Kitchen Aid Repair by A&E Factory Service
Complaint
Mark
Country: United States
A&E Factory Service, Northern California Citrus Heights, CA On March 30, 2007 I purchased a condominium that came fully equipped with Kitchen Aid brand appliances included the refrigerator that is referenced below.
Beginning on July 25, I began experiencing problems with device not holding temperature. After calling customer care and receiving troubleshooting information I waited to request a service call. On July 27, after no improvement I called to schedule an appointment.
I was referred to A&E Appliance (18007713029) who informed me that the soonest appointment I could get was Tuesday, July 31, 2007. After waiting the four days for service I encountered over $200 in food loss due to unsafe temperatures. My time window was 1-5. After leaving work half way through the day unpaid to be present for my scheduled appointment I did not receive a telephone call from the service technician until 5:15 P.M. Upon inspecting the fridge from approximately 5:45 until 7:30 Chester, the technician informed me that I would need to make an additional appointment 10 days from now.
He also informed me that I would have to accept delivery of the parts. This poses several problems for me. 1) I work 60+ hours a week and arranging to be present to accept a package is a huge burden. I requested that the package be sent to his office/service location. He said that this would not be possible. 2) I am unable to make a realistic appointment do to unforeseen scheduling conflicts.
The next possible time made available to me was Friday, Aug. 10 which I knew would not work so I made an appointment on Saturday, Aug. 11 from 8 - 12. Ultimately, I am being asked to wait over 15 days without a fridge that should not be having these problems in the first place. This is a $2000+ fridge that was purchased than 6 months ago! What does your company expect your customers to do? Where would you like me to store my food? How much do you expect your customers to be inconvenienced before you simply replace the fridge? This whole process has been extremely disappointing, frustrating, and costly. I would expect more from a well known brand like Kitchen Aid.
Beginning on July 25, I began experiencing problems with device not holding temperature. After calling customer care and receiving troubleshooting information I waited to request a service call. On July 27, after no improvement I called to schedule an appointment.
I was referred to A&E Appliance (18007713029) who informed me that the soonest appointment I could get was Tuesday, July 31, 2007. After waiting the four days for service I encountered over $200 in food loss due to unsafe temperatures. My time window was 1-5. After leaving work half way through the day unpaid to be present for my scheduled appointment I did not receive a telephone call from the service technician until 5:15 P.M. Upon inspecting the fridge from approximately 5:45 until 7:30 Chester, the technician informed me that I would need to make an additional appointment 10 days from now.
He also informed me that I would have to accept delivery of the parts. This poses several problems for me. 1) I work 60+ hours a week and arranging to be present to accept a package is a huge burden. I requested that the package be sent to his office/service location. He said that this would not be possible. 2) I am unable to make a realistic appointment do to unforeseen scheduling conflicts.
The next possible time made available to me was Friday, Aug. 10 which I knew would not work so I made an appointment on Saturday, Aug. 11 from 8 - 12. Ultimately, I am being asked to wait over 15 days without a fridge that should not be having these problems in the first place. This is a $2000+ fridge that was purchased than 6 months ago! What does your company expect your customers to do? Where would you like me to store my food? How much do you expect your customers to be inconvenienced before you simply replace the fridge? This whole process has been extremely disappointing, frustrating, and costly. I would expect more from a well known brand like Kitchen Aid.
Comments
I have since contacted Whirlpool and have selected another authorized provider.
We will see if they show up tomorrow, if they can repair the machine, or if my husband and I have to haul laudry to the laudromat again. They have one great racket going all across the country. I will NEVER buy any appliance that has repairs by this company. I was told by the Customer Service that the CEO is Dale Reeder, 1300 Louis Henna Blvd., Round Rock, Texas 78664. I don't know if sending a complaint to Mr. Reeder will do any good - I'm sure he is laughing at all of the people who are double-crossed by his slick business operations.
I do not accept the comments by the A&E reps above...the A&E staff all seem to be inconsiderate of customer inconvenience. They do not concern themselves with the fact that we paid for their services by purchasing the service contract (through GE in this case), and therefore we should be treated like customers, not just consumers. Unfortunately we did not pick them, and GE tells us we can not get another company to do the work, or we would. Their service is an abomination. I only hope their actual work on the oven is different. (If it eventually ever gets done!)
