Warrenty Work on Dometic Refrigerator

[allenpamela]

After only using our refrigerator less than a dozen times a heating element burned out. Even though it is still covered for parts and labor under the warranty we had to pay for half of the labor which was $45.00. The reason given was that the refrigerator is hard to get to and had to be pulled out for the part to be replaced and that Dometic would not pay for the extra work. I find this odd but being a first time RV owner, what do I know. Has anyone else out there had this problem with warranty work on the appliances?

[bugeyedriver]

I had some work done on my Coleman A/C which was covered with no problem. Of course access was rather simple. Did they need to take your refrigerator all the way out of the trailer, or did they merely pull it out and service it inside the trailer? I think the total removal may be rather involved. It does not fit out the rear window and the wall to the shower may need to come out to permit them to get it out the front door.

 

Do you know if that's what they had to do?

[herm]

I don't have the Oliver documents handy, but I believe the one-year warranty is bumper-to-bumper(tongue). So, not only do you have individual warranties for the various products, but also for the entire trailer itself. Personally, I don't think you should be penalized because certain work is more difficult than on a "standard" trailer - that's not your fault. I'd give Robert a call and see if they'd reimburse you.

 

I'm a little alarmed to read that it might be necessary to remove the shower wall to replace a refrigerator! I hope that's not true. Anyone know for sure?

 

Herm

[technomadia]

The folks at Oliver, when we asked them what would be the most difficult thing to replace in the trailer, told us that the refrigerator would be the most challenging. I do believe it would involve taking out the shower wall for a total replacement (which isn't as big of a deal as it sounds.. it's a separate insert and was designed to come in and out if needed.).

 

It's not uncommon at all for appliance manufacturers to only cover parts and not labor. Unfortunately, most RV appliance companies are not as consumer friendly as our dear Oliver.

 

For instance, our Fantastic fan has needed several parts replaced - they're very helpful in diagnosing our problems and shipping us parts, but never to pay the labor to do the work. (Which since it was within Chris' realm of comfort, he was able to do the replacements himself... so not an issue in that case.)

 

Do definitely contact Oliver however, I believe labor is included in the warranty for appliance repairs/replacements.

 

- Cherie

[allenpamela]

They just had to pull the refrig out from the inside to replace the part. I called Dometic this morning and they said they only authorize a half hour for the work. I doubt that it took over a half hour even though they pulled it out from the inside. They put it back in terrible and not secure and when I pointed it out to them they pulled out a screw driver, took out four screws pulled the refrig partially out then straightened it out and resecured it all in less than five minutes. I live in a rural area and there is one place in town for RV repairs but everyone says don't go there so we had to drive three hours and stay the night to get this fixed. I guess if it happens again it will be cheaper for us to buy the part and replace it ourselves. It's just too bad that other RV businesses aren't like the Olivers who believe in customer service. Thanks for your response.