When Rinkje and Chuck Zondor bought their new refrigerator, the retired Indiana couple never imagined it could lead to a potentially life-threatening situation.
The dilemma started out basic enough when the new appliance went on the fritz almost immediately after they got it. Nearly a dozen repairs later, it still wasn’t working. At one point, the Zondors say the fridge was dead for a full month, which created a dangerous situation for Chuck, who is a diabetic.
"We're risking our lives because we have no refrigerator," Rinkje Zondor recalled. “He’s diabetic. His insulin, we had to worry about keeping that refrigerated.”
But with an extended warranty in place, the Zondor’s thought they were covered.
"In the warranty it says if it's not repairable, they will give you a settlement of 75 percent,” Rinkje Zondor said. “So I was asking to get that and they said no.”
Living with bags of ice and coolers out their back door, the Zondors had enough and called NBC 5 Responds.
The name on the appliance was Kitchenaid, but we contacted the parent company, Whirlpool, to break this log jam. Whirlpool quickly offered the Zondors a new fridge worth about $3,100.
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“As the consumer, you're just kind of at their mercy. So NBC really did, they did the job, “ Rinkje Zondor said.