I called A&E for an appt. to install a part for my Whirlpool washer. I was given a time frame of between 1:00 and 5:00pm. My job is just 5 minutes from where I live. I can take a 1/2hr lunch. I asked that the A&E service rep call when about 5-10 minutes away. Be more efficient for both of us. I got the call from the rep. I asked where he was. He said he was in town. The A&E truck doesn't show up. I the rep call him. Turns out he was still 40 miles away. I don't think he liked that I got on him for saying he was in town when he was not and he also did not like it when I told him to hurry and get his butt over here, I have to get back to work. The rep calls the service manager (Bill) and he cancels the service call. They didn't even bother to have someone call to notify me and reschedule.
I call and get rescheduled for the next day. Same thing. No show. Even after I called customer service to verify that a repair person would be coming over before 5:00pm. Again, another service manager (Ely) cancelled the service call and again they did not even bother to have someone call and notify and reschedule me. I am over it with A@E. I want the $$ back that I paid upfront for the part replacement and I want A@E to pay an authorized local appliance servicer to take over the installation.
I realize that my washing machine was a piece of junk (maytag neptune) and that even though it was only 4 years old, maytag discontinued making them BUT it still should not take 3+ weeks to get results. After almost 4 weeks of waiting, I asked for a refund and we purchased a new machine. (Still waiting for the refund 6 weeks later!!!) After the first tech came, it took over 2 weeks to receive our part and then 3 more days for a tech to install it. In these times, how can a part take that long?? I'm even ok that the part that was ordered didn't work but A & E needs to back up their work and send someone out within 24 hours to assess the situation. Don't make the customer wait 5 more days to have a tech take a look at it like I had to.
I worked in customer service for a heating/air conditioning company and while it was different.....it was similar. If this would have happened at my work, a technician would have been dispatched to the problem as soon as possible. Even if it meant that schedules had to be adjusted or an even longer (12 hrs +) day for the tech and the office. Standing behind what you've done or haven't done makes a big difference.
Greg - apparently you have nothing better to do than to pick fights with others on this site. Maybe you should put your mouth (and skills???) to work....try A & E.
On another note, occasionally you will come across a person in customer service you will really help you and give you answers. Make sure you get that person's name!
I would take the darn thing back to the store. How can I help this customer? He's insulting a technician he has not met, he's demanding things no service company can give him. On top of that hes threatening to hurt the technician when he does go to service his appliance. Why is the repair company responsible for this?
My second call today was a lady 84 years old. She talked for over 15 mins without taking a breath where I could start doing what needed to be done. She had an air conditioner that had been service on the day before, and her breaker was the problem not the airconditioner. She had "cornered" the technician the day before, and had a one sided conversation for 25 minutes with him. He noted on his comments that if any other services were needed to send two technicians since customer seemed unstable.
She had in fact called several times already, and she had done the same thing with other representatives. Why is the company responsible for the electrical system not being up to code?
People call in and request for technicians to bring parts without knowing what parts are needed. In any one day technicians do about 10 repairs. How is he going to have any part a washer, a dryer a ref etc of any of all the brand names the company services. A washer alone has a lot of parts, customer expects to have each part for, say a washer any brand any model. He would have to have a whole warehouse to have any & all the parts to replace all the parts for the appliances in any one day.
I strive to do the best job possible, it makes it difficult when a customer is demanding something even the manufacturer can not do for them.
They want you to buy new appliances and since they own Maytag, Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Amana, Jenn-Air, Roper, Admiral, and Kenmore; odds are pretty good you will purchasing one of their products.
Our brand new Whirlpool fridge stopped working after just a few months. Sent an A&E "technician" (i use that term loosely) out to fix it. Was the fan motor. So what does he do? He starts prying on it and yanking on it. What happens next you ask? He prys so hard that he breaks the plastic bracket the motors is mounted on. He doesn't have that part in the truck so it has to be ordered. Also, he didn't test the ice maker after removing it to get to the fan motor. About 8 hours later, we discovered a 1/4 to 1/2 of water and ice in the bottom of our freezer which had leached up into cardboard boxes of food and made a mess.
To make a long story even longer, I complained to Whirlpool and and they extended my warranty another 6 months and sent a local repairman to our house from a local shop.
Through this whole ordeal from beginning to end was about two weeks. Whirlpool's warranty does not cover lost food and we dumped at ton of milk since the fridge would only cool to 48 degrees.
Thanks A&E!!!
If you have an issue, I'd press the manufacturer for service from a local shop you trust rather than the morons from A&E. Good luck!