Small things

Something happened today, a small thing really but it got me to thinking about why American companies struggle.

I have a GE electric oven. It's a rather expensive unit that I bought when I built my house. Some years ago the oven started beeping and flashing it's control panel. A bit of research revealed that this is a known problem with this model GE electric oven. It seems that the control panel is improperly designed and fails quickly. A bit more research revealed that if one resets the control panel cables the problem sometimes goes away. So I took the panel apart and reset the cables. Success! But only for a little bit. Soon the problem returned.

A call to GE got me an offer to sell me a new panel and no acknowledgment of the fact that this is a known design flaw. As it happens I also have a gas stove and oven and decided that I simply wouldn't send any more money to GE and just use the gas oven until I replaced the electric one with a NON-GE oven.

As it happened I had an appliance service man call today to deal with some other appliance issues. He noticed the GE oven and asked about this problem. After a bit of conversation he volunteered that he'd put five boards in his daughter's unit in the last year! The decision not to buy a replacement is looking like a good one. But here's the real kicker, he also said he could probably fix it. Proving that truth is often stranger than fiction, the fix is to put a piece of paper on each side of the controller ribbon cable where it exits the panel! It seems that the cable is inadequately insulated and chafes against the panel then shorts out. The paper provides the necessary insulation. And get this, GE posted the solution on the net!

Now, GE used to be a good company. One of the best. The operable part of this is used to be. This is the sort of small thing that companies often do that drives customers to other, often foreign, vendors.

This sort of thing is, of course, not unique to GE. I had a similar experience with GM Chevrolet some years ago involving failed engine mounts that lead to a recall to replace the engine mounts. GM, however, did not feel that they were in any way responsible for the subsequent damage to the air conditioning condenser or transmission. I've never bought another GM car. I have bought 11 other new cars since then.

I don't think I'm unique in this attitude. When I'm the customer I get to decide who I do business with. If you are a company you can screw me once but I won't be around for a second bad experience. If you wonder where your customers have gone look to this sort of nonsence.