Tomorrow morning, i will be sending a letter of complaint to KitchenAid. That letter is below. i wrote it several days ago to let off steam but a continuing conflict with just about any business entity i’ve run across in the last several weeks has led me to seek…er, justice, rightness, service…er, no, it won’t happen, but i have decided it is time for this curmudgeon to take a shot at the well-insulated, uncaring, except for caring about selling as much of their product as possible with no concern for quality or customer service: See, i told you i was a bona fide, pissed off, curmudgeon. i feel a bit like Peter Finch in the 1976 film “Network” because “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” i thought you might get a kick out of my letter:

KitchenAid
ATTN: Correspondence Team
553 Benson Road
Benton Harbor, MI 49022

Re: KitchenAid French Door Bottom Mount Refrigerator, 27CF FRDR KRFF707ESS

Dear KitchenAid Mis-managers;

I am writing this letter because your email communication does not exist, your phone contact puts one into an interminable automated voice tree, which eventually cuts off, and your “live” chat is not live and requires me to input my name, number, last four of my social security number, date of birth, next of kin, genealogy, address, email address, phone number, birth certificate, blood type, insurance, weight, height, criminal record if any (none, unless your continuing lack of service drives me to do something illegal), political and religious affiliation, and then all of the information in every document involved in the inadequacy of your product and repair service before the chat cuts be off because of the time limit on making an entry (okay, a bit of exaggeration, but it was enough for the chat to time out).

Yesterday afternoon, we had a contractor come to attempt repairs on your product (all of the correspondence and data can be provided upon request, and in view of your operation with this product) will be required to be submitted in triplicate at least a dozen times). The contractor repair man consulted with your “master technician” to determine how to correct a problem with frosting in the back of the slide-out bins, which was supposedly corrected about a month ago, not to mention to replace an LED light which had gone out, making it the third such light, advertised in your product info as lasting for the life of the refrigerator – This, by the way, this light problem has required us to pay $300 for the repairs/replacement because our purchase warranty had conveniently run out several months before the problems emerged (imagine that. And to my consternation, one cannot just replace a light bulb in one’s refrigerator.

We are waiting, with bated  breath, so to speak, for the maintenance contractor to provide a date of return to see if the latest icing fix worked and correct (ha, ha) the latest LED light problem. However, with the frequency of the problems now established, I believe we will continue to have contractors out so frequently, we will become so familiar we might invite him or her to dinner.

I am not writing you about my refrigerator or your dismal record of customer service. We bought a refrigerator in 1983. It operated with no problems (including a cross-country transportation) until we bought a newer model and moved the older one into our garage. When we “upgraded” (I am now convinced it was “downgrading” to a new non-KitchenAid refrigerator approximately five years ago, it was a disaster in just over two years (oh my, just past the warranty; can you imagine?). So we bought KitchenAid because we trusted your quality. That obviously was a mistake. Even though it cost $1600 more than the disaster, it is almost as bad. Even worse, it seems you are incapable of fixing it, or even communicating about our problems. I might add the replaced refrigerator we moved to the garage, getting rid of the 1983 model because of capacity difference (it was still working) is also working fine. Neither of those older refrigerators required maintenance other than my replacing bulbs.

The ongoing effort to get your refrigerator to work may be successful, but I don’t plan to purchase another KitchenAid product, and I will strongly warn any of my friends and acquaintances of the miserable response KitchenAid has made to correct the problem.

In keeping with your inability to communicate with your customers or provide even inadequate customer service, I do not expect a reply.

I just thought you should know what a money digging, piece of shame (and I cleaned that up four times) your company image has become for me.

Very sincerely and not very happy,

James Rye Jewell, Jr.