December 15, 2000
GE says it will provide free repairs to 3.1 million consumers who own GE and Hotpoint dishwashers that are considered to be fire hazards. The decision reverses GE's original offer to provide $25 to $125 rebates towards the purchase of a new GE unit instead of repairing the defective dishwashers, manufactured between 1983 and 1989
A GE spokesman said the company decided to change course following a request from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
A faulty heating switch on the dishwashers has been implicated in about 90 fires, including 10 in the year since the recall was announced. GE refused to provide a repair kit to consumers, saying they would not be able to do the job themselves, but it provided such kits to apartment buildings and other commercial customers.
The rebate was attacked by consumers, watchdog groups and plaintiff's attorneys almost as soon as it was made. New York Attorney General Eliott Spitzer sued, saying the company was deceiving consumers by saying they could not do the repairs themselves.
Spitzer grudgingly hailed GE's revesal. "This is a forward step but as is often the case with GE, it only came after litigation," he told The Washington Post.
The repair option is also what the CPSC originally sought when it learned of the defective switch. CPSC Chairman Ann Brown said the agency stepped up its demands after learning that only 89,000 dishwashers had been replaced through the rebate option. Another 540,000 had been repaired by commercial customers. That left nearly 2.5 million possibly still in use.
CPSC approved the rebate program only after GE refused to offer a free repair. Under federal law, the agency can't force a repair if the company offers a recall or rebate instead. But Brown said the agency is considering whether GE should be fined for not reporting the problem before late 1998. She said there is evidence the company knew of the problem since the late 1980s.
The faulty part is a sliding switch that lets the user choose whether to dry dishes with electric heat or through air drying, which uses less energy. Over time, the elements in the switch can deteriorate, melt and ignite, even when the dishwasher is not in use.
