While getting a glass from one of our upper kitchen cabinets, I felt cold air against my right ankle. While bending over I could see the rubber seals around the freezer door of our side by side refrigerator was separating from both the unit and freezer door side of the refrigerator. I continued to inspect the rubber seal and found several other locations where this separation was occurring. There was also a single section of rubber seal around the refrigerator door side that was also warping and twisting inward.
Since my wife and I recently moved to Fort Myers, this was our first need of an appliance repair company. Like others, I googled "Repair of GE Refrigerators in Fort Myers" and Appliance Doctor was listed first in the search criteria. After another 30 minutes of reading previous customer comments, I contacted their Fort Myer's office and was pleasantly pleased with obtaining an appointment within two days. Before completing the call, I offered to provide the refrigerator model number in case they wanted to bring replacement rubber door seals. The technician politely responded that there may be a way to fix the existing rubber seals without having to purchase new ones. I felt increasingly comfortable about my decision on choosing the Appliance Doctor.
The technician, Rich arrived and thoroughly examined the rubber door seals. He was perplexed at how the seals buckled inward on both the freezer and refrigerator doors. The technician first tried to straighten out the rubber seal on the freezer door side. After approximately twenty minutes, he stated that the damage to the rubber seal was beyond repair. He proceeded to look at the refrigerator door side and was equally concerned about a similar warping in the lower corner of the door. Since the refrigerator was relatively new, but out of warranty, I thought it was best to have both seals replaced at the same time. The technician stated that he would order the rubber door seals upon return to the office and they should have the replacement seals within a couple of days. Once received, he would to schedule an appointment.
As promised, I received a call three days later to arrange for the technician to come out to replace the seals. Upon his arrival and opening the sealed box, one of the new rubber door seals were damaged beyond use. The technician repeatedly apologized and said he would talk to the owner to get another set expedited, at no additional cost to me.
I was contacted two days later by the technician from Appliance Doctor who stated that the replacement seals were in and he wanted to schedule a time for installation. The technician added that he had asked the owner to join him for this appointment since he had far more experience on replacing refrigerator door seals, especially the new magnet type.
To the relief of the technician, even the owner with much more experience had issues getting the new rubber seal on the freezer side door. After approximately 30 minutes, the owner had the new rubber door seal completely installed. The focus quickly shifted to the refrigerator side door. He too examined the warped rubber door seal that was identified by the technician. He believed with heat, he would be able to re-shape the rubber seal. Since there was only one bad location on the refrigerator side door, he believed it was worth the chance before attempting to replace the whole rubber seal on the refrigerator side. After 15 minutes heating and remolding the gasket, the owner was able to reshape the existing gasket. Both the technician and owner remained for another fifteen minutes to ensure the rubber seal on the refrigerator door remained in place.
Although I had been observing both the installation and remolding of the rubber door seals, the owner asked me to come over and do a final inspection of their work. The owner added that these types of rubber door seals take approximately a week to set firmly in place. To assist in this process, he asked that we limit opening both doors as much as possible during the next week. He also asked that we push the doors tightly once we are finished. This will also help the seating process of the rubber seals.
After the work was completed, the owner amended the original work order and took off the unused rubber door seals on the refrigerator side. The owner taking his time to remold the rubber seal on the side of the refrigerator resulted in a savings of $80.00. To my surprise, he didn't increase the quoted labor portion for his time, he just wanted me satisfied.
Based on this positive experience, I will continue to call the Appliance Doctor for all my future repair needs. I highly recommend that everyone else does the same.
Mike V.
Fort Myers read more
