Appliances: GE Refrigerator Hidden Warranty

Recently we had problem with GE refrigerator that opened my eyes to some of the information provided in the manual. The problem was that first few days water and ice dispenser was not working reliably, meaning works some time and does not work some other time. We didn't take this seriously and let the problem continue. Well on 3rd day morning fridge was not working any more. It was making click, click noise behind and coolness in the fridge was reducing gradually.

We bought this fridge 3 years back, and did not buy extended warranty. We lived in apartments for so long and never had fridge broken, so we thought spending extra money on extended warranty was a waste. Well, what do you know our fridge broke right after 3 year mark.

Initially I thought I have to hire somebody from outside to repair the fridge. While I was making calls to repair guys one guy told me that since fridge is only 3 years old it still has warranty on some of the critical parts up to 5 years. I immediately opened the manual and read warranty section again. To my surprise he was right some of the parts like compressor, condenser and some other parts are covered up to 5 years.

I then made appointment with GE repair folks. We were hoping that part broken will be covered by warranty and we don't have to pay a dime for repairs. GE gave timing of 8 to 5 on the repair day, meaning had to wait whole day for the repair guy. But fortunately the repair guy came around 10'o clock. As soon as he heard the noise he told me circuit board is broke behind the fridge. Then came the shocker, it is not covered in 5 year warranty. Darn, we were so disappointed.

In the end we shelled out more than $300 for 20 minute job and new circuit board. First I felt so bad for not buying extended warranty. Then consoled myself thinking that if we would have bought extended warranty probably would have spent same money or more for first 3 or 4 years. So maybe it's not very bad. Our only hope now is that it doesn't break again in next couple of years, even if it does hopefully it will be covered in original extended warranty. We are still debating whether to buy extended warranty now or not.