Avoid Domestic & General for extended warranty services
Before purchasing an extended appliance warranty, review Better Business Bureau complaints
Writer’s note: Although I wouldn’t get an extended warranty with them again, I do have to give them credit for refunding the insurance money I paid and admitting that they clearly messed up. Unlike Whirlpool, they didn’t give me a bunch of excuses or point fingers at everyone else in the BBB complaint. I wish it hadn’t happened at all, but I still give D&G more credit than I’ll ever give Whirlpool.
I don’t often pay attention to extended warranty option offers. More often than not, they’re available for products I would’ve long ago lost interest in by the time the manufacturer warranty expires. But I have had the worst luck with refrigerators. Not even 24 hours after I adopted my dog Junee, I thought it was odd that my fridge food was warm. I assumed I hadn’t closed the door and firmly closed it, hoping to resolve the issue.
A few hours later, I noticed my ice cream was melting and realized something was wrong. I needed a new fridge. (I didn’t buy this refrigerator; it came with my condo purchase so I have no clue how old it was.) And while the money I used to adopt my dog would’ve gotten me a reasonably priced fridge, I had no regrets and was definitely unwilling to return my new puppy. I got an emergency loan for a new fridge and groaned when I found out it wouldn’t be available for a month. Never have I ever gotten so tired of peanut butter and jelly and making plate-sized meals to avoid leftovers. I learned my lesson: Always have an extended warranty for appliances.
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This time around, when my warranty expired on a new fridge, I signed up for Domestic & General (D&G). And it turns out my luck with refrigerators has not changed — three years later. A month after buying D&G’s extended service, I noticed my refrigerated food was inexplicably wet and so were the shelves. The freezer was not properly freezing ice, and the melted ice was dripping through the vent.
Simple fix! I used a takeout container to catch the drip and only had to empty it once a day. However, I was already paying for D&G. Why not use it before the fridge finally fell apart?
D&G starts off pleasant enough:
Call for repair.
Follow-up about who will be the repair person before arrival. (First red flag: Why am I supposed to call them to find out who their repair people are?)
Repair person (from a third-party company) comes out to investigate the issue.
Repair person confirms that a temporary repair would lead to the same result and confirms the fridge is inoperable.
Repair person submits results to D&G and calls me to tell me that I have to call D&G to get a replacement. (Second red flag: If the third-party company and D&G are working together, D&G should be contacting me instead of me playing a game of Telephone.)
D&G rep says he doesn’t know anything about the process of replacements, but he can confirm that someone will call about a replacement fridge. It may come from an unidentified number, so make sure that I turn off auto-block for unfamiliar calls.
Instead of D&G calling, I get an email with a link to a fridge to confirm. (Third red flag: What was the point of the no-block warning if they email instead of call?)
I agree to the suggested refrigerator and am excited when I receive an email confirming my fridge will be delivered in 2-1/2 weeks. But I notice there is no info regarding hauling away or installation. (Fourth red flag: I had to call again to clarify that D&G does NOT offer haul away, D&G does NOT offer installation and had to ask multiple times whether I would be charged anything for delivery or product replacement.)
I remember that I’d already paid a plumber to turn off the icemaker from my last fridge, so all I would need to do is plug it in. Simple. No installation costs needed.
Delivery day: No call. No email. No text. No ETA. (Fifth red flag: I spent two hours on the phone with D&G. One rep had no idea where my order was. The second rep gave me an order number but had no follow-up info from Whirlpool to confirm delivery. The third rep, who I was randomly transferred to after 20 minutes on hold, claimed it would take four hours to talk to a Lead — after I repeatedly insisted on speaking with a supervisor. Then, she magically transferred me after I told her I’d wait four hours then. The Lead then said there was no order number for me. I had to then give this supervisor my order number from her subordinate, only to then find out that the refrigerator delivery date was not scheduled at all.)
After speaking with Whirlpool, it turns out that although D&G will send a firm delivery date email to its customers, on Whirlpool’s end, that’s an estimate for the refrigerator to arrive to be scheduled for delivery, not the actual delivery date.
Never use D&G for Whirlpool refrigerators (or any appliance at all)
For appliance owners, it is a far better idea to buy an extended warranty directly from the manufacturer rather than work with third-party companies. Whirlpool repeatedly told me to contact D&G to find out where my order was because they had no idea why I was calling them, and D&G kept telling me to call Whirlpool. Then that switched to suggestions to call freight and delivery company J. B. Hunt, who may (or may not?) be in charge of delivery. (I refused to get J. B. Hunt involved in this chaos and did not call them.)
And now I’ve been told that Whirlpool will call me when the appliance is ready (it is not and I am without a refrigerator after giving my leaky one away to an excited Craigslist user). It will not be ready for over a week from now — and I have a counter full of items that should be refrigerated.
Recommended Read: “How culture impacts service expectations — and why Americans settle for less ~ Why are Americans less likely to pay for better service?”
On a positive note, that Craigslist tech saved me $100 for a haulaway. This entire fridge-less experience is making me remember when my puppy was 14 pounds and refused to stop climbing on my shoulders instead of walking. And after three hours on the phone being transferred from one clueless D&G rep to the next, I spoke with a very knowledgeable Whirlpool rep that made me want to be her BFF. Why can the world not be filled with Customer Service reps exactly like her?
On a negative note, D&G deserves every single F rating it has received on the Better Business Bureau. Homeowners, I do not recommend doing business with them. Stick with the primary manufacturer.
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