Coast Appliances - Victoria — Local services in Saanich

Stove was delivered damaged. Store wants $799 to replace it?? Despite their empty reply to this review, they still have not resolved this problem.

You can tell a lot about a company not by how they treat you when you’re about to spend your hard-earned money on five new appliances, but by how they treat you when something goes wrong. And for this reason, I give Coast Appliances Victoria no stars, and I warn any future customers: do not buy from Coast Appliances Victoria.

My wife and I bought five new appliances ahead of incoming tariffs, hoping to support a local Canadian business and get a head start on renovating our old house. Because we were in the middle of that renovation, Coast agreed to store the appliances until we were ready to accept delivery.

However, not long after, they pressured us to pick a delivery date to clear out their warehouse. I prepped a safe space in our garage and we accepted the delivery. We checked all the appliances on arrival. There was a dent in the fridge — frustrating, but not worth fighting about in the middle of renovations. We did email the store to ask if they could do anything — we received no reply.

The Frigidaire stove arrived wrapped in a large box with hard cardboard sidings protecting the edges. We opened the top to make sure the glass wasn’t cracked — it looked fine — so we kept it boxed to protect it until installation. We stored it safely, untouched in our garage for two months.

When our kitchen was finally ready, we unpacked the stove. To our shock, the side looked like it had been hit by a forklift — a big dent near the bottom, the metal frame pushed in, and paint scratched underneath the cardboard protection, with no major damage to the outer box. It’s very hard to imagine that happening during normal handling — it looked like damage from careless warehousing or shipping before delivery.

When we called Coast to report it, they immediately said it was “past the cosmetic warranty” and blamed the movers (an independent company they hired) — but since we’d signed off at delivery, they refused to help. Calls and repeated emails to the in-store manager Justin went unanswered. The local customer service rep said there was nothing more he could do and told us to call the regional manager.

After repeated attempts, my wife finally reached the regional manager Amanda, who promised to look into it — and to get back in touch with her if we had heard nothing by the weeks end. No one reached out to us so more calls, more messages — no answer. Eventually, the rep at the Victoria store called us back with their “solution”: pay $799 (two-thirds of the original cost) to replace the damaged stove. They told us bluntly that since we’d signed off, they didn’t even have to offer that. When I suggested they just replace the top or send a repair tech, they said it wasn’t worth it.

So let’s be clear: •    We signed off in good faith, having checked what we reasonably could without fully unboxing a large appliance during an active renovation. •    The damage was hidden under protective cardboard — not visible without fully unboxing. •    The company uses an independent delivery company — yet refuses to take responsibility for any damage that happens after it leaves their warehouse. •    Their management dodged calls and pushed the uncomfortable conversation back down the chain to the same store rep who could do nothing to help.

My wife and I have over 30 years in customer service. We know that things go wrong sometimes — what matters is how you handle it. Coast Appliances Victoria did everything they could to avoid accountability for delivering a likely pre-damaged stove — and forced us to chase them for weeks only to be told to pay hundreds more for a replacement.

If you’re considering Coast Appliances, think twice. It’s easy to take your money when you’re buying five big-ticket items — but when there’s a problem? You’ll see what kind of company you’re really dealing with. We are really disheartened by how this...

My 79-yo Dad treated himself to a new BBQ, purchased in May. It was supposed to be delivered around Father's Day, which he was really looking forward to as he is a grill master and uses his barbeque many times a week. They delivered a propane model even though he had purchased a natural gas model. He didn't realize this until after they'd assembled it and left, even though it would have been obvious to the assembly guys that he has a gas hook-up. That was just the start of what seemed like a never-ending, frustrating saga. Instead of fast-tracking getting the correct model delivered and assembled, they claimed they needed to order it. Nobody kept him in the loop and he was forced to follow-up on a weekly basis. ZERO urgency or concern on the part of Coast Appliances, who used every excuse in the books and zero problem-solving to make it right. Finally, 3 months later (and most of the summer gone), they notified him in August that the unit was in stock, and they'd let him know (on a Friday) when delivery would be arranged. Once again, nothing. So he had to follow up AGAIN, only for them to say "there aren't enough deliveries today so we didn't get the van" i.e. "we don't care AT ALL about the fact you've been waiting the whole summer for your barbeque, old man". When it was finally delivered it was NOT assembled, they just a box left on his patio to get rained on. The delivery people said someone would be by in 20 mins. My dad, with the patience of a saint, waited until he had to leave so I called to find out what was going on, as I happened to be visiting from Calgary and by then was livid at how poorly they'd treated my father. It wasn't until I laid into whomever was on the phone and "Remi" came on the line to say, "Uh jeez well we told them to do the assembly" and guess what? Yep, he had to wait until the next day. So finally it was put together. They informed us in a rather self-congratulatory way that they'd refund the delivery cost. AND - when they finally did assemble it, they didn't connect the line as it was a different attachment, and just left it for him to sort out himself without attempting to rectify it while they were there. My goodness, the lack of customer service has been STUNNING, a new low, really. And this was a higher-end unit. They could not have cared less. STEER CLEAR and find anywhere else to purchase your appliance. As I told them on the phone, they really should be ashamed of themselves. Completely, utterly unacceptable and no BS excuses they might say in response can possibly explain...

So a fridge was purchased and the freezer component was soon discovered to not be working properly. The way "service" calls work is you deal with a separate division of the company who contract out service calls to a third party company. It doesn't seem like the most efficient way to deal with service issues but surprisingly it is relatively painless. The third party technician concluded that my fridge was not worth fixing and that they were going to suggest to Coast it be replaced. I was contacted about 10 days later by Coast 's Service department who surprisingly stated that the fridge would not be replaced but rather parts had been ordered so that it could be repaired. I expressed my surprise at this new development but as I had nothing in writing from that technician I accepted the resolution. I was told parts would be about 2 weeks. Well about 6 weeks later the fridge still was not repaired and it was at that point I contacted Coast and was told it was manufacturer delays causing the problem. I suggested by email that perhaps Coast should just replace my fridge for me because there was no firm date on when it could be fixed. I was somewhat annoyed that the Service Team Leader at this point got involved to quote warranty legalese about how Coast was not obligated to give me a new fridge because warranty issues are dictated by the manufacturer. This is all true and not in dispute but I was very annoyed that despite the fact Coast was not obligated to do anything more they should consider that the freezer had not worked from the start and a replacement would be the "right" thing to do despite what the warranty said. This was all expressed in an email exchange. All of this back story to say that in the end Coast DID do the right thing and exchanged out the fridge within a week of those emails. I think the lesson learned here is twofold; first respect the fact that Coast can adhere to the warranty and don't start yelling and screaming about it and secondly, if you are reasonable, I think they will be reasonable in kind. Ultimately one has to understand that in these COVID times there will be delays but that there are still some companies out there who will do the "right thing" providing you don't resort to screaming and...