Mr. Appliance of Doylestown — Local services in New Britain

Buyer Beware I have a rental townhouse where the gas range had a little problem. The oven didn’t heat up and it showed an error code of F11. A quick Google search indicated that the ignitor may need to be replaced, and it should be an easy fix. To play safe, however, I opted for a pro to do the job.

I called up Mr. Appliance of Doylestown. A lