Winter 2006

January 16, 2006

Class Action Documents

We have moved all the Court documents and Claim Form download links to the Class Action page of our site.

January 15, 2006

GE's Class Action Webpage

In compliance with the Class Action Settlement, GE has posted a webpage concerning the suit.  This page includes all the relevant Court documents (which we posted in December).  The only addition is the official Claim Form which you can also download here.

January 11, 2006

A Critical Message For All!

Since the Class Action Settlement was announced, we have received several messages from owners of GE and Hotpoint refrigerators included in the list of models (Exhibit A) covered by the Settlement.  Many of these messages have us very concerned.  Several people believe that by completing the "Join Us" form on this website, they are registered for the Class Action Settlement.

This is not true!

You must read the following information very carefully in order to protect your rights as a member of the Settlement class.

• According to the Settlement Notice, GE will begin to mail Notices and Claim Forms to refrigerator owners listed in their records beginning this Friday, January 13, 2006.  They will also place notices in several publications including:
  • Parade
  • USA Weekend
  • People Magazine
  • Better Homes & Gardens
  • Readers Digest
  • GE Class Action Website
• When they are available, you must complete the official Claim(s) Form and return them to the Class Action Claims Administrator by the Court ordered deadline.
• We believe that if you contacted Scott Weinstein directly (the attorney representing the Settlement Class), you will receive the Settlement mailing from GE.  But if you have any doubt, contact Mr. Weinstein directly.  (If we find this is incorrect, we will post corrections here.)

January 10, 2006

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting . . .

In the section A Few Thoughts, we referenced call hold times in excess of 30 minutes.  Alice, owner of a GSS22WGMD (included in the Settlement) in Wisconsin, called the GE Customer Care Line at 9:45 a.m.  She called us on her mobile phone to let us know that she was still on hold!  She has agreed to check in with us periodically to let us know if the music is still playing.  We will update you through the day.

• 10:45 - still playing . . .
• 11:45 - still playing . . .
• 12:45 - still playing . . .
• 1:45 - still playing . . .
• 2:05 - feeling like Evander Holyfield after his bout with Mike Tyson, Alice hung up the phone.

January 8, 2006

Happy New Year!

We have so much to celebrate!  The accomplishments of 2005 are the direct result of an amazing alliance of thousands of people.  Appliance owners from three countries on two continents have contacted Nancy and I directly.  They have joined our mailing list, documented their appliance defects, and provided endless moral support.

When we began, we thought the problem might extend as far as the southern third of Florida.  We are way past thinking this is just a Florida problem!  Springtime had barely begun when we needed a spread sheet to keep track of all the states and cities involved.  By summer, we were collecting documentation from Canada and the United Kingdom.

We have achieved many remarkable victories.  But the efforts of so many, make us keenly aware of the challenges we face in 2006.  The most urgent are:

• convincing the US District Court to amend the Class Action lawsuit Settlement to reconsider the excluded models.

• Completing our Spacesaver microwave oven investigation in order to induce the legal, judicial, political, and financial communities to encourage GE to correct the potentially life threatening defect in the control panel.

• Accurately measuring and documenting the scope of the exploding glass doors in GE and Hotpoint ovens.

We are committed to change on many levels.  Your continued activism, participation, and support has never been more crucial.

Your Spacemaker microwave oven may not turned itself on, set fire to the kitchen cabinets, and destroyed your Florida home while you were at work, or . . .

The glass oven door may not have spontaneously exploded into thousands of piercing shards only seconds after you carried your 15 month old child from her play spot in front of the oven in your Illinois home . . .

But if we have learned nothing else this past year, it is "knowledge is power" and "to be forewarned is to be forearmed".

One final note:  we have moved all but one of the Media reports to Articles & Media links.  We have kept the NBC-2 news report/link together with the download links for the Class Action lawsuit documents below.

January

Here For You

For over a century, GE has provided you with the products and services you've come to rely on.  For general inquiries, online scheduling and troubleshooting, you can call the GE Answer Center at 1.800.626.2000 or online at www.geappliances/geac.com

If you are having moisture related issues with your GE refrigerator, call 1.866.839.4463.  You can always expect the best from America's number one preferred appliance brand.*

* GE is the appliance brand most often mentioned among the brands rated as offering the best products and services in America.  Source: Harris Poll, 2003.

