Howie Voigt's Appliance Service Center, div. of VanVreede TV & Appliance, Inc.

My Whirlpool Duet washer is 10 mos old. It broke 5 weeks ago. After a cancellation due to "an emergency" a repairman was sent here Thurs. May 24. He told me he had fixed the washer after about 5 min in there. I did two loads of laundry and it stopped working again. So I have to make another appt., wait for another part to be delivered, and go to the laundromat another time, at least. I'm SO frustrated!

1.0 star rating 5/18/2016
Should have checked these reviews before calling them...We called about a washer (May, 2016) that apparently wasn't emptying properly and suddenly started smelling moldy. They gave us a time between 8:30 and noon. My husband asked the person at the desk if we could be first on the list because he was going to wait around and then go to work. She said she'd give the guy a note. He called at ...11:20 and said he'd be there in 20 minutes--and also said he'd never gotten the note. When he got here he took the main part off the washer and showed us where the mold was, and said it was likely building up for years. He was unable to explain why it suddenly started smelling, just kind of shrugged and said we'd have to clean it and then run bleach through it weekly from now on. Why we'd have to do that weekly if it's supposedly operating fine I don't know.
Then the clincher... he put the frame back on and charged us... A WHOPPING $99.70 for a 10-minute service call without a solution. We thought that was crazy steep.

We contacted Howie and Voigt and were communicated that it would cost $85 for a trip to the house and then additional charges if they were on site more than an hour or if parts were needed.

1. They were at our site and not only charged the $85 but a $56.25 trip charge which was NOT communicated to us on the initial call out, as well as, we live 3 miles from the service center.

2. Install tech stated to my wife he hated working on dishwashers (very comforting) and stated our line was clogged (again I had checked that). On our first cycle of washing, it did not drain after it was said to be fixed.

I called them and they said they would come out again and waive the trip charge but could charge additional labor / parts EVEN though I got charged $150 for NOTHING.

Ended up going with a different repair company who confirmed that we had an issue with the drain pump coil. This was determined by tapping the coil with a screwdriver.

Howie Voigt were very unfriendly and ungodly costly. I do not recommend their services to anyone.

Our Bosch frontload washer of several years suddenly had the electronics crash on an early Thursday afternoon. My Police uniforms were locked inside, and I was due on duty next morning (with a major winter storm coming in). Several local repair places unable/unwilling to send anyone that day - particularly since we live in rural area about 12 miles outside the Green Bay beltway. We called [redacted], via VanVreedees of Green Bay. Within a minute or two on the phone, we were told that "[redacted]" would be out that afternoon to help. He arrived about 4:30 and rescued the laundry load. Ordered parts and early the next week returned and had everything good as new in about 20 minutes. EXTREMELY friendly and personable person on their phones, and so was [redacted] on both days! Exceptional service. Exceptional desire to help a customer in a tight spot!

Review: I began working on a repair issue with Howie Voigt back in late March when my husband had called them about the soap dispenser not draining fully for each load of laundry we did. They sent someone out to look at the machine and the gentleman came to the conclusion that we needed a new soap dispenser. So then on April 4th yet another service repair man showed up to install the new soap dispenser which the cost was $327.74. This guy was in a hurry and I could tell. The weather was crappy from snow and rain and he had just came from Oconto on other service calls and he complained he had two more to go. I was like oh ok! And then he said he was done and that the total was 327.74 so I wrote him a check made out to Howie Voight and he said they would mail me a receipt in the mail. Well still waiting on that receipt and it is now April 21st. Then after the service man left later that night my husband came home to do a load of laundry and he noticed that the face of the washer was not on correctly and said he would call in the morning cause the store was already closed. And he did a load of laundry. Well the washer ran for approx. 15 minutes and blew our circuit breaker and the washer quit working totally now! So the next morning which was a saturday my husband called the store to explain what happened and [redacted] said that he would send someone out the following week to look at it. Well yet a different service guy showed up the third time to look at the washer and said that the second guy here ([redacted]) put the cover back on incorrectly and pinched one of the ribbons and when we did the one load that the vibration totally pinched and damaged the ribbon that was jammed in. So another new part had to be ordered and I was told this would be at no charge because service man two put in back together and did not watch what he was doing obviously. So then the ribbon came in and when [redacted] called me to set up yet another appt to fix that I had told him to NOT send the guy out who was in a hurry and damaged the machine. So on April 16th, he did send that guy out there to do the fix once again and it was [redacted]. Well needless to say it was the wrong part and [redacted] went out to his truck and called the warehouse to see if they had the right part I needed. He ([redacted]) came back into my home and told me they had one left in their TN warehouse and it would be overnighted to them and then he would be back to fix it. I said ok and that I would talk to him the following week. So I had not heard nothing as of Monday, April 21st so I called the store. [redacted] answered and as usual knew nothing and then I was told he was going to check into it and call me back. Well an hour and a half later [redacted] calls me and gives me some lame story of the part will be ordered today cause he had to do some research on the correct part and so on and so forth. I had told him that he straight out lied to me then when he stood in my home and told me that they had the part in their warehouse in TN and it would be overnighted. So anyway my husband and I have been going to the laundry mat at least once a week and doing our wash there and bringing it home to dry it in our dryer. This is taking time and money and mind you that every visit that Howie Voight has done to our house so far I have to take the time off of work cause they dont work weekends and they dont work evenings either. We are going on appt number five now whenever they call to set that up.Desired Settlement: I am not sure what I would consider a desired outcome. After what we have been through and going to the laundry mat every week for a month now and having to take time off of work for every time they have to come over here they should make sure our washer is running like it should be and refund our cost of our soap dish just for all these issues we have had since they stepped foot in our house.

Business

Response:

We’ve apologize for all of the misunderstandings, our lack of communications and length of time to complete the repair. We understand how this can be very frustrating. This repair was very unique and our technician made the mistake of accidently pinching a wire during reassembly of the washer. In the days following this complaint, the repair was completed at no additional charge. We hand delivered them there receipt, apology letter and a refund check for $100.00 for their inconveniences. We hope they give us another opportunity to offer a better service experience in the future. At Howie Voigt Appliance Our goal is to satisfy 100% of our customers. We take great pride in our top rating with the Revdex.com and will do everything possible to ensure 100% customer satisfaction.

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.