Complain about a product or service

Jenn-Air Refrigerators

David of Santa Fe, NM November 8, 2009

Purchased for 1800 in April/2000. About one month after warranty expired, frig quit keeping things cold. Realized it had totally iced up the fins in the freezer. Called a technician who informed us this was a very common failure of the adaptive relay board in JennAirs. He replaced the board and the thermostat. JennAir after much haranguing refunded us about half the cost of the parts.

Same problem occurred several times and we have replaced the board several times, with no compensation from JennAir. It fails on average a little less than once per year and must be replaced. Now, it is clicking and appears to be failing or failed again. We have heard about class-action lawsuits and there was a recall recently of these kinds of refrigerators but apparently the serial number on ours did not qualify it for the recall.

Clearly, this is a defective design. We are already out several hundred dollars and much time and aggravation. Obviously, we would never touch another JennAir/Whirlpool/Amana product. But is there anything else we can do to rectify this abysmal situation? Loss of several hundred dollars, many many hours, and some food loss as well.

Jean of Medina, MN October 9, 2009

I have a Jenn-aire Luxury built in refrigerator. It went out on Sunday, September 20, 2009. We called for service on Monday, 9/21/09. The service company told us the part was ordered and would be there in a week. After 1 week, we called them they said the part was still not in and that they would check on it. They informed us that the part was on a Manufacturers Backorder. They also informed me that this is the worst possible scenario. As it stands right now, I have been without my refrigerator for 19 days and I just called your customer service number and was informed that this part is not expected until 11/30/09. WHAT????? How on earth can a company as large as you not have any parts. What am I supposed to do?

When you purchase a large ticket item from a reputable company you have certain expectations. One, that the item should last longer than 5 years. Two, that you can have repairs done, if needed. Is there something wrong with this refrigerator/part? Do I need to replace my refrigerator? I certainly do not want to wait until 11/30/09 to find out that it is still unavailable or even worse not available at all. This is the second repair on this refrigerator. I think that the repair was done on this same part but I can not find my records on this. I have the repair company trying to check on it but their records are paper and without specific dates it will be hard for them to help. What can you do for me? There must be a part sitting somewhere.

Deonne of LORAIN, OH August 6, 2009

On Saturday evening July 25th our only refrigerator caught on fire. It was a electrial fire due to a faulty part. We had smoke and shooting flames. we unplugped the unit and the fire went out. On Monday July 27th we contacted Maytag to report the fire. They transferredme to the safety department, who informed me that are model was recalled for a retro fitdue to safety reasons.They sent out a repairmanon July 28th who replaced the old burnt part with the retro fit part. Due to the fire the repair filed paper work reporting that it was not repairable due to the fire.

On the 29h they gave us the opptions of replacing the unit at its deprecationprice or giving us the deprecationvalue. We discussed it and felt the purchase of the new unit would be best. We ordered a JF12589AEP on July 30th. for 700. On July 30th Lorna quoted 7 to 10 days for delivery. She said we would hear from a delivery company to set up delivery. Maytag charged our credit card 7/30 for the replacement unit. On August 5th I placed numerous calls and left two messages to discuss the status of the delivery. I did not receive a return call.

On August 6th I started all over again. I talked with Monica ext.6981 and Lorna ext 7781. I was told that the unit we ordered is in production and will not be in stock until August 19th. At that time delivery will be scheduled. On the 19th we will have gone 26 days, 18 business days without a refrigerator.

ur refrigerator caught ON FIRE!!! My husband and I where running 5 minutes late to go to our sons soccer game and as we where leaving I heard a popping noisecoming from the refrigerator. I than saw smoke! I called my husband who pulled it our form the wall and at that time saw FLAMES shooting out of the rear of the unit! We have a 13 year old daughter who we where leaving at home ALONE. Had see been in her room she would not of heard the sound nor seen the smoke. She would not have been aware until the fire set of the smoke alarms. At that time she would not have been able to pull the unit from the wall and unplug it to put out the fire. What would of she had done and would she have been unstairs with her music playing as our home burned below.

Maytags response has been anything but responsive. We are very lucking everyone is okay and that damage was not done to our home. We ahev not been lucky with solving the problem of no refrigerator. We are buying bags of us every other day now. The first week each day to fill coolers. We had quests in town the first week. we are running to the store for daily and eating out due to no place to store food.

Our Jen Air refrigerator was purchased in 2001. It was 8 years old and in very good condition. We purchased a brand we felt was designed to hold up. It did other than the recalled part that has saftey issues!

Jackie of Bloomingdale, MI June 17, 2009

We received a recall letter involving our 6 year old Jenn Air side by side refrigerator. Their tech came out on June3rd to replace the "defective" part. My fridge was working perfectly until they "fixed" it. I ended up being without a refrigerator for 2 weeks! The person I spoke to about our food loss and about getting my fridge working again was extremely rude and unhelpful. My husband and I finally went and bought a new fridge(after their tech had been out 5 times and had been unable to fix it) Then I received a phone call from Ms.Yircott telling me that they were going to give me a new unit but that I had to pay the difference because of the age of my original refrigerator (which worked fine before they touched it!) I will never have a Whirlpool product in my home again!

Maryellen of Point Pleasant, NJ May 6, 2009

Bought a 48" Built in Jenn Air Refridgerator/freezer, took delivery Jan 09 and freezer has never worked. 16 service calls answered, and still does not work. Have had a spare refridgerator in the middle of my livingroom for 4 months!!!Need a replacement for this expensive purchase at this point!

Elizabeth of Clearwater, FL March 30, 2009

Elizabeth of Clearwater FL (03/30/09)
On January 24th 2009 my Jenn Aire side by side refrigerator had stopped cooling during the night, there was an electrical burning smell and the smell of burning plastic. The service man came and determined the starter relay had burned and melted onto the compressor. The estimate was 600 to repair since they had to also replace the compressor (which was working) due to melted parts on it. I couldn't afford to put that much money into an 8 year old refrigerator and had it hauled away. I am presently using an old refrigerator from the garage.

In March 2009 Maytag issued a recall for my refrigerator for the exact problem I had. I contacted them via email and provided multiple pieces of information on the problem I had and the fact the refrigerator was removed rather than repaired. I asked them to simply reimburse the 59 service call since it was a known problem and they were willing to fix it in 1.6 million refrigerators. They first claimed I didn't have the correct part number (for the replacement part that wasn't put in). Then it was that I no longer had the refrigerator.

The bottom line is that this refrigerator had a defective part, the part caught fire and destroyed the refrigerator and they won't make any effort to even reimburse the service call to discover this problem because it was prior to the national recall. I guess it is easier to delay as long as possible on a safety recall and then penalize those people who had the safety problem and were damaged prior to the recall.

I lost the food in the refrigerator, the refrigerator itself and the cost of the service call. I feel lucky I was home when it started burning and had a home left.

David of Allora, OTHER March 17, 2009

David of Allora OTHER (03/17/09)
My jenn air fridge nearly caught fire cause the relay went like all the others in recall. If i wasnt home it would have burnt my house down. It burnt out the relay

Gary of Greensburg, PA March 16, 2009

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