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"  Just yesterday, my mom&amp;#039;s refrigerator died. Big deal, you may say, that happens all the time. Yes, it does. But what I experienced firsthand helping her navigate the process of scheduling a repair, discarding spoiled food, and setting her up for almost a week without a refrigerator taught me (yes me, Ms. Home Appliances Expert at GHRI) a few things I&amp;#039;d like to pass along to you. Here&amp;#039;s what happened. My mom, who is thankfully a healthy, active, 80-something woman called to tell me that everything in the freezer compartment of her seven-year old (which isn&amp;#039;t really old) side-by-side refrigerator/freezer had thawed and the refrigerator temperature was climbing, as well. She doesn&amp;#039;t have a second refrigerator, and unfortunately, I&amp;#039;m not nearby, so a kind neighbor offered to keep some of her perishables while the rest of the salvageable items were stashed in ice-filled outdoor coolers placed around her kitchen. Before calling me, Mom did call to schedule a service call. She has a service contract (more about that later) on the refrigerator, but the soonest appointment was six days away. Six days is a long time for anyone to be without a refrigerator, but for a senior citizen who lives alone, that&amp;#039;s an eternity. The dishwasher goes, you wash by hand, the washer goes, there&amp;#039;s always the laundromat, but without your only refrigerator, there&amp;#039;s not much else you can do besides eat canned food or go out to eat. So in an effort to get a more timely service call, I called customer service myself, on her behalf. The first representative was sympathetic and indicated that emergency service might be available. She passed me along to someone at the next level who said emergency service wasn&amp;#039;t available and that unless there was a cancellation there was no way a service call could happen any sooner, and there was nothing further neither she nor anyone else could do. After much discussion, I got to speak to a representative from the national customer service group. She, I&amp;#039;m happy to report, was extremely understanding and while even she couldn&amp;#039;t get a repair person out any sooner, she did suggest that we purchase a little mini-fridge to hold my mother over until her refrigerator is repaired or replaced, and offered to reimburse us a significant portion of the purchase price. I thought this was very fair, accepted her offer, and that&amp;#039;s what we did.  From this experience, here&amp;#039;s what I recommend:  Be patient, persistent, and polite. Companies and retailers don&amp;#039;t want to lose your business, and while you may not ultimately get what you set out for, with a little creativity on both sides, an acceptable solution can be reached.   Consider an extended service agreement. In cases like my mom&amp;#039;s, a service contract (which we at GHRI usually don&amp;#039;t recommend purchasing) is worth the investment. For her, it&amp;#039;s peace of mind that she won&amp;#039;t have to navigate through repairs on her own and can call any time an appliance needs a checkup. And, she&amp;#039;ll also be reimbursed for her lost food. All she needs to do is tally up an estimate of what spoiled before she tosses it out.    Read the fine print and compare both the cost and coverage of any expended protection plan you&amp;#039;re considering. Not all plans are created equal and this may influence where you buy your appliances. With some good negotiating, you may even be able to get one included for free.   One thing I now know I&amp;#039;d love to see from major retailers or brands is priority service for repairs to essential appliances, like refrigerators. If you agree, or know of any that already offer this service, let me know. I&amp;#039;d also love to hear about your appliance repair experiences, both good and bad, so we can pass them along to our contacts in an effort to facilitate change. If you&amp;#039;re in the market for a new refrigerator (which I may be soon, too), check out our recent online review of French-door models and our refrigerator Q&amp;amp;amp;A on what to know before you buy. Read my colleague, Paul Hope&amp;#039;s, blog about the refrigerator testing we do at The Good Houskeeping Research Institute and about how The Good Housekeeping Seal protects you against defects on the products you buy. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a22931/refrigerator-repair-advice/>