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
We were told by the technician(s), that if it was up to them, they would give us a new washer or at least one to borrow until ours was fixed. However, A&E will not fork one over so easily. A&E hassles them about every little thing, and pretty much puts them on trial if they were to vaguely say "I can't repair this washer." The technicians seem to be nothing but messengers, and we of course do not shoot the messengers. The technicians are actually really good guys.
Leaves us a "cleaner" for 149.99. Says if that don't work, he'll install a pump. We get another appt. He shows up. Except that he forgot the pump. Says 7-10 days to get 1. I had already found 1 and I had it shipped to my home. He says he'll come back and install it, I tell him not to bother, I can do it. He says, no problem, I'm happy to put it in for you.
Comes back, installs pump, tells my wife she needs to pay 129.00. Which she does because she's easy to intimidate. I stop payment on the check and send them an eMail letting them know why. They sell the check to a collections agency. Nice.
Use them, never.
We really do want to fix the problem but they give us so little time ...like a previous tech stated, isn't not possible to make it to 5-7 repair jobs all booked at 8am-12pm! You cant even drive to all of those homes in that time as they are all in different area codes and during different traffic jam times!. Also we have very little training to start , they make sure we know how to use a Voltmeter and can read a basic wiring diagram then let us ride for two weeks with a senior tech .Mine was a burnt out chain smoking A** Hole who figured I should already know most of what I'm doing as far as order processing and treated every question as a challenge or offense - so many times i wanted to strangle him for being outright rude to me or the customer!
It goes better for us if we can fix the product, then its called a complete - we are supposed to get 8 completes in a day... but if you diagnose the problem but don't have the part, you have to order it which understandable makes the customer upset - and deprives us of a complete! So not only did I work for an hour and a half, on my back on a dirty kitchen floor under an electrically dangerous appliance like a wet plugged in dishwasher, but its only to just disappoint the customer by having to reschedule for the part arrival and none of my hard work counts! So we don't like leaving a house without fixing the problem because we get slammed more than once for it . They make our life hell and micro manage our time till we a paranoid to not clock out for lunch on time! Just please understand that those techs who come into your home are people who are trying the best they can to do a difficult job and most of them started out as nice people - but i can feel myself getting as burned out as the guy who was supposedly my mentor. I go to sleep with all the job problems on my mind and i wake up every hour just to see how much rest i get before i start the day with a tight feeling in my chest and silent prayers that i won't run into overlong issues putting me behind all day.
Also we get no training with stuff like Fisher& Pakel and Bosch - nor do we carry any parts on our vans, so I don't know why they send us like lambs to a slaughter -to be made embarrassed because we have no idea how to open these things let alone where the main board or pump is located.
I have gone out once because after a 10hr day (pretty common) I was tired and dehydrated (driving all day in summertime triple digit heat) I hurt myself and was out for months. Upon returning I asked my Tech Mngr if I could get a couple days of retraining (because many procedures change per week) and his attitude was well if the returned you ok to work then you should be able to just get back to it!
I wouldn't wish this job on anyone I care about - my home life is wrecked because of it, I spend my days off ( they just split them, Sunday and Wednesday - thats when get two days off) looking for any other work that I can just live on and get by on. Is YOUR JOB making you as misserable as mine? - Please realize who truley is to blamefor this mess.
The Greedy [***] with perfect lives, who are home by 5 .
1. The technician didn't see to know much. He kept making excuses to go back to his truck where he made phone calls (I can only assume to get help)
2. He claimed the controller board was bad and ordered the part. It turned out not to be the problem
3. When the part finally arrived after three weeks, called to male an appointment for the installation, but was told that they don;t have any technician available for another 12 days!
4. Ended up calling another company who fixed the problem in one hour wit no part replacement needed!
I learned my lesson the hard way...