A rant - may future Thermador Buyers beware

Hi everyone - this is not my usual update. On that - we are in the house, the story is funny and we love it. I will post more, but right now, I solicit your help letting a vendor know that bad customer service never pays.

In the re-model, we decided to upgrade to a 48" built in fridge and researched extensively. According to online and in store experts, the Thermador 48" with custom panels is a high quality, well serviced appliance - one of the best. So, we coughed up $6K to purchase one and additional money to have the panels made. There was some error in the order so that it came with trim that doesn't work with custom panels - but that's somewhat easily fixed (she says after spending a month trying to get it fixed with no response).

I should have known this fridge was a problem when no one could figure out when it would ship. It finally ships and Fedex Ground has no idea how to deliver it to a residential address (it's a residential fridge)...but hey, those are typical hiccups.

Of course, a fridge that cannot reach a temp below 70 degrees in the fridge and 68 degrees in the freezer is nothing more than a very overpriced pantry. And since we moved on 12/23, the problem could not be seen by a service tech until 12/28 (12/23-12/26 everyone was on vacation and same day scheduling is impossible). That service tech took one look at the problem we described on the phone and said - I cannot fix this - its a sealed system problem and Thermador needs to fix it. Thermador calls very politely by the end of the day (12/28) to let me know that they will be replacing my fridge. And that they will do nothing about the paneling on it, around it (it is sold to be installed as a built in) or the small cabinet that must be removed and re-installed in order to dislodge it from my kitchen. Apparently all of those costs are mine for a BRAND NEW BROKEN REFRIGERATOR. Let me be clear - I have never used the fridge - it never worked. And you need to have it run for 24 hours to find out if it works...

So - DON'T BUY THERMADOR. And if you are in the retail or distribution end...this brand is not meeting it's price:quality expectations and the support makes you look bad too...and if you work for Jade, Viking, Sub-Zero...give me a call, I'd be a great testimonial to you. In any case - please join me in sharing this story with everyone in the appliance retail business as well as future home re-modelers. It's unfortunate that Thermador is not meeting our expectations for quality.

Contrast this story to Costco. We bought two copper sinks (around $200 each) from Costco and our contractor misplaced one of the drain sets that came with it. I sent a note to Costco explaining that it was our mistake and asking them where/how we could buy another drain set so that we could use the sink. Costco didn't ask any questions...didn't tell me anything either. But they did ship us two drain sets (copper), no questions asked. This from a volume warehouse seller - and I recommend people buy from Costco whenever possible - reliable, expeditious and WOW customer service.

So - what do you think the margins are on sinks and drains from Costco versus a 48" custom panel, Thermador built in side-by-side fridge (costing over $6K)...let's just say that I expect Thermador to have been embarassed by their manufacturing quality and to trip over themselves to not further inconvenience my family and replace the fridge with no costs to us. It was an opportunity for Thermador to create a loyal customer - instead, they have a ticked off one.

25 minutes on hold to get disconnected on 1/2/06 (from 4:45 - 5:09). Lovely.

Please join me in letting Thermador know that every customer matters and that we expect our products to work and, when they don't, we expect the manufacturer to handle it with ease.

They are so committed to customer service that they have no email address for service complaints or questions, no online knowledgebase and the only thing their phone number let's you expedite is finding a retailer. Someone needs to tell these people that supporting the product counts as much as selling it.

Stay tuned - I'll let you know how the story ends...

Best,

J