Mark Shaefer sent a message to Jeff Fettig that said:
Mr. Bitzer,
I am writing to you to ask for your help in resolving a situation my wife and I are having with a Whirlpool appliance. We recently built a new home in NC. We were happy to note that the builder, Toll Brothers, supplied Whirlpool appliances as part of the build. We actually opted for the upgraded appliances. We moved in at the end of September and quickly found that our brand new dishwasher was leaking. The builder had someone come to assess the issue and they confirmed there was a leak from a rivet in the dishwasher. We were then told we would have to contact Whirlpool for service. Imagine our dismay to learn that it would take over 2 weeks to have someone come out to assess the issue with a brand new appliance. We waited the time and the service technician again confirmed the leak and informed us he had not seen this particular issue and would need to order parts that were on backorder with no indication of how long it would be to receive them. I also asked if this would fix the problem and was told there was 80% confidence it should fix the issue. The parts were apparently found from a secondary source and mailed to us and they we needed to wait for them to come and install them. We were now about 5 weeks without a dishwasher because of a defective appliance. They came and installed the parts, told us it was fixed and left. We decided to run the dishwasher to make certain everything worked and again had a leak. We called to let the repair person know and were told he would order more parts and need to come back again to try and fix the problem. We are now mid November, still do not have a working dishwasher. I contacted the Whirlpool assistance line again and suggested at this point we should receive a new unit at this point. We were told our warranty did not include replacement but they would continue to try and fix the unit. I saw on the corporate website that Whirlpool uses the tagline, "Appliances you can trust". We certainly do not have that feeling at this point. Our builder did bring a "loaner" today so we have a dishwasher to use but we would rather have a functioning unit that we purchased. We have tried to go through proper channels but at this point I believe we have exhausted those routes. I know this is a first world sort of problem but I would think that a large corporation supplying a major builder would do the right thing and replace the obviously defective unit at this point. I am hopeful that perhaps we can get some action from you or your staff.
Kind regards,
Mark Shaefer
