Genie Garage Door Opener Trouble..



Question:
As a first step, disconnect the door from the trolley and move the door by hand to be sure there is not something binding or otherwise impeding motion of the door.

Answer:
I haven't looked for it lately but Genie did have a toll free number you could call and get a amazingly good diagnosis by phone. When a young (sounding) lady answered the phone, I thought phooey but she knew what she was doing. You are in trouble, my friend. As I was leaving for work the morning of 9/11, my Genie garage door opener did the same thing. The opener ran for about a second (making a terrible screeching sound in the process), then stopped and reversed. Thinking that maybe the door was getting stuck on the track, I released the door from the drive screw (by pulling down on the emergency release knob) and tried again. This time, the screw ran for a second, then stopped and reversed. After a few more tries, the opener stopped working completely and just made a buzzing noise. The problem turned out that the motor was bad and needed to be replaced. Once Genie finally replaced the motor, everything worked fine. However, it practially took an act of Congress to get it fixed. Read on if you want to hear about the hell I went through with Genie customer support. (I hope you fare better. Just keep a record of when you call, who you talk to, and what they said.) The following Monday (9/17), the company that installed the opener came to inspect it. They said the opener needed to be serviced by Genie. When I called Genie and described the problem to them, they diagnosed it as a bad coupler. They said they would call me back "in 24 to 48 hours" to put a work order in with the installer for the repair. On 9/20, I called Genie back and complained that I had not received a call back yet. I was told that the call queue had been full, but that it was clear now, so I would get a call very soon. But he said he would put me on the irate callers list, which usually sped things up. The next afternoon, I finally got the call. Genie told me that they would ship me a replacement coupler and send a service dealer to make the repair and that the dealer would call within 48 hours to schedule the repair. On 9/24, the service dealer called, but since I never received the new coupler, I couldn't schedule the repair. I called Genie, and they sent another part. On 9/27, I finally received the part and scheduled the repair for the next day (9/28). Unfortunately, when the service dealer showed up, he said my coupler was fine. The problem was that the motor needed to be replaced. The service dealer called Genie and ordered the replacement motor. I was told it would arrive in 2 days and that they would contact me to schedule the repair. By 10/5 (a week later), it never arrived. I called Genie, who denied any knowledge of the missing replacement motor. They told me they would immediately ship a new one to the service dealer and that it would arrive in 2 days. Fat chance. On 10/10, I called Genie to find out where the hell my replacement motor was. I was told that it was shipped on 10/8 (what happened to shipping it immediately?), and that it was in transit and should arrive at the service dealer the next day. On 10/12, I called service the dealer to see if my new motor had arrived. They said it hadn't. I called Genie to bitch at them. They said it was being held at UPS because my street name had been left off the shipping address; only my street number was on the address. I accused her of lying, since the motor was supposed to be shipped to the service dealer. She transferred me to her supervisor, who was able to sort things out. The replacement motor *was* shipped to the service dealer, and it had been delivered the previous day. The service dealer came out the next day (10/13, exactly one month and two days since it first broke) and installed the new motor. It has been working fine since then. Incidentally, the service tech said the reason they claimed my part never arrived was because it actually hadn't. Genie sent a new motor for me alright, but it was for a different model opener. Also, he said that over the past five years, the quality on Genie garage door openers has turned to crap. (Quite a shocking admission from a Genie service tech!) He hates Genie openers now. So do I.





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