I would have cried, too, psychgirl! It's hard to see God's hand in some of this stuff, but I'm convinced that at times he allows it so that we put our trust in HIM, not in our "preps". (don't get me wrong- I believe it's within His will to prep, but we shouldn't forget that His will is what will allow us to survive or not)
And oh, Lord- don't get me started on verdamnt Sears and their crap!! We bought a 28 cubic foot upright freezer (Kenmore brand) after our house burned in 1980. It died the first time at 4 months old; they had to completely re-model the thing, adding a compressor on the outside, because the moron who designed them had put EVERYTHING inside the walls.
It quit the second time 7 months later. (out of warranty). This time, the idiot serviceman showed up, but couldn't do anything because he only had tools for repairing heating systems (it being winter!). By the time he came back, we had moved everything out of the freezer and into an unused doghouse outside, and had piled all the snow we could find around it. Naturally, that was the week we had the traditional January thaw, and temps were in the 60's all week!!
When I mentioned the issue to the repairman, he just said "oh, you'll just have to throw it all out"- as if a full beef plus our entire harvest of freezable vegetables was nothing more than a partially eaten pizza or something!
We were blessed that nothing thawed in the ELEVEN DAYS it took them to fix it that time- when we shoveled the snow off and removed the black plastic we'd draped over the Rubbermaid containers full of frozen food, it was still rock hard frozen.
The freezer quit for good the next year, and we didn't even bother calling Sears. (BTW, their "24/7 service" means that you can get an answering machine to leave a message any time after 9-5, and someone may call you back the next time they show up for work!)
And we NEVER bought another Kenmore appliance, and never will
Summerthyme
Oh- a brief warning. The new freezers will NOT work in temperatures under about 28°. Found that out the hard way, when a small (7.5 cf) chest freezer we bought at Sam's Club for the overflow when we were butchering chickens) died at 13 months (one month after the warranty expired). We had it in our old, completely unheated heifer barn, in a grain room that allowed us to shut the door and keep it from being damaged.
We had our son who has an HVAC degree check it out, and he couldn't find anything wrong with it, but it simply didn't run.
The next summer, I plugged it in just for the heck of it- and it ran perfectly!!!
So, if you only have an unheated garage or similar to keep the freezer and you live in a place where winters get cold, you'll have to find an alternative spot for the freezer in the winter months. One more fun thing to thank the moron Greenies for.