History

I Knew I Wasn't The Only One

In December 2004, after more than three years of coping with the frustration of dealing with GE and their defective appliances, I made the decision to launch a consumer campaign against GE.  I knew there was a massive quantity of - and geographically vast - problem with defective GE refrigerators.  I had spent all that time (and energy), trying to resolve enumerable problems with two defective refrigerators.  Throughout this nightmare, I learned that the problem extended throughout my community, my state, and beyond.

Strength In Numbers

After learning from several GE technicians that the problems I was experiencing were product-wide defects that extended into other states, my first effort at organization was to address an Island Walk Homeowners Association meeting consisting of more than 50 street representatives plus members of the Board of Directors.  When asked for a show of hands of the people experiencing GE refrigerator problems, 75% of the representatives responded.  For the first time, people realized they were not alone.

Strategy was paramount, and we had plenty of strategy.  We needed data, organization, builder support, and media.  We wasted no time gathering all of these critical elements.

• We provided surveys to the households in our community.  We stopped counting the completed surveys when we reached 450 (more than 33.33% of households with GE appliances).
• We approached GE with the data.  For six weeks, they denied there were any problems and refused to negotiate or remediate the problems.
• We approached our builder - DiVosta Homes - with the data and asked for their support in dealing with GE.  We reminded them that GE was their vendor of choice, not ours; that we purchased our homes from them, not GE.  DiVosta agreed to 'come to the table' and support our demands for remediation.  GE stated to DiVosta executives that 'there was no problem with GE refrigerators in Island Walk'.
• We continued our efforts with DiVosta.  As a large purchaser of GE appliances, DiVosta finally summoned GE to the negotiation table.
• In the meantime, we contacted investigative reporters at our local NBC-TV affiliate, and local newspapers.
• On March 2, 2005, representatives from Island Walk, DiVosta Home Builders, GE, and NBC met at the Hawthorne Suites Hotel in Naples Florida.  (It was not pretty!)
• Several days after the joint meeting, we received a telephone call from executives at DiVosta that GE would meet our demands which included:
  • replace all defective refrigerators
  • refund repair charges
  • reimburse residents for independent refrigerator replacements
  • provide three year extended warranties on the replacement refrigerators (due to the level of mistrust for GE products and services).
  • allow residents to upgrade to bigger and/or better models when ordering the replacement refrigerators, if the resident was willing to pay the difference.

We won.  It was a done deal.  All that was missing now was the written agreement from GE affirming their promises.  We had prepared press releases and a community announcement.  And we waited, and we waited, and we waited.  The written agreement was never forthcoming.  We continued our media saturation, and the local outlets were only too happy to assist us.  This was a (potentially) national story, and the local media had the scoop.  GE's media relations executive Kim Freeman, was on record in both print and TV media with GE's concession that our accusations concerning Island Walk were correct, and that GE would 'make things right'.  At that point, we expanded our efforts and organization to the surrounding communities by holding public meetings, and engaging further media interest.

On April 1, 2005 our website debuted.

On April 29, 2005, a class action lawsuit suddenly surfaced - from out of nowhere.