This weekend I was tasked with getting a new microwave for my kitchen above the stove. One of those all-in-one exhaust / microwave units. I have new GE appliances in the kitchen, so after looking at the Home Depot in my office’s parking lot, I found that a pretty good unit was between $200 and $250 in the prior weeks.

On the day I was to get the unit, luck would have it that I was closer to another Home Depot, so why not? Went in and found the same unit I had previously seen and asked if I could get the black model ($247, yeah, I splurged) only to find they didn’t have it. Well, the display unit was the silver (and $50 more) but was also 30% off… I was back to $207! Wrap it up!

Before I left the guy was sure to check inside the door and see the plastic bag full of papers and screws as well as the tray for the unit. Off I go. Well, after getting it home and getting all the goodies out of the inside of the unit - I was upset to find that there was one of the ceramic wheels missing off the carousel riser and that the plate didn’t fit inside the little triangle centers! AGH!

So, off I go to start to resolve the problem. I mean, I got a hundred bucks off the thing, right? So, I start with GE… 15 minutes on hold, transferred to parts… 10 minutes on hold, they transfer me back to customer service. Great. I call Home Depot, they give me a number for the Thomson consumer products division, which wasn’t of any help at all as it was the wrong company. So, back to GE… I get to an agent who informs me it’s a four year old model. Wow! Okay, so what - it’s new, I got a receipt, right?

Not right, really - their warranty starts based on shipment date. Okay, but what about the parts? I provided her the exact part numbers (which were about $90 according to the GEAppliances.com website) - and she said they’d be shipped. Wow! Thanks. Great service for a Sunday - but better yet when they arrived at my house today - Tuesday!

Great service GE! (But next time, could you smile instead of sounding annoyed someone is calling?)