Mr. Appliance Appliance Repair

I would like to post this complaint.

COMPLAINT ACTIVITY REPORT Case # 90090783 The Better Business Bureau

Consumer Info: Rhodes, John Business Info: Mr Appliance

6427 Williams Ridge PO Box 441

Austin, TX 78731 Cedar Creek, TX 78612

512 423-1959 512 423-1959 512 454-8045

Location Involved: (Same as above)

Consumer's Original Complaint :

On 5/19/2006, a Mr. Appliance technician visited our home to fix our oven. He missed his first appointment, but after some prodding he eventually showed up. However, he was unable to fix the oven. He said that parts needed to be ordered, and that he would return the following week to complete the work. However, he never showed up as scheduled. After that I made 2-3 calls to the answering machine that were never returned. After considerable time - at least 6 weeks - we gave up and went to GE to get our oven fixed. They fixed it the same day.

Over 3 months later, in August 2006, I got a call from Mr. Appliance stating the parts had arrived. I was extremely surprised and even flabbergasted, and explained that I had the oven fixed already given the extensive delay. They had no explanation for their delay, and certainly did not seem apologetic. After this, I was even more surprised to get a bill from them for the service call back in May. I sent a certified letter to them on 9/23/06 explaining their error and inviting them to call to discuss. They did not call, but they did recently send another letter stating they were sending the account to collections.

I feel this behavior is reprehensible for any business. If you don't provide a valid service, then you should have the integrity not to attempt to bill for it, and then harass people over it.

I hope that the BBB can help resolve this.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS:

Account Number: unknown

Order Number: 30781

Consumer's Desired Resolution:

Apology and letter cancelling spurious charge

BBB Processing

12/10/2006 web BBB Case Received by BBB

12/12/2006 vap BBB Case Reviewed by BBB- Member

12/12/2006 Otto EMAIL Send Acknowledgement to Consumer

12/12/2006 Otto EMAIL Notify Business of Dispute- Member

12/13/2006 WEB BBB RECEIVE BUSINESS RESPONSE : Contact Name and Title: Charlie Goff

Contact Phone: 512-303-9274

Contact Email: Email User

We at Mr. Appliance value our customers and put excellent customer service at the top of list. I am sorry you feel that your weren't treated fairly by our company and I hope we can come to some resolution. I have reviewed the notes taken by our customer service representatives and compared them to your letter and found some discrepancies I'd like to go over. 1st of all we do not use an "answering machine" so I am not sure where you were leaving your messages but apparently it wasn't with us as our phones are answered 24/7. Secondly, we have never received any certified correspondence from you so if you could please provide the BBB with that information so we can look into why we are not receiving our mail that would be greatly appreciated. Third, you called in on 5-17-06 at 8:03 am and were scheduled for the 19th (2 days later with no objections) Fourth, we arrived as scheduled and diagnosed the oven, gave you a quote (which you agreed to) advised you we would return the following week to complete the repairs (which you agreed to). Not sure how you "prodded" my technician along on the first appointment and finally got him to show up as you would have had no way to contact him in the field prior to an initial visit. Lastly and most importantly the call was performed late in the afternoon of the 19th (as scheduled) and parts were ordered the following morning. The parts came in within the time frame you agreed to and you were called to schedule the return visit, didn't answer and never returned our call to complete the repairs (probably because you already had it repaired by GE). I have cut and pasted the exact notes as we have them on file for you and every other customer we come in contact with for your review. You can see we tried many times to reach you, but our calls were never answered nor returned. Show on your invoice that you waited 6 weeks or more (as stated in your letter) AND that GE didn't do it for free or a steeply discounted price and I will be more than happy to waive the 69.95 diagnostic fee even though you owe it and ought to pay it. We no doubt from time to time drop the ball on a customer but in your case we made good on everything you were promised.

