ACTON VACUUM & APPLIANCE — Local services in Acton

This one is a bit complicated.

I brought our vacuum in to be fixed. Turned out that it was going to cost about $200 to do the repairs, and right around then vacuums went on sale, so we wound up buying a new one. I had intended to go in and get our broken vacuum back and just keep it as a spare that we might eventually fix, but had forgotten for a few weeks due to the various holiday craziness.

During this time I got a call from someone other than the owner who worked at the store. He wanted to share with me his advice on whether or not to fix the vacuum. He did. I told him I would think about it and call him back (as I was considering having them fix it anyway so we would have a spare).

I then got a call a couple weeks later from the owner saying that the vacuum was fixed. I explained I did not authorize the repair and he said that I had. He told me that the other person had spoken to me and I said to fix it. I told him this was clearly complicated and I was with a friend so I would call him back.

I called a couple days later and he again insisted that I had authorized the repair. I said I had not, but he persisted in this. I said I was not looking to spend $200 on repairing the vacuum but I understood that he had fixed it and so I wanted to come up with something that was fair. There was a lot of back and forth but he was essentially unwilling to yield in any way. He also continued to insist I authorized the repair. My wife, btw, was sitting next to me during the conversation with "the other guy", and she confirmed I never said anything even like that.

I told him, fine... remove the parts and I'll come pickup the vacuum. He refused. I told him he would have to buy the vacuum from me then. He refused. Basically anything I came up with, he refused. Upon finally threatening to call the better business bureau, he opted to give me the vacuum for the cost of the parts and write off the labor.

When I arrived at the store he continued to be pretty obstinate. "I don't know why you're not happy... you got the labor for free", etc. I told him that I worked retail for some 15 years and never once have I called one of my customers a liar.

The whole experience was wildly unprofessional and unfair, and ridiculous since it was their error and they were essentially totally unwilling to be accountable for it on any level until I finally threatened to bring in another party. In this day and age, where service is king, I find this pretty baffling. I won't ever EVER shop or look for service there again.

[UPDATE] So I see Acton Vacuum has responded to my review to ONCE AGAIN state that we authorized the repair. And has asserted that my wife called, which tips me off that something seriously went wrong because my wife makes me call ALL vendors and stores. Anything like this. She just doesn't like interacting with folks over the phone.

Were I in this situation on the other end, I can think of a variety of ways I would have approached this... including, most likely, "Wow, we're so sorry. We'll pull the parts out and give you back your vacuum." I mean, yes, sure, you lose a bit of labor, and that is a real cost, but it seems way less of a cost than the impact of upsetting a customer supporting (or trying to support) a local business. I don't know. When I worked retail it was always "the customer is always right"... to a degree, anyway. Always have them leave with a smile, certainly... work something out. Didn't happen in this case. This was literally one of the worst customer service experiences I've had in my life.

It is what it is. Clearly something wrong happened. I wound up paying for a repair I had not planned for, which is very frustrating. This response by them to my review is not what I'd call a great example of customer service either, but I understand the situation...

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