Where have our manufacturing standards gone?

Written by Ellen Beveridge
Friday, 08 January 2010 13:15

A few months ago, I wrote a column extolling the 1950s workmanship and longevity of my General Electric stove. Incidentally, that column evoked more responses than any other one I’ve written. One woman enthusiastically wrote a letter and enclosed photos of her stove to compare with mine. We finally figured out that my stove was about 10 years older than hers.

This time I’m prompted to write the antithesis of the stove column. I want to vent about a well-known name brand toaster oven I purchased last May, and about what appears to be a lack of workmanship and longevity.

The need to make that purchase came about when my previous toaster oven was no longer working. By today’s standards I suppose the number of years (I’m guessing about five) that this oven lasted was par for the course.

Having a toaster oven is an important appliance for me because of the limited counter space in my kitchen. The oven bakes and broils, and best of all toasts, thus eliminating the need for a regular toaster and the space it would require. Hardly a day passes when I do not use the toaster oven for at least one of its functions.

My new oven was an improvement in several ways, and everything was going along just fine until a few weeks ago. One morning I discovered that a slice of bread was only toasting on the top side. Then, to my dismay, I figured out that the lower heating unit was no longer working — this after only seven months of use!

What to do? I searched for the manual and read that I should not return a faulty product to the store where purchased, but I was to call a special 800-number. When I did I was pleasantly surprised to get a live voice in a relatively short time. But it was all down hill after that.

First, the man asked for the model number; that was easy because it was printed on the cover of the manual. Then he asked for a number on one of the plug prongs. I stretched the extension cord on my wall phone across the kitchen to the counter, pulled out the plug and looked at the prongs. The embedded number was difficult to see, and when I read it over the phone the man told me I was reading it upside down. By turning the plug I finally was able to make out the correct number.

Then the man continued with so many instructions that I scrambled for paper and pen. I was given a seven-digit “transaction” number; then I was told to write a letter explaining what was wrong with the oven and to include this number on the letter.

I was really taken aback with his next instruction. He told me to cut the cord two or three inches from the plug; then to go to the post office and purchase a “bubble” envelope. In the envelope I was to insert my letter, the plug and a check for $7.50. I continued to scribble furiously as he ended by telling me who to make out the check to, and the mailing address in Ohio.

Because the top heating unit still worked enabling me to at least heat the oven (more slowly, of course) and broil (or toast by turning the bread from one side to the other), I expressed disappointment that with the plug cut the oven would be rendered useless.

The man was far from sympathetic, and with his response the situation became even more complicated. He said that a replacement oven would take about three weeks delivery time, but if I wanted to receive it sooner I was to obtain a postal “Delivery Confirmation Number” (for an added charge) and that would reduce the delivery time to about a week. Also, if I did get this number, I was to inform the company accordingly, using the transaction number as identification. He gave me yet another 800-number to use for this process.

Whew! I hung up the phone completely disgusted by the whole situation, by the apparent the lack of workmanship and quality control that had brought me all this grief.

Just curious, I returned to the manual and discovered a probable answer to my question, “Where have all the manufacturing standards gone?” At the bottom of the back page it read, “Made in People’s Republic of China.” Go figure.

Am I going to go through all the rigmarole to get the toaster oven replaced? Well, yes. I finally decided that half a loaf is better than none; by this I mean that the cost of the rigmarole will be about half of what I paid for the oven in the first place.

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