WCI Frigidaire washer?

Montgomery Ward did it earliest, about 1987 I'd guess (I started working for GE Capital on the Montgomery Ward Credit portfolio in September '89, and believe that they converted to Electric Avenue in '87, then sold off the credit card portfolio in '88, then consolidated their credit offices in 1989. I worked with some crusty old ladies...there was a consolidation of credit offices culminating in 4 centers; Merriam KS, Hampton, VA, Grand Prairie TX and Walnut Creek, CA. There was a payment processing center in Lombard, IL (basement of the Montgomery Ward store at Yorktown S/C). There had been an earlier consolidation (Albany, NY into Hampton; St. Paul, MN into Lombard (then into Merriam) before I'd gotten there. They hired a bunch of us with varied backgrounds to manage the final consolidation of new accounts/customer service/approvals into Merriam (Walnut Creek, Grand Prairie and Hampton became collections centers only). What a zoo that was. GE Capital opened an accounting office in Las Vegas, where the daily "handshake" occurred...Montgomery Ward essentially presented their credit card sales for the day to GE Capital, which then transferred 99.xxx% of that amount back to them; taking on the risk of collections, bad debt, etc. There was a small commercial accounts section (5-10 people) handling commercial accounts (schools, developers, etc). These were the days of zero percent for eighteen month promotions which waxed and waned like the moon. I was pretty good at taking escalation calls to explain the process (it was pretty esoteric). A funny moment--I took an escalation call from one of my staff from Mr. Jones, who had a mis-spelling on his account. He wasn't aware of it, but his account statement was being sent to Tampon Springs, FL (not Tarpon Springs). I could scarcely keep a straight face.


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Post# 1042140 8/18/2019 at 19:10 (1,706 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions)
Checkrate/Likes I think CLICK HERE TO GO TO goatfarmer's LINK on Northernwi Craigslist View Full Size

Post# 1042143 , Reply# 1 8/18/2019 at 19:26 (1,706 days old) by hippiedoll ( arizona )
Checkrate/Likes *I believe...* You are right! :o)

Post# 1042144 , Reply# 2 8/18/2019 at 19:50 (1,706 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)
Checkrate/Likes Lots of knobs and dials of what still tries to be nostalgic (such as the water level around the agitator diagram) but newer WCI junk, from the time "thumper the pulsator" gets replaced under the lid by a conventional agitator, onward... -- Dave

Post# 1042149 , Reply# 3 8/18/2019 at 21:39 (1,706 days old) by Repairguy (Danbury, Texas)
Checkrate/Likes The washer is WCI. I knew a family in my hometown that had a set of these almost 30 years ago now. Only set I ever remember seeing. The KitchenAid dryer is definitely worth $40.

Post# 1042155 , Reply# 4 8/18/2019 at 22:53 (1,706 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!)
Checkrate/Likes 89-90. Mongomery Ward added other Major brands to sales floors around this time, saw this washer my first trip to MW after the rollout, they also had Maytag laundry and some GE line I believe. Sears went to a "Brand Central" appliance & electronics format around this era as well, adding Whirlpool, etc. JC Penney had discontinued their house-branded appliances but carried WP, GE, etc For the first time, major appliances appeared in their catalog, early-mid 90's.

Post# 1042161 , Reply# 5 8/19/2019 at 00:57 (1,706 days old) by DADoES (TX,�U.S. of A.)
Checkrate/Likes 2 � Wards tag-line was "Electric Avenue," or am I recalling incorrectly?

Post# 1042168 , Reply# 6 8/19/2019 at 05:54 (1,705 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes Glenn is right. There is a service truck that came to the parts place with that logo, but since it continued coming after MW closed, I don't know if it was part of it and just kept the name or if it was independent all along.

Post# 1042179 , Reply# 7 8/19/2019 at 07:18 (1,705 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)
Checkrate/Likes Montgomery Ward did it earliest, about 1987 I'd guess (I started working for GE Capital on the Montgomery Ward Credit portfolio in September '89, and believe that they converted to Electric Avenue in '87, then sold off the credit card portfolio in '88, then consolidated their credit offices in 1989. I worked with some crusty old ladies...there was a consolidation of credit offices culminating in 4 centers; Merriam KS, Hampton, VA, Grand Prairie TX and Walnut Creek, CA. There was a payment processing center in Lombard, IL (basement of the Montgomery Ward store at Yorktown S/C). There had been an earlier consolidation (Albany, NY into Hampton; St. Paul, MN into Lombard (then into Merriam) before I'd gotten there. They hired a bunch of us with varied backgrounds to manage the final consolidation of new accounts/customer service/approvals into Merriam (Walnut Creek, Grand Prairie and Hampton became collections centers only). What a zoo that was. GE Capital opened an accounting office in Las Vegas, where the daily "handshake" occurred...Montgomery Ward essentially presented their credit card sales for the day to GE Capital, which then transferred 99.xxx% of that amount back to them; taking on the risk of collections, bad debt, etc. There was a small commercial accounts section (5-10 people) handling commercial accounts (schools, developers, etc). These were the days of zero percent for eighteen month promotions which waxed and waned like the moon. I was pretty good at taking escalation calls to explain the process (it was pretty esoteric). A funny moment--I took an escalation call from one of my staff from Mr. Jones, who had a mis-spelling on his account. He wasn't aware of it, but his account statement was being sent to Tampon Springs, FL (not Tarpon Springs). I could scarcely keep a straight face.