Great fridge/poor service

We purchased this refrigerator after considering several options. We knew we wanted stainless; french door styling (to save space on the door swing); and counter depth. We liked this one the best because it is designed with a lip on the door to conceal the hinges and had what we felt was the best setup in the freezer drawer. Otherwise, it was comparable to its competitors.

I am updating this review into two parts. The first is an assessment of the features which are quite nice and the second being our negative experience with GE customer service when the unit was found to be defective and had to be replaced under warranty.

We decided to purchase the french door model to limit the door swing out into the kitchen. This is an alternative to a side-by-side design in which the freezer section tends to be too narrow for our needs. The bottom freezer design puts the more used refrigerator section at eye level. We went with a counter depth model for a built in look. This does reduce the storage capacity by about 4.5 cubic feet compared to the standard depth model, but has a side benefit of keeping items from being lost in the back of the refrigerator.

The temperature controls for both the refrigerator and freezer section are located conveniently at the front of the refrigerator section and are adjusted using touch pad buttons. A water filter for the ice maker is also located at the top of the refrigerator section making it easily to access. A door open alarm is provided which is very useful because it is easy to accidentally not close the french doors completely. It is necessary to firmly push them shut to ensure the seal engages--especially the right hand door which has the special mechanism for the seal between the doors.

The refrigerator section has split adjustable glass shelves with a spill proof lip and all pull out to allow easier access to items toward the back. One shelf is designed so that it can slide in half to allow tall items to be placed on the shelf below it. There are two humidity controlled drawers for produce and a full width drawer at the bottom. I'd rather the full drawer were split as both sides of the fridge must be open to access it. The interior of this fridge is essentially the same as a single door model with this full width drawer being a carrier over. There are adjustable deep shelves on each door. One door has a rack to hold four pop cans or similar sized items--I don't find it to be all that useful and would have preferred space for the adjustable door shelves. The interior lighting is bright and even.

The freezer section is a drawer design. The ice maker bin is a pull out drawer; and there is a small pull out bin next to it. There is a shallow full width bin for small items and a deep full width bin for large items. The bins are designed with sturdy guide mechanisms rather than just riding on a lip built into the walls of the unit allowing for smooth operation. The lighting is bright and even.

If I had not had to have a warranty repair made to this refrigerator, I could highly recommend it. I found that GE does not handle this well at all and does not seem interested in providing good customer service when a customer has a problem. After reading the following, you can decide whether you want to take a chance on dealing with the problems you may encounter should you purchase and get a defective unit.

When our refrigerator was installed, we were unable to get the doors to align properly. GE dispatched an authorized service person to check it and he determined the french door latching mechanism was defective. He called in to get a replacement ordered and had to argue with the person on the other end of the line for almost 30 minutes to get them to authorize the replacement [this was GE's authorized service person arguing with someone at a remote call center while we stood by and waited]. GE would not allow the original dealer to supply the replacement informing us they would have it professionally delivered and installed. What a joke! The delivery personnel GE used: 1) Failed to meet the delivery time window they promised; 2)tracked mud into our home; 3) did not know how to level the unit; 4) had lost the manufacturer supplied installation instructions (we gave them the ones we saved from the original unit which they wadded up and threw in the trash when they left); 5) lacked the tools needed to properly level the unit and align the doors. They argued with us that because our floor wasn't level the unit couldn't be leveled. We had to finish installing and leveling the unit ourselves. It appears GE is more concerned with getting a cheap delivery service than a competent one that will provide good customer service and reflect positively on the company. Repeated attempts to contact a district manager about our experience have gone unanswered.

So the bottom line is GE designed a good unit, but does not back it up with good service. I can't recommend any GE major appliance for this reason despite the fact that this is a very nice refrigerator.

** UPDATE 6/14/2008 **
Now the freezer door gasket has started to leak. Yet another service call. Another negative for quality and reliability of this 'high end' refrigerator--can not recommend.

** UPDATE 9/2/2008 **
Another service call. A condensation problem required the replacement of a recalled mother board. The service tech also recommended NOT using the energy star setting. Why by an energy star product if it can not be used in the mode that enables the savings? Even with an extended warranty cooling your heels waiting for a tech to show up is a pain. Save yourself trouble and grief--avoid GE bottom freezer refrigerators.