u/hikingfortheviews

So we’ve been dealing with an ongoing issue with our freezer/ice maker and have now had the repair company out about five times. I’m hoping someone who knows more about appliance repair can tell me whether the latest “fix” is actually acceptable because it doesn’t seem right to me.

The original issue was that the freezer wasn’t making ice properly and was also leaking at times. The repair company diagnosed it as a bad ice maker (despite us mentioning that the blinking red light in our freezer indicated a sensor issue) and replaced the entire ice maker. We paid around $250 for the part and labor, but replacing it didn’t solve the problem (note: this was also after we were charged $175 during a previous visit for the technician to pour hot water into our icemaker to fix a huge block of ice that had formed in it).

After multiple additional visits, they eventually determined that the actual problem was the sensor, which-as I mentioned earlier-was something we had brought up initially. We then had to pay for the sensor repair as well.

Here’s where it gets weird. Apparently the sensor part they ordered is designed to work with the original ice maker, but it isn’t compatible with the new ice maker they installed. Instead of ordering a different part or otherwise correcting the compatibility issue, the technician used tape to secure/connect the sensor to the new ice maker.

He told us to give it 24 to 48 hours to see if it starts making ice, which it has. He also specifically told us to call them if we notice water leaking into the bottom of the freezer, which honestly made us even more concerned about the tape fix.

The other issue is that, based on our previous experiences with this company, they only seem to honor their repairs for about 30 days. So what happens if this taped connection holds for a month or two and then fails and the fridge starts leaking? We don’t know if they’ll come back and fix it or if we’ll be stuck paying another diagnostic or house call fee, plus whatever they decide needs to be repaired at that point. We’re also obviously concerned about the possibility of water leaking into the bottom of our freezer if their tape “fix” fails.

At this point we’re almost $900 into this between the different visits (5 at this point), parts, and repairs, and I’m pretty frustrated that we paid to replace an ice maker that apparently wasn’t the problem in the first place, and now the new ice maker seems to have created a compatibility problem with the sensor that actually needed to be replaced.

I’m attaching pictures of the taped repair. For anyone who works on refrigerators/freezers, is this a legitimate way to handle this situation? Is tape ever considered an appropriate permanent repair for something like this, or should they have installed the correct compatible part instead?

I mostly want to know if I’m justified in pushing back on the company now rather than just waiting to see if it eventually leaks.

TIA!