Melted pen inside consumer appliance

In My Humble Opinion
1

Specifically, inside of an over-the-hood combination microwave/convection oven.

My wife used it for the first time at its max temperature of 450 in convection mode and after awhile it lost all power. It was also dripping some sort of black, melted plastic into the cooking chamber. Symptoms seemed to indicate the cavity thermostat went bad so I took it down to replace. I wasn’t sure what the melted plastic was, but thought maybe the sensor failed catastrophically in some manner.

Nope, the black plastic is from a pen left inside, during manufacture or inspection I suppose, in a rather inaccessible place. It’s in the same chamber as the thermostat so I guess it killed it as well as making a mess.

So, the appliance is out of warranty. Would you try to pursue something with the company? We’ll call on Monday since it doesn’t hurt to ask, but I’m wondering if I’m missing something obvious here.

2

It lasted out the warranty period before this happened?

There’s no way the pen could have gotten in there in more recent times?

3

Yep. We never used it at that temp before. No way top access the chamber without disassembly.

4

I would pursue it. As long as they are convinced that this happened durring the manufacture my bet is they will honor it.

5

Quite apart from warrantee, there is the tort of negligence which may be applicable in your jurisdiction.

6

My guess is that, since you opened the unit to access the thermostat, the manufacturer will not believe that the pen was there since manufacture - there is nothing to go on but your word. Had you called an approved repair shop and the pen was found by their personnel it may be a different story. Just my guess, mind you. I would still follow up on the off chance that the manufacturer may do something out of goodwill, I just wouldn’t expect it. Perhaps that type of pen is still the standard issue writing instrument at the plant where the oven was made.

7

It can’t possibly hurt to write them a letter and send pictures. I predict that they will send you a new oven, or at least a 50% coupon for a new one.

8

A technician looked at it but didn’t repair because we didn’t authorize him to charge us repair costs. He called his supervisor, but couldn’t get her to agree to do anything since we were past warranty. We’re not thrilled with this particular company.

We were given an ‘unlisted’ customer service number to try to complain further. Not holding my breath.

9

Here’s a pic for fun.

Imgur

10

Try the customer service number in good faith. If they don’t help, post your story and the picture on reddit.

11

What is the name of the manufacturer of the appliance and who does the technician work for? He may be able to confirm that the pen was left in the manufacturing process.

Reddit may not be necessary. If the OP had mentioned the manufacturer name here, he/she might have received a response from a customer service rep. I’ve seen this happen in previous threads. I think the customer service departments do web searches for customer complaints. And this board is indexed by Google.