V and V Appliance Parts — Local services in Blue Ash

To counter the negative reviews, keep this in mind: Small business like this deal with rude, time wasting, psychopaths every day. Without giving any thought as to the name of the establishment, or the fact there are shelves of appliance parts behind the counter, people will walk into a place like this and ask, "Do you guys sell appliance parts?" or other similarly silly questions, it gets tedious. Or they will want to waste time trying to impress by telling about their amazing adventure trying to repair an ice cube tray when the counter clerk really has important stuff to do. Ever wonder why it took so long to get a call-back answer to a question from a small business? Customers will not have given any thought as to trying to be specific about what they need, again, wasting time of the counter staff, "It's just a basic refrigerator, it's white. I don't know the brand or model! Why don't you look it up or something?!?" They will "pick the brains" of the counter staff to get an education, buy a part, just to get the part number then go home order the item online then come back to return the part, or even install the locally, same-day, procured part then attempt to return the identical online purchased item. Then they'll complain loudly about the price of the part as compared to online sources that don't have to waste time educating, providing emotional counseling, and paying taxes to support local infrastructure, even though the part is in stock, locally, now. Convenience has great value, but customers will waste much wear, tear, fuel and time to "save" 50 cents.

The "buy before you decide if you want/need an item" mentality brought to us by big-box and online stores with their no-fault return policies, makes customers lazy. Restocking fees only make-up for a fraction of the lost revenue from time-wasting customers. Imagine, you stock only 1 of some rare expensive item. What a great convenience for someone who needs that part. A customer buys it casually, not sure if they really need it or not, you reorder it, the customer returns it, now you have 2. Walmart can absorb this kind of excess inventory, a small business can't. This effects prices. Customers can get their retribution whining on reviews but small business staff have no such public forum to vent & identify trouble-making customers, or believe me as a small business owner, most customers would have dismal reviews. Instead ,the anger from the abuse starts to build and sometimes can't stay contained. So next time a clerk at the counter appears to be having a bad day, remember what they've likely already been through before you got there. Come prepared, be respectful of their time, appreciate the value of their service to you. Give them a buck or two tip so they know at least someone appreciates them. "Don't be part of the problem.", as the saying goes, like some of these negative reviewers, "Be part of...

I contacted the downtown location of this company for an appliance part. I was told it was in stock, a reputable OEM part, etc. The next morning I went out to get it and started a two hour drive through stop and go Cincinnati traffic. I arrived at the store and was told it wasn’t in stock, then I was pointed to the Encompass phone number. I waited about ten minutes to be connected to an agent, the agent told me it was in stock, gave me the address, and informed me I would need to pay online prior to picking it up. The Encompass website was uncooperative and wasn’t allowing me to pay online so I drove thirty minutes to the second location.

The second location the Encompass agent pointed me to was a Grainger hardware store. The sales associate there was just as confused as I was as to why I was sent there, but still worked with me. Grainger wasn’t selling that part, nor have they ever. Good thing I didn’t pay Encompass $170 before getting to the store, right?

I called the other Cincinnati Appliance Parts location. I was told yes, it’s in stock, OEM part. Fantastic. I headed to the third location and after another thirty minutes I was there. I was told they don’t have it either.

So, a quick recap. Both Cincinnati Appliance Parts stores never had the part despite me being told by both of them that they did. I wasted six hours of my day trusting their word. I wasted time, gas, and effort. An Encompass agent told me it was at a random store and insisted I pay them before arriving at the location.

I will never recommend anybody shop at these locations or communicate directly with Encompass. If you have to do business with them, make sure the person is actually in the store, actually goes back there, and actually verifies it’s there. Maybe then you’ll have a better experience than I did. I ended up finding the part I needed the next day in a different city. Believe it or not, they actually did have the part.

One star is too high. Thanks for wasting a day, wasting gas, and thanks for trying to take money from a...

So I read the reviews of this place and figured I had a 50/50 shot of it being a good experience. Let me tell you the negative reviews are 100% accurate. The staff is rude, and dismissive. The gentlemen working the front counter was courteous, I will single him out for that, he doesn't go out of his way to help you or anything and pretty much just says.. "well sucks to be you that's the only part for your dryer, your probably not working it correctly" and then goes to someone else. The woman treats customers as a child and is hostile and aggressive, don't even bother with her. The parts are not "high quality" parts like some reviewers have argued, they flatly just aren't. They tried to sell me the same cheaply made part I bought on Amazon several months before for more than double the cost I paid. They assume that because I wasn't dressed like a repairman I must not know how to repair a dryer or how to work a dryer. Even with model number, and the physical part I took off my dryer they are unwilling to do anything but bare minimum, and that is given over the counter with attitude and contempt for the customer. I am not a noob to self repairs or working in customer service. I want anyone reading these reviews to not make the same mistake I did. This place is some of the worst customer service I have worked with. You get better attitude from the Time Warner Cable CSR who can barely speak English than you do...