Frigidaire (owned by the Swedish company Electrolux) recently strong-armed her distributors into pulling the parts back from Amazon which is, I’m sure, an attempt to control pricing. One big example of this is the popular bake element 316075104 which has been selling for much less than Electrolux’s published retail price of $41.35 (as of 4/11/18).
To add further confusion, there are multiple listings of this element and replacements for this element for sale from a wide variety of companies. We sell a generic replacement for the 316075104 there (only when clearly marked as an aftermarket replacement element… with the same calrod quality as the original element btw) and Frigidaire has even demanded that those listings be taken down. I would want them down too if I were them! It seems this is one bully trying to throw it’s weight against completely different companies!
The aftermarket parts industry for Whirlpool, Maytag, Frigidaire, Electrolux, Samsung, and LG replacement parts is an important source of competition that people can rely on to keep these particular manufacturers from over-inflating part prices. In fact, there is a growing list of parts that Whirlpool/Maytag has made obsolete that have been picked up by companies like ERP.
The effects of a company like Whirlpool controlling the market can be seen in their replacement oven controls. If you have to replace an electronic oven control (main oven control board), get ready to sit down because many of them now cost between $300 and $600 depending on your model. They also include a $60 core charge – which we believe Whirlpool enforces to keep those old controls out of the hands of companies like CoreCentric who would re-manufacture them and offer them back to the market at a much lower price. Core charges are another way to try controlling prices for parts in the market place. Of course, Whirlpool will claim they collect cores for other reasons but it is odd that prices started sky rocketing just before the core collection program went in force. We still have a few re-manufactured electronic controls but they are getting harder and harder to find now. Shocker.