GE Appliance Division

[nmaineman36]

Well it looks like GE' s Appliance Division has a few suitors lined up...According to the Boston Herald today they said that LG is in the running for purchasing the division. Haier as well and Electrolux. The article said the GE has partnered with Haier on a few projects yet they were not sure if they should pursue GE since Haier had failed a couple of years ago to aquire Maytag. LG was said to be a good fit...so stay tuned.

 

[laundromat]

If Electrolux got GE, they'd probably keep the cooking equipment as well as dishwashers.Who to be sure though? Look at what happened to FRIGIDAIRE when they took them from GM.

 

[danemodsandy]

LG:

"LG was said to be a good fit...so stay tuned."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Please God,

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

[conate]

what I find odd...

....is the CEO saying 'Oh, the division is too focused on the United States.'

Hello? YOU are CEO. Say "Have some focus outside of the USA" and guess what, it will happen.

Again, it is bad leadership, bad management, more than bad engineering that is causing business failures.

 

[48bencix]

Sears

From the business news lately, it looks like Sears is having trouble. Can you imagine if Sears goes, no more Kenmore, no more parts. With GE possibly disappearing there will be no and I mean no appliances which can be repaired. Just truly Kleenex like disposable crud.

Probably most of us are pretty much ready for that day, with a few extra washers to get us through the tough times to come.

Martin

 

[danemodsandy]

Sears...

...Would have a lot less trouble if their so-called "sale" prices weren't higher than everyone else's full retail.

 

[nmaineman36]

Sears is also having major customer service issues. Here in Mass they had a channel 5 expose on how bad Sears service and customer service is. I saw the segment and to tell you the truth I would think twice before I bought anything from Sears. They are going down the toilet. And KMart is not far behind. The big K we have in Saugus is very tired looking and needs help being spruced up. From what i gather from our lovely tenant...he works for Sears in management...he is looking for another job. Looks like Sears might be closing stores to save money.

 

[peteski50]

GE Appliance Division

I certainly hope LG doesn't buy GE. Service issues will only become worse. But nothing could ever be as bad as to what happened to Frigidaire after WCI bought them!!
Peter

 

[launderess]

Sears has gone to seed ever since they began loosing market share to Home Depot and Lowes for big ticket appliances and similar items. Face it, that area is what kept their butter stuck to their bread, without it there really isn't much else.

OTHO Sears could fight back by keeping and boosting their once excellent sales force and customer service. Walking into a Sears appliance store was often a treat, in that it was the only place, outside of small mom and pop appliance stores, to find someone who knew products, and would give great advice. The Kenmore brand was always streets ahead of most other brands, even when that brand was a cousin made in the same plant.

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Rumors abound...

Here in my little corner of the world, one persistant rumor I keep hearing is the possibility of A&E (Whirlpool's factory service) getting ahold of and swallowing up Sear's service network like they did with Montgomery Ward's service. They're virtually one and the same as it is anyway what with the Sear's and A&E service vans sharing the same parking lot here. What has anyone else heard (if at all) about this?

RCD

 

[jeffg]

My partner and I could write a small novel about our recent experience buying a W/D set from Sears. I won't bore you will all the details, but the left hand literally does not know what the right is doing, and the result is often infuriation for the customer.

The problems started when we called our local Sears store to ask some presales questions. When we asked for the Large Appliances department of the store, they automatically connected us to some kind of centralized sales office in Illinois (which BTW wound up giving us bad information about the washer we were interested in). It appears Sears no longer cares enough to even staff the major appliance departments in their stores.

And I won't even belabor the other problems we had: double billing (we lost use of nearly $4000 of our credit line for six weeks because of Sears' screwup), ordering one W/D set and one portable dishwasher, and having NO dishwasher and TWO SETS of washers and dryers show up on our doorstep. Among many other problems.

It was the greatest show of absolute incompetence and non/miscommunication we've ever seen.

 

[whirlcool]

But then again Sears has always had cyclical financial problems, who can forget the near collapse of the chain in the early 80's?
Even back as early as 1987, Time magazine had a cover that asked "Where has all the service gone?" People don't realize that they traded in service for cheap prices. Plus couple this with the younger generations "It's All About ME!" attitude and this is what you get.
Look at my example in the We Bought A New Grill thread. Typical.

 

[paulg]

Sears / A&E

My understanding of Sears/A&E:
Sears has their service dept as everyone knows. A&E(Appliance and Electronics) was actually Montgomery Wards' repair service under a generic name. I believe the name A&E was adopted so the repair service wasn't so closely tied to the failing Wards stores.
After Wards went bust, Sears acquired A&E so they could get all the Wards appliance and electronics service.
If Sears went bust, I COULD see Whirlpool picking it up. I could also see Sears being merely the administrator and subletting the repairs out to the original manufacturer's repair services (Ex: Kenmore by Whirlpool gets dispatched to Whirlpool. Kenmore by Electrolux gets dispatched to Electrolux service). This is purely speculation though.

 

[drewz]

A&E & Whirlpool

A friend at Whirlpool told me:

Original "Tech Care Service" (owned by Whirlpool) was sold to A&E, don't know about any other dealings of A&E, but Whirlpool suggests them as a first choice for warranty repairs but you can use other vendors that Whirlpool can assign.

At this point I don't think Whirlpool is interested in the Service Division business anymore.