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GE Refrigerators: Fires

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Lisa of Jacksonville FL (9/18/02):
On Sunday Nov. 4th 2001 Jacksonville fire dept. attended a small fire at my boyfriends house caused by an overheated power cord running to a top of the General Electric refrigerator. Minimal damage was caused because I was home at the time and unplugged the frig from the power outlet. The insulation on the frig power cord had melted, exposing bare wire.

The following day, (Monday), the service dept at GE was notified and they proceeded to send out a service person that afternoon. The repairman ran tests on the frig, closely examined the melted wire and concluded that there was nothing wrong with the frig. Even upon my boyfriend Ed's insistance that something had gone wrong with the unit, he was adamant that everything checked out fine, except for the melted insulation on the power cord, which he would order and return the following friday to replace. Ed suggested on at least two occasions that the frig be taken in for further more extensive examination but he stated that it was completely unnecessary.

Thursday the repairman called and said that he had obtained the cord earlier than expected and asked if he could come to install it that day. He arrived shortly thereafter, replaced the cord, ran some tests, then again assured us that the frig was running properly. The refrigerator worked fine for two days, then, on Sat November 10 2001, while out, we were notified on the cell phone by the alarm company that the house was on fire and that they had already notified the fire dept.

After the fire had been extinguished, the attending fire captain decided to call in a specialist to determine the fire's point of origin. His conclusion was that it originated from a short circuit in the door of the frig and spread from there. Ed once again notified GE service, who sent out their own inspector. After some examination and lengthy telephone conversation with his office they accepted responsibility and assigned a case number. Somehow in his wisdom Ed decided to put the claim through his own homeowners insurance. This was the beginning of dealing with what we began calling "the adjustor from hell". But that is a whole other story.

Christmas was spent in the hotel, with the threat from the adjustor that the house better be ready because Encompass insurance would not be paying for any hotel bills after the third week of Dec. New Years was spent worrying about if I would be repaid the money I was lending Ed to pay hotel bills and food. In the end Ed settled the claim with Encompass ins. after having to hire a public adjustor to help him. Unfortunately, he had to pay out of his own pocket over a month's hotel bills, the contractor was cheated out of money due him, along with other subs who were not paid by the insurance company for a number of reasons.

I contacted Mr Bob Lessard at GE's insurance company asking for some reimbursement; his underlings curt reply said basically that Ed's settled the claim I'm out of luck in getting anything unless it comes from Ed. I guess I was going to let the matter go and write it off to another life experience, however in the middle of June I was contacted by Bard and Sandra of Savannah GA. They said that their GE refrigerator had burned up under almost the same circumstances, Unfortunately there whole house went with it.

It makes you wonder how many more defective GE frig's are out there just waiting to catch fire, and perhaps next time kill someone. In light of the huge sums GE pays there executives you would think they could devote a few more dollars to making a safer product, or at least be more fair and compasionate with the people damaged by their faulty products

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