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Comment by gvb | Hacker News Reader

Note that you did not buy an appliance from GE, you bought it from Haier & KKR. Haier & KKR bought the appliance division from GE and licensed the GE brand until 2056.[1] The home appliances business, namely Haier Smart Home, has 7 global brands – Haier, Casarte, Leader, GE Appliances, Fisher & Paykel, Aqua and Candy. [2] Boycott the mothership for best effect!

(Most of the stuff you see with the GE logo on is licensed branding and GE has nothing to do with it except collecting a fee for the use of their logo.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_Appliances#History

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haier

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I learned this from the GE repair guy who came out to repair my broken down 2yr old dishwasher. He also said: "Never buy anything from GE." Then he plugged an ethernet cable into my fridge and updated the firmware. Mind blown.

Repair people are second only to exterminators in their ability to speak the truth, then get something done, in the space of a few minutes.

Harry Tuttle lives:

https://invidio.us/watch?v=VRfoIyx8KfU

Have you got a 27B/6?

The same with Samsung printers division which is actually owned by HP. I think punishing a company for selling their trademark so that other companies can mislead their customers is a good thing.

In my eyes, GE is just as guilty as Haier & KKR.

There is literally no reason for one company to use another’s brand other than to deceive the consumer.

This is literally not true.

Right. They licensed not only their name, but their reputation.

Aye, that's the point. And also why HP and Haier & KKR do sketchy things -- it's under someone else's brand, so they can do sketchy, dollar-grabbing stuff and not have to worry about the brand blowback.

Case in point, the current top comment is how they're never going to buy a GE fridge again -- even though it's not GE. Haier's gettin that money and GE is eating that bad voodoo.

For what its worth im quite content with Samsung/HP printer i got. Basic thing, no bells and whistles apart of one retarded button that nobody will use. Granted i knew story behind when buying..

I second this. It should also be applied to any companies that sellout their brand to be used on second-rate versions sold at Home Depot and others.

Note that Candy are/were a European conglomerate with multiple brands, including Hoover, Baumetic, Kelvinator and probably a dozen more. I know they had a few Scandinavian brands, and I think they also have Servis.

Wouldn't surprise me if others in that list of seven are holding multiple sub-brands too, and a full tree-walk produces a huge list of brands.

We bought our set right after the acquisition happened. The sales guy at Home Depot told us about it and assured us the model we purchased was still pre-Haier.

I’ll be sure to boycott Haier, and thus all of GE Appliances.

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