McGlaughlin's Refrigeration and Appliance Service — Local services in Cumberland Township

Ridiculous fees. Horribly rude, condescending, and combative customer service.

Have a broken appliance? Without informing you of any of their fees in advance, they'll charge a $75 flat rate to come to your house, and then charge $75/hr "labor" for every minute spent on diagnosis. Not repair- DIAGNOSIS. Even if no repair is made.

I can accept being charged labor on a repair. I cannot accept being charged hourly labor to LOOK at something, on top of being charged a flat service fee to come LOOK at something. One or the other, sure, but not both for a 51-minute diagnosis (yes, they apparently clock every second) when no actual work has been done on the appliance and no repair has been made.

For my broken dishwasher, they estimated $1500 for a repair (which was basically the cost to rebuild the entire thing, because they weren't quite sure why it wasn't draining), and when I declined (because their quote for repair was 3x the cost of just buying a new one), they hit me with a $150 bill, 3 months after the fact, without fixing anything.

That comes out to a charge of $3 PER MINUTE just to LOOK at the appliance without fixing anything.

When I called in to inquire about the obscene labor fees on a diagnosis (again, not repair- DIAGNOSIS), I was rudely told by the woman who answered that I "should have known the cost" (telepathically I assume because it was neither advertised nor spoken), that I was "being unreasonable" in asking the labor fees to be removed when they didn't actually fix anything, and then was hung up on with the threat that she would be "calling the magistrate" on me if I didn't pay the full amount pronto.

I expressed that I had no problem sending a check for the $75 service fee for the visit- it's the hourly labor charges for diagnostics ON TOP of the house call I'm contesting. Especially when that diagnosis was "we don't know what the actual problem is so we're going to replace every possible part and charge you an arm and a leg if you want this to work again." It's not as if I'm just complaining about the cost of a repair bill. I'm complaining about the cost of a diagnosis because I feel genuinely cheated at being charged $150 for a service tech to look up the dishwasher error codes that I'd already looked up myself for free, without doing anything about them. Reiterating what I already know is hardly worth such an exorbitant fee.

Both my partner and myself handle estimates and invoicing and customer service in our line of work, and find McGlaughlin's charges completely unethical, and their handling of customer complaints absolutely abhorrent.

Rather than look for a compromise to what I felt was an unjust added fee, like any respectable business who actually values their customers would do, McGlaughlin's customer service rep basically informed me that they'd rather involve the police than attempt to salvage a customer relationship.

Additionally, the house call was performed in January, the first bill didn't show up until April (which was the first indication I ever received that I owed them anything at all for the estimate), and by May, they already added interest and claimed the invoice was "over 90 days past due", within 3 weeks (ie 21 days) of first sending a bill. Just one more example of a lack of ethics, and McGlaughlin's attempts at a quick cash grab by any unethical means possible.

Overall extremely rude, condescending attitude of "I don't care about your situation or the circumstances of the transaction, just give me your money or I'll be contacting the authorities."

Absolutely unbelievable. I'd give negative stars if I...

We contacted them about repairing an ice machine and about a problem with our refrigerator. They took several months to repair our ice machine which was understood due to waiting for parts and then it still took longer because when they got it up and running another component went bad which obviously cost us more money. That isn't the issue. What really is unfortunate is that when they went to reinstall the machine they didn't do it properly and it stopped working and caused a leak. They did come back at no charge and claimed that they fixed it. Now we discovered another leak in the same area and also screws that they used to repair the machine are rusting in our ice machine! When we contacted them to make it right, they claimed that they have no one to service residential customers now and told us to find someone else! Also, we were charged a service call for the error code that our fridge was making that they claimed was due to a faulty computer board which is not available but come to find out it wasn't a faulty computer board it was warning us of a leaky water dispensing line that they didn't analyze properly and obviously we got another leak in our basement. I used this company based on their reputation and I can say that I am NOT the least bit impressed! They don't even answer the phone or emails in a timely manner! I guess since the owner passed away it's going...

We have used McLaughlin several times now at out coffee shop and bakery. Very effieicent and expiedient. The two Service repair men that responded for us at separate times were both very friendly, and knowlegable, quick to diagnose our issues each time.

We would have given 5 stars, but our only complaints would be their lack of communications with us. We have been told several times they would always call before responding, yet they have not once, one time we didnt even know the repairs were made until we called to ask when they were coming only to be told, its already fixed. I know that sounds like an odd complaint, but as the owner we are not always at our shop, therefor waiting to hear they were coming and never getting the call. Plus, they NEVER answer the phone when we call, always have to leave a msg. Amd wait for...