Caesar's Appliance Sales & Service — Local services in Laguna Niguel

Amendment: Within hours of posting my 1-star review, I received a call from a customer service supervisor. Lauren listened carefully and apologized, determined to provide a positive experience. She explained that the week of our initial call coincided with the loss of Caesar and this may have contributed to what transpired. This was not offered as an excuse, but rather, to provide context. She freely offered to refund the $70 service fee, since it was clear the entire visit could have been avoided had someone simply offered the suggestion of unplugging the appliance.

I would go back to Caesar's because Lauren demonstrated the exemplary type of service I would normally expect from Caesar's. Everyone makes mistakes, and knowing that the people at Caesar's are willing to own up to their mistakes and strive to do better is all the encouragement I need to recommend them. I leave my original review (below), only because it is my actual experience and, as such, it belongs here. One of the things that used to be attractive about Caesar's was their Mom & Pop vibe, their willingness to help out with advice even if it meant they might not make a profit in the moment. People always come back when service is exemplary, and that's something they once had. Not anymore.

Our first call to Caesar's was greeted with willful ignorance. It seemed the customer service rep had been trained to set appointments only, and avoid answering even the most basic of questions. Their clear priority was to set a service appointment, several days hence, and make it clear that there would be a minimum fee of $70 just for the visit. We set the appointment.

The service rep was nice enough. Our freezer was seemingly defrosting from the top down and the fridge side seemed to be less cool than it should be. He cleaned the coils, told us to give it a while to reach the correct temperature, and assured us this should solve the problem. This was just before Christmas. It did not.

The day after Christmas, we called to get the rep back out to the house ASAP because the problem was worse than it has been. At this point, we were told it would be almost a week before anyone was available. With the contents of our fridge and freezer quickly defrosting and spoiling, this was unacceptable. The customer service rep was unmoved. We were unable to speak with anyone with higher authority, simply told that was the best they could do -- take it or leave it. Oh, and by the way, we should expect to pay an additional service fee if the repair person decided this was a separate issue. I knew it was not and set the appointment.

At this point, we had a decision to make. Could we live out of coolers for a week as we furiously endeavored to use all of the defrosting food? No. We purchased a new fridge (elsewhere) and moved the “broken” one to the garage. And there it sat, until the night before our service rep was scheduled to arrive. We plugged it in and the next morning we were quite surprised to find that it was working like new again. Still, I wanted to have the rep take a look. We were told that allowing the freezer to completely defrost had allowed it to reset, in a sense. He showed me where there had likely been a build-up of ice which had prevented the fan from circulating the cold air. He explained this would have affected the freezer and the fridge.

Bottom line: We paid $70 for sub-par customer service resulting in the purchase of a new appliance that could have been solved by the simple suggestion of unplugging the fridge/freezer and allowing it to completely defrost. I firmly believe the old Caesar's would have given that advice and I would now be giving a positive review to help them build their business rather than a negative one which I hope will do the opposite. In the future, I will choose any other repair service, including someone standing on the side of the road with a “will work...

Had a disappointing experience yesterday after using this company several times over the past 20-some years. Vitali showed up (early) but could not diagnose the problem with our oven which is not heating to the set temp. He used the Ames temperature sensor but kept the readings hidden from me even after I asked to see them. He used only 1 lead on my electric oven even though there are two heaters inside. When my husband came downstairs from his office Vitali was ostensibly surprised that a "man" was home and quickly packed up to leave. He said the oven is operating correctly, within manufacturer's specs. Not true at all - it won't cook anything. He told my husband he had shown me the temperature readings on the Ames sensor - also not true. My husband asked him to show him the sensor readings right then and there, as the oven was still on, but Vitali refused to do so. Why though? He was 1.5 hrs. early to the appointment, so he was not running behind in his day, and had been at our home less than 30 minutes. Why not show my husband the true readings on his sensor? Had another company come out today and they determined that the oven is underheating by ONE HUNDRED DEGREES - used the same Ames temperature sensor, but connected two leads to measure both heaters in the oven. And, they had it hanging from the oven where we could all see the readings. Very transparent, unlike the previous day's event with Caesar's. More disappointing was when I called John, the manager at Caesar's to express my concern about the appointment with Vitali, he took the service rep's side and said that WE made Vitali uncomfortable and that maybe WE weren't a good fit for their company. Whatever. Buyer beware. At least we weren't charged for the waste of everyone's time. My advice: use another more consumer-friendly company! Note: photo attached is from the OTHER company's temp readings to prove that the oven was NOT heating properly despite Vitali's telling us the...

Back in November I contacted Caesar’s to repair my dryer. Someone came out that day, diagnosed the issue and said they would let me know when the parts were in to do the repair. I should also note that this is a warranty repair. The day the service tech came out to do the repair he left all of the old parts in my garage including the dryer drum. I called the company to have the parts picked up and was told he would come back that evening to get them. This didn’t happen. It took four days and multiple phone calls to get the parts picked up.

After the drum and other parts were replaced my dryer stopped heat properly. I once again called the company and requested a new service tech as I feel this new issue occurred while the initial repair was being done. The new tech came out, diagnosed the issue and told me they would wait for parts. That was over a month ago. I called the company multiple times and was given a different excuse each time. The last was they were waiting for a part to arrive on January 14th. I reached out to the company again today and was given another excuse but was given the manufacturer’s number to contact them directly. After speaking to the manufacturer I was told that Caesers declined to do the repair. I’m not sure why I wasn’t told initially that they didn’t want to do the repair. My dryer could have been fixed a month ago.

If I had to guess I would say it’s because of my multiple calls to them when the drum was left in my garage and the request for a new tech. Could also be the multiple calls I made to find out when the dryer would be repaired. If you don’t want to do the repair just say so. Don’t leave your customers without a working dryer for over a month potentially due to an error by one...