GE upright freezer tripping breaker

[dodi1982]

My boss(40+ years Exp) had  a customer phone call for a repair Sat. ..Cust. said GE upright freezer keeps blowing the breaker over and over..The boss's answer was: Save your money and go buy a new one ,compressor is seized .



I asked him later on why he didn't bother going to check it though, he said all the times it happened to him was  bad compressor and  most of the times it was GE product!!!


how do you guys confirm bad compressor vs wall plug ?

any input appreciated

[RAH52]

I always go on the call .Learned years ago ,while we all prediagnose product on the way to the call ,things may not be as they appear .Years ago I mis diagnosed over the phone and ended up with egg on my face ...I was totally wrong . On your call the compressor may have a dead short or perhaps a mouse chewed a wire thats shorting to ground .The customer called and I can't afford to not go out.

[RegUS_PatOff]

maybe it was a GFI Breaker ...
shouldn't use GFI's on appliances ...

[ioerror001]

If the phone rings I recommend a service call to check it out, if they ask possible scenarios, I am honest with them. They usually appreciate it and rarely decide just to replace it. As mentioned a mouse coulds chewed a wire, some solder and tape could fix it for a service call ..... You never know till you go. And in my opinion depending on how you come off on the phone telling them to just replace it can come off a bit arrogant and could cost you the customer for life. If you let them down easy obviously this might not be an issue. I personally offer all options and make sure the customer feels valued whatever they decide. Over a year in business and snowballing like crazy, so I could be wrong but it doesn't appear I am.

[MajorApp]

There's a 50/50 chance that the customers explanation and or self diagnosis is accurate. I don't know how many times I've gone to a house, checked out the appliance and wondered what the hell they were talking about on the phone. I've even been stupid enough to buy the part I'm sure they need from the description they gave me. Big mistake. I learned a lesson and added to my "I wonder if I'll ever use this part" inventory.

[AJ]

I don't know how many times I've gone to a house, checked out the appliance and wondered what the hell they were talking about on the phone.

Yep, a lot of people don't even know what brand when you ask them. You get there and that GE refrigerator ends up being a Frigidaire.

[dodi1982]

hmm ,I couldn't agree more with you guys because that makes sense not to turn a service call down because you never know

Yep, a lot of people don't even know what brand when you ask them. You get there and that GE refrigerator ends up being a Frigidaire.

Here in the country side of Tennessee ,some people insist on calling their refrigerator " Frigidaire" which I get as the brand and I go there and find out it's something else

[whirlpooltech]

Customers just don't know.

Anytime a appliance is not getting water, such as a dishwasher, ice maker or washing machine the customer will often tell me that it's not pumping water into it.

The dishwasher is not pumping water into it. The ice maker is not getting any water, it must need a new water pump. 

The one I hear a lot over the years from customers is with refrigerators. Any refrigerator that is not cooling like it should must need freon added.

First, freon is a brand name, so we really have no idea if it even has freon in it.

Second just about anything that goes wrong with a refrigerator will cause it not to cool like it should.

Dryer is taking a long time to dry so they think it needs a new heating element.

If I was not so honest it would be really easy for me to sell parts that customers did not need.

[dimitri]

In the new homes here in Houston the outlets in garage & sometimes even in laundry room are GFI  so an appliance when new may not trip them but after a few years they start tripping , customer cant seem to understand that.
Hard to explain, I make them pull an extention from the Garage door opener outlet. then they believe

[Brent@CanBC]

I alway do the call.   Many times here in Canada,  its the over load and relay that is the problem.  The service call is the answer, one way or the other.  Brent@CanBC