WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2000 -- The New York Attorney General and a consumer class action suit have been filed against GE for offering rebates to owners of three million recalled dishwashers.
GE "deceived consumers in New York and across the country so they could sell more dishwashers," New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said.
A class-action suit filed in St. Petersburg, FL, accused the company of turning the recall "into a marketing program for the sale of new dishwashers."
In October 1999, GE and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced the recall of 3.1 million GE and Hotpoint dishwashers because of a defective switch that the CPSC said had caused at least 50 fires.
In the recall, GE offered consumers rebates of $75 to $125 towards new GE machines or $25 for non-GE machines but refused to pay for repairing existing machines. At the same time, GE offered apartment buildings and other large owners instructions and tools to repair existing machines.
A GE spokesman called the charges "grandstanding" and said the company has received mostly positive feedback from consumers.
A CPSC spokesman said that under the law, GE had the choice of offering a recall, a rebate or repairs. It chose the rebate option.
An earlier class action suit filed in Florida charges that GE knew about the defect from the late 1980s until November 1998, when it notified the CPSC of the problem.
The defect involves a switch that allows the consumer to choose heat-drying or air-drying. Although GE says it is not practical to repair the switch, a CPSC official was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying the hazard could be removed by simply wiring around the switch, although this would make it impossible to switch back and forth between the two drying methods.
