Iron Pol

 
 

Last night was hectic.  Between my Tuesday night youth meeting, putting up our Christmas tree, and allowing two toddlers to help WITHOUT tearing the house down, I was busy.  It was somewhere in the middle of all that when my wife commented that our dishwasher wouldn't run and a green light was flashing at us.

A quick check of the owner's manual provided few clues as to what might be wrong.  It simply stated there was a problem with the heater circuit.  Removing power didn't reset anything, so I asked my wife to call about a technician.

Our dishwasher is a Kenmore (link intentionally blank), sold through Sears (also intentionally blank).  Mrs. Pol contacted me at work with our options, as provided by the "technical assistance" line.  Option one is to schedule a technician with a $75 service visit fee plus $60/hour.  If the heater coil is bad, that's about $150.  Option two is a one-year service plan for $205.  That includes any service calls, and any parts up to $500 (the original price of the machine).  Beyond that , they would give us a credit toward the purchase of a new dishwasher.

I wavered between paying for a service call and having my wife get the service plan.  Then, I got mad.  In situations like this, my getting mad leads to me doing everything within my power to give people money.  Because they don't deserve it.

I had two issues.  First, why is the owner's manual so vague about what is obviously a fault indicator?  Second, why are the only options offered by the call center blatantly designed to generate sales of the service plans?  The only answer that makes sense is that there is a VERY EASY fix to this issue.

So, I headed to the Internet.  In something like three minutes, I returned Mrs. Pol's call and asked her to push a couple buttons in sequence.  That done, the dishwasher initiated a wash cycle, and the magic green light has stopped flashing.  Total cost: $0.  Repair time:  5 minutes, counting the 4 minutes 30 seconds to find the answer, place the call, and explain what to do.

It's very interesting that the call center couldn't provide that very simple test when my wife called.  "Hey, push these two buttons in sequence and see if the washer will run.  If it does, problem solved.  If it won't run, you really do need our help."

In the time it took to complete this post, Mrs. Pol called.  The dishes are clean, the heating element worked, and the flashing green light is now a solid green "Clean" dishes indicator.

That will be $205.

 


Comments

fe-lady

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:26:44

I think it's great that you actually got a real person through Sears....! I only get the robotic voices that cannot pronounce my name or street number...and kept calling me about a delivery time three days out with NO information and then I had to call them the nite before to find out when my stove was coming.....
Anywho...what's a dishwasher? :-) Glad you figured it out by yourself and for no $! That must feel really good!

 

Cliff

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:41:19

Did you ask your wifey to spend that 205 bucks on tri gears??
Love the internet..

 

Brent Buckner

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:00:30

Good work!

 

tarheeltri

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:31:07

So what are the two buttons? You know if you have an old garbage disposal that doesn't have a reset button, there's actually a button on top of the chopper in the drain. Looks like a screw, but if your tap it hard with then end of broom or plunger, it resets the disposal. That's my only trick. I'd love to know the dishwasher thing.

 



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