Richie's Appliance Service

Review: I had Richies L.I. Appliance come to fix my mashing machine. I told him to see what was wrong and to call me before he did any work. He called me and said it probably was the water pump which would be $149. If it was more than that it would be $250. I told him to let me know before he does any work. The machine is 12 years old and I never has any problems with it. The same repair man looked at my machine in the winter time because I thought it was broken because it would not empty, but it turned out that the pipes were frozen. I had to pay him a service charge of $50.He called me after he completed the job and told me he installed a filter for $15. The water pump was fine.He didn't need to replace itI told him I did not need or want a filter. I'm the only one who uses the machine and am not careless. He started yelling at me over the phone and said"he should not have to vent like this." He said that I had a 15% coupon and I should call it even. He had charged me $189. He then hung up while I was trying to reason with him. He is a very poor business man. He is nasty and disrespectful. If I had been there I would have disputed the charge. unfortunately I gave my neighbor a signed check and told her to fill it in. She called me 2 times to complain about Richie and that I should not use him again. He was very nasty and disrespectful to my neighbor as well. I will never use Richie's Appliances again, and I will tell my neighbors how he acted and treated my neighbor and myself. He was unprofessional and his anger was inexcusable. He needs to attend ANGER MANAGEMENT CLASSES. The first rule in buessness: "The customer is always right." Because he treated both myself and my neighbor with hostility and anger I chose to make a formal complaint. I would have liked to add more but the first time I wrote this complaint I ran out of room. I hope this is detailed enough for you to understand the circumstances of our encounter.Desired Settlement: After our negative interactions with Richie's Appliances I feel he does not warrent payment. If I was present at the time of service, I WOULD NOT have paid him.

Business

Response:

Upon returning to [redacted]'s house on 5/**/14, it was a much different experience than my first visit. Some things were the same- such as wet clothes left in the washer, personal items on top of the machine (toaster, microwave, etc.). However, on this visit, another female tenant of the house was there to let me in and pay me. After an initial argument with [redacted] over my arrival at 11AM for her agreed upon 9am-12pm service window, her tenant refused to move any of the items impeding my work zone and nastily told me "I need to leave in 10 minutes. This isn't my responsibility." After clearing the work zone myself and the preliminary diagnosis, I informed [redacted] of the likely causes of the machine's problems- 1) a faulty pump, replaced ~ $350 2) debris blocking the draining system; cleaning ~ $175 3) $150 termination fee if the pump was found to be faulty and she chose not to fix it. This is to cove r the cost of labor, complexity of task, and time spent dissecting and diagnosing the pump unit. [redacted] agreed to the cleaning and termination fee, but didn't want to spend $350 to fix the pump. At this point, I continued with the job and found that there was a "Great Wolf Lodge" token jamming the impeller on the pump motor (not damaged). After clearing the path, I cleaned the rest of the system and put everything back together, while adding a coin/lint-catcher filter for $14 that was missing from the machine and was left out by a previous service company. At this point in the process, the female tenant [redacted] left to host me summoned a male tenant of the house. They began arguing over who should stay with me until I finished the job, while the female tenant approached me no less than 10 times asking me when I would be done. This was one of the most hostile work environments I've come across in my 37 years of service.

[redacted] is correct that "the customer is always right," however, I have rights as well and refuse to be bullied, taken advantage of, and treated like garbage. I bent over backwards to try and accommodate [redacted], but was left to deal with a chaotic living arrangement and customers unwilling to uphold their service window commitment, show common courtesy, or treat me in a professional matter. I also cleaned up for her when she failed to fulfill a common courtesy of clearing out her washing machine area before a repair visit. Also, the job was completed at 12:06pm, well within the time frame I told her to expect. As for [redacted]'s claims that I was unprofessional and my anger was inexcusable, I have generations of loyal customers that would disagree. I'm sorry that [redacted] thinks I needed to "vent," but I had to explain every minor detail of my encounter, and then some, because she didn't want to see why I was being pre ssured to perform a proper and safe repair with impossible expectations, in a toxic environment. I should have just told [redacted] to find another company when things started deteriorating.

I admit that I should have sought further approval from [redacted] before installing the $14 filter, but I couldn't have done the job she authorized me to do (cleaning @ $175) in good conscious without putting in the missing coin/lint catcher that led to her machine breaking in the first place and risked damaging the pump entirely ($350 to repair, which she didn't want to spend). Also, if I didn't replace that filter, I felt [redacted] would try and hold me liable for any future problems, or vacation tokens, that wound up in her pump system again. Therefore, I'm willing to refund the $14 filter for my failure to consult [redacted] again, and I apologize for the misunderstanding. As for the $15 [redacted] references in her complaint, I believe she is confusing that dollar amount with the "$15-off" coupon she had, which I honored.

[redacted]'s job was still an open issue as far as I was concerned, hence why her check wasn't cashed until last week, after we received the Revdex.com complaint. Although we didn't get a chance to discuss her accusations after each of us had a few days to consider all the facts, over a telephone call, her written complaint has been noted, and we will issue a refund check for the $14 coin-lint catch filter, inclusive of any taxes, as soon as her original check clears.