I bought a Franklin Chef Outdoor Beverage/Wine Cooler (model: FBC36 OD) on Feb. 18 from Compact Appliances, Inc (online). I paid almost $800 for it, but because it had a good solid, high-end name, I thought it would be worth the money.
The cooler worked well initially but after only a little over a year (right after the overall warranty expired), one of the doors fogged up between the 2 glass pieces (Apr 08).
After much hassle, the company did send me a new door, even though I had exceeded the 1-yr warranty. The 5-yr portion of the warranty only covers the compressor.
Unfortunately, the door came with no decal over the control buttons on the door. None of the service people seemed to know how to get this overlay and to this day, the door has no markings over the buttons.
Then, the entire unit failed in Nov 08 (compressor leaked out all freon apparently and it wouldn't cool at all). Thank goodness I caught it in time and none of the expensive wine was ruined.
After much hassle again from the customer service people, they told me I had to get my own repairman to come to my house ($60). I did as they asked and the repairman told me that the compressor seals were bad and that the unit had no freon.
After even more problems with Franklin customer service and the service company in my area retained by Franklin Industries, they did agree to send a new compressor to my home.
Unfortunately, I had to remind them several times that I still had not received it.
However, it did finally arrive and when I called the repair company (as instructed by the repair company), they informed me that they were mistaken and could not come out to install the compressor because the warranty only covered parts, not labor.
Of course, when I called my own person to install the compressor, I was told that it will cost $675 for the install and freon-charging! Outrageous!
I had already paid $800 for the cooler and I wasn't about to pay another $675, on top of the $60 I had to pay for the original diagnostic service call.
My person asked why they (Franklin industries) didn't just send me a new cooler when they knew the compressor was no good, since labor is going to almost exceed the cost of a new cooler. I was told that this service company never repairs a refrigerator or cooler with a bad compressor; just not worth it.
So, here I sit with a brand-new compressor, a cooler that hasn't worked all year, and with no end in sight as to how to resolve this.
I've written to the company urging them to make this right, but to no avail so far. I just sent another note to them today.
0 comments