guess it finally turned out okay, but man, what a saga.

Photos: up top: install this morning; below: dinner, before and after.