Text from ads placed in SW Florida Newspapers by GE in June 2005.

When these ads appeared in local newspapers, we hoped forthe best.  We were anxious to see if GE would truly step up to the plate and take responsibility for their defective refrigerator problems that were causing so much inconvenience, trouble, and expense.  As time went on though, we began to receive telephone calls from confused appliance owners throughout our area.  The pattern appeared almost immediately: GE Customer Relations Representatives were informing callers that there would be a diagnostic service charge.  Additionally, parts and labor charges might also be imposed depending upon the GE Technician's diagnosis.  We surmised that this tactic was intended to discourage the service call from being scheduled.  Moreover, in many cases it worked.

Many people called us to say that they did not schedule the service call for fear of the cost.  We heard an endless chorus of, "What should I do?"  We advised everyone:

• Call GE back.
• Schedule the service call.  Ignore the CR Rep.
• Deal with the Technician.

The people who followed this advice received free repairs, new doors, or new refrigerators.  We have no way of knowing how many people are still "out there" with the classic moisture-related issues, are not getting what they were entitled to, or any of the remedies that GE promised.  A vast number, we are sure.

Here For You?  We Think Not.

We have been able to determine from speaking with hundreds of SW Florida GE appliance owners, that the purpose of these advertisements was to solicit more customer-paid repairs on defective appliances.  GE attempted to charge a diagnostic fee of $49.95 (or more depending upon location) to many of the callers who responded to the half-page advertisements that appeared in three SW Florida newspapers beginning the week of June 6, 2005.  Apparently, it was not enough to charge customers over the past three to four years for repairs of known defects.  Never one to miss an income producing opportunity, GE further lured the public with the misleading ads that gave the impression that GE was finally taking responsibility for the defective appliances.  The inference was that if you called one of the GE Answer Center telephone numbers, you could rely on the promise that GE offers "the best products and services in America'.  In other words, the customer would not be charged for a moisture-related repair.

Promises, Promises . . .

Let's all refer back to the promises made during interviews with Kathryn Simmons of NBC2-TV, the Naples Daily News, and the Fort Myers News-Press in several articles that appeared in print.  Through their spokesperson, Kim Freeman, GE promised to fix the 'moisture-related issues' and/or replace problem 2001 and 2002 production units if they were not fixed after three repair attempts.  In their statements, GE referred to GSS22 and GSH22 models, not specific serial numbers.  They referred to 'moisture-related issues' in the half page advertisements they placed in three SW Florida newspapers with no reference at all being made to any specific model numbers.  Many callers reported to us that the GE CSR stated that the special program was for Island Walk residents only, or they never heard of the program.  Even in cases where the GE CSR was aware of the program, some were telling consumers that their particular model and serial number was not included in the program and they would have to pay for a repair.  Despite these consumers describing rust, water on the floor, mold, and frost, to the GE CSR, they were denied the very resolution that GE had publically promised.

The same symptoms have surfaced in too many model numbers to list here, and so we do not necessarily see this as being a specific 10-digit model or serial number exclusionary situation.

• The GSS22 and GSS25 model families for instance, are riddled with the same problem.
• Models such as GSH, GTS, PSI, PSS, TFX, TPX, and HSS should qualify based on the 'moisture-related' symptoms standard, regardless of the remaining digits of the model number.
• Some 20 cubic foot models are affected, and free replacements have occured when the homeowner forged ahead and scheduled a service call despite the GE CSR's caveat of potential service charges.
• Many 25 cubic foot model owners have received free repairs, doors, and replacement refrigerators by ignoring the threat of service charges being imposed.

A New Generation

Many 2003 and 2004 models are exhibiting moisture-related problems, traced to what appears to be defective doors that began to appear in 2003 production lines.  GE Technicians have been cautioning since the beginning, that replacing the doors on the 2001 and 2002 models is not a fail-safe solution.  Sure enough, they were right.  We have documented reports of people on their second and third set of doors.  One consumer has received four sets of replacement doors.  We have urged consumers to demand a replacement refrigerator, not new doors.  Some have succeeded and some have not.