12/13/2006 BBB MORE INFO RECEIVED FROM THE BUSINESS : PM5/18/06 CALLED TO CONFIRM APPT. NO MACH. TO LEAVE MESS. -CH5/20/06 PART ORDER PER BRENT - ST;5/20/2006 ORDER PARTS FROM MARCONES P # WB24K5126 ( SWITCH) ,P # WB24K5127 ( SWITCH) DUE IN ON THE 5/24/2006 ( DR )5/23/2006 ONE PART CAME IN PUT IN BRENT'S BOX , WAITING ON ONE MORE PART ( DR )5/25/2006 FINAL PART CAME PUT IN BRENTS' BOX SET TO RESCH ( DR )6/07/2006 CALLED TO RESCH APPT - LFT MSG - SW;6/28/06 CALLED LEFT MSG RESCH APPT-AD7/10/06-TRIED TO CALL AND RESCHEDULE APPT, LMOM. MG7/12/06-LMOM TO RESCHEDULE. MG7/17/06-LMOM TO RESCHEDULE. MG8/4/06-LMOM TO RESCHEDULE. MG8/4/06-BRENT GAVE ME NEW # TO CALL 512-423-1831. WILL TRY ON MONDY. MG8/7/06-LMOM TO RESCHEDULE. MG8/10/06-LMOM TO TRY AND RESCHEDULE.MG8/16/06-LMOM TO TRY AND RESCHEDULE.MG8/22/06-CUSTOMER GOT IT REPAIRED BY GE. CLOSE ORDER, I LET BRENT KNOW.MG8/28/06-PUT ORDER IN ACTIVE PRINT INVOICE AND TO GIVE TO BRENT SO HE COULD COLLECT THE DX FEE.MG

12/13/2006 vap EMAIL Forward Business response to Consumer

12/25/2006 WEB BBB BBB REVIEWS CONSUMER REBUTTAL TO BUSINESS RESPONSE : (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

1) Perhaps it was not an answering machine. In that case I talked to a person. Doesn't matter - originally I was told that I would be contacted within 1 WEEK to finish the repair. It should not have been on me to badger them into finishing the job.

2) I have the certified mail receipts on file going to the same address as the BBB compliant.

3) The technician did not arrive in the window as scheduled. He was "running late". I needed to call to beg them show up for that day.

4) This is a complete prevarication. I never received a call or any corresponce fom these people until they called me in August to tell me the parts arrived, 3 months after their visit. Why the heck would I not want to get my oven fixed?

If I am not telling the truth, then I would ask Mr. Appliance why they did not bill me, call me, or otherwise correspond with me back in June? This indicates to any reasonable person that they did NOT try to contact me to perform the repairs in May as they initially promised. I'm sure that they either forgot to order the parts or the followup was stuck in a drawer somewhere.

12/27/2006 vap EMAIL FORWARD CONSUMER REBUTTAL TO BUSINESS : 12/27/06 vap, company needs to further address consumer's issues.

12/29/2006 WEB BBB RECEIVED BUSINESS' REBUTTAL RESPONSE : A solution has been offered in the previous response of a full refund. All we would need is the supporting documentatiion as previously stated. Here it is again

"Show on your invoice that you waited 6 weeks or more (as stated in your letter) AND that GE didn't do it for free or a steeply discounted price." and we will refund the $69.95

If this not acceptable we would like to proceed to binding arbitration.

01/02/2007 vap EMAIL Forward Final Response to Consumer

01/07/2007 WEB BBB CONSUMER REJECTS BUSINESS' FINAL OFFER : (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

I don't have any invoice at this point - and I am not going to accept that I am the one who needs to go to any great lengths to resolve this. I am the party that was wronged. If Mr. Appliance had made the least attempt to order the part and contact me in anything approaching a timely manner, then they would have had the business. They do not dispute that the first time they contacted me and had a conversation was 3 months after original service call.

So I'll turn this around - I would invite Mr. Appliance can produce any solid evidence showing that they attempted to contact me about the part in a timely manner, sometime within the first 6 weeks after the first visit. Alternatively, I would invite Mr. Appliance to make an appointment on a Saturday and see that the oven was indeed fixed. No, I did not get anything approaching a discount, I am sure of this.

I am still flabbergasted that Mr. Appliance is attempting the collect on this when it is clear they dropped the ball. Surely the negative word of mouth they are getting with my neighbors, friends, and family exceeds any gains they might think they will eventually get from me.

I am happy proceeding to binding arbitration or the courts. Although such a small amount of money wouldn't normally be worth my time, I am incensed by this treatment and will follow it through to the end.