Kudos to GE...

While J and I were doing malaria clinics in Africa last fall, my generous mom came to stay with our kids. Somehow during that time, our 6 month old GE Adora microwave died. Mom was horrified by the thought that she might have accidentally killed it, going so far as calling my dad back home in Idaho and having him walk her through changing the fuses in hopes that it would fix it. When that didn't work, she emailed me in Zanzibar to tell me that it was broken. We did return to a dead microwave, but since Mom had gone out and purchased a small counter top version- it really wasn't a big deal. Frankly, my mom was way more stressed about it than I was. I only time I really even missed my big microwave was when I couldn't use the over the stove vent while grilling steak on top of the stove. And even then- I just opened the window over the sink. No big deal and since I've got enough going on in my every day life- getting it fixed has just not been a huge priority...

In the 5 months since then, Mom has called me periodically to ask if I've had the microwave looked at yet, each time reminding me that she would pay for any repairs or even a replacement if needed.

Well- I finally got around to going online to GE's customer service site. The microwave was still under it's initial one year warranty, but it was soon to expire- so I knew that I needed to get an appointment scheduled. I was able to get a service window for Wednesday and my choices were from 8am to 12pm or 12pm to 4pm. Since it takes me an hour to do the afternoon school pickup run, I went with the morning slot hoping that the technician wouldn't arrive while I was running Teenage Daughter to school.

Well of course GE's automated system called about 10 minutes before we needed to leave for school to inform me that the technician was on his way. I wrote a quick note letting him know that I would be right back and taped it to the door as we ran out. He did arrive while we were gone, but was kind enough to wait for me to return. Less than one short hour later- my microwave was repaired!

Now here's the best part- although J did find the purchase receipt for the microwave (so that we could prove that it was still under warranty), we didn't need it! The technician pulled all the information up on his laptop ahead of time. I can't tell you how nice it was to deal with a company that didn't make me prove to them that they needed to honor their warranty and instead just offered great customer service.

I'm not sure how long it will be until I need another new appliance, but when I do- GE is now at the top of my list!