In article
,
Phaedrine Stonebridge wrote:



Spending a lot on what is supposed to be a really good name does not
always work either. I spent around $4000 on a Viking gas range a few
years ago. And while it was fabulous to cook on when it worked, things
went wrong with it constantly. Nearly all the major components had to
be replaced before it was a year old--- some even twice. It was out of
operation almost as much as it worked. The last straw was the element
breaking while I was cooking the Thanksgiving turkey so I sold the
lemon. I am currently using a comparatively cheap (but immensely more
reliabe!) glasstop electric that was in this home when we bought it.
And when I replace it, I sure hope I can find something a LOT more
reliable than the Viking and with a better warranty--- hopefully
induction. What a rip-off to pay that much money for a piece of junk
out of warranty in a year.

Don't get me started on Viking. I've had a high-end (8-burner/2-oven)
range for about 10 years. The oven igniters needed replacement about
every 2 years, but I was willing to live with that. It is an all-black
model, but I discovered that the front is simply painted -- oven cleaner
that touched the front stripped the paint.

Real problems began about 2 years ago, when I had a brief and painful
rat infestation. They gnawed through the stove's wiring.

Two successive authorized service companies refused to work on wiring at
all. The third kept trying to order the parts for about a year, never
getting the right ones. When I called Viking itself, they said that the
power supply involved had been discontinued, but there was an update kit
that let the new one be used in my model.

Again, I was put off at length by the service company. Eventually, I
screamed my way to upper management, who said they were not willing to
incur the liability of new wiring unless either the local Viking rep was
present and signed off on it, or Viking would send a complete premade
wiring harness.

I'm a network engineer by profession, with reasonably solid hardware
experience. The wiring involved is fairly trivial -- anyone who is
qualified to install the components should be able to do it.

Now that I'm in a period of financial stress, I haven't struggled
further to get the estimated $800 repair done, so I get by with lighting
the burners with a match and living without the ovens.