Pearl City resident Curtis Schryer called GE after his family's microwave oven suddenly blew up in June, but became frustrated when he was told that consumers in Hawai'i don't get the same service response as Mainland customers.

"While my wife was using the unit, an approximately 1-inch diameter hole was suddenly and without warning blown downward through the upper interior center of the microwave," he wrote in a letter to the company dated July 28.

His wife, Jeannie, quickly extinguished the fire — he was out of town at the time — and prevented a potential house fire, he said.

Schryer — a retired federal contract administrator — called GE in June when he returned from his trip. "I was initially quite pleased with GE's first response since I was told that due to the obvious public safety hazard involved in this malfunctioning unit, a service person would bring us a new unit at a 40 percent discount and install it," he wrote.

He asked if the service provider would also take away the damaged microwave to try to determine what happened and whether the unit would put others at risk. He was told that that would happen.

Then, the next time he called GE — a day later — Schryer said he was told "those services were available only on the U.S. Mainland and were not provided to Hawai'i residents."

Instead he was offered a $50 "good will certificate" to use toward buying a replacement microwave.

Schryer said he had purchased the original microwave July 12, 2001, and had it installed five days later. When he checked the warranty, he found that the unit's magnetron tube is covered for nine years, which would mean the unit was still covered for that part.

He believes that's the tube that exploded and should have been covered by that warranty.

"They have authorized service people everywhere," he said.

Schryer said he's holding on to the microwave for now: "It looks like a shotgun shell went through there."

Back at GE, a service representative who reviewed the case for us said that some issues are handled differently in Hawai'i and Alaska because of the increased costs of shipping and freight.

Genoa Townsend, a manager at GE headquarters in Virginia, said the company would not ship him a replacement microwave because of the high cost of freight and shipping that would have been billed to him. She said that would have made the shipping cost more than the replacement value of the microwave.

"He can probably find that unit at a Wal-Mart cheaper," she said. Townsend said that wording is written into the warranty setting out different requirements that apply to Hawai'i, Alaska and (strangely) Washington, D.C.

Schryer has since purchased another GE microwave from Home Depot — the same place he bought the first one — for $229.22.

Townsend said the overall warranty had expired on the Schryers' oven and that's why no replacement was offered. "If it was in warranty, we eat it. But with it being out of warranty, it's up to the customer," she said.

She said the company could send a technician to see if the unit could be repaired and if it was the magnetron tube. But the warranty at that point likely would only cover the cost of the new part, not the entire unit.

Townsend said it doesn't sound like the company had explained the whole issue very well to the Schryers.

Still, she said that GE will offer a certificate that can be used to help pay nearly half of the replacement cost. "I can offer the $100 rebate which will offset the price that he already paid," she said.

Schryer said that would help with the financial cost of replacing the the 7-year-old appliance. "I'm not terribly distressed about the cost issue," he said.

But he's still hoping that GE will want to take a look at the damaged microwave to see if this is a serious safety issue "or just a total fluke."

He added, "we wanted them to investigate why this machine blew up."

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.