By Christopher Elliott
Manuel Harris’s microwave oven stops working. Fortunately, it’s still under warranty. Unfortunately, Frigidaire won’t honor the warranty. What can he do?
Question: I bought a two-year warranty contract for my Frigidaire microwave oven from Electrolux Warranty Corporation in 2019 (Electrolux owns Frigidaire). Less than two years later, the oven ceased to function.
I called Electrolux on the day it stopped working and obtained a claim number for the repair. A local authorized dealer came to my house a few days later and picked up the unit.
They were unable to repair it and they called the service people at Frigidaire but between them they could not get this to work.
I contacted the Electrolux warranty department on several occasions to monitor the progress but it appears that after 30 days, Frigidaire for some reason pulled the repair ticket even though it was still broken.
I went back and forth with the warranty department and the dealer about this and finally they declared the unit not fixable in early 2022. According to my contract, if the unit is not repairable after 60 days I am entitled to a new replacement microwave. However, now the warranty people tell me that this is not possible since the warranty contract has expired.
I feel that I am due a new microwave since I notified them during the contract period and it is not my fault they could not figure this out before the contract expired.
— Manuel Harris, Jamestown, N.D.
Answer: Your Frigidaire was under warranty when it stopped working. That’s all that matters. If you notified Electrolux, then it should have honored the claim.
It’s possible that in the handoff between the outside repair technician and Electrolux, the date of your initial claim may have gotten reset. Since you were so close to the end of your two-year warranty period, that would have put you outside your warranty.
Appliance manufacturers don’t like honoring warranties because it’s an extra expense. But you paid for an additional warranty that covered the microwave. Even if you were past the warranty period, Electrolux should have tried to help you. A microwave oven should last longer than two years, don’t you think?
I publish the names, numbers and emails of the Electrolux executives on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org. A brief, polite email to one of them would have probably cleared this up.
Fortunately, you kept an excellent paper trail. You had a record of when you filed your claim, and it was within your warranty period. I contacted Electrolux on your behalf and showed it the evidence. The company sent you a new microwave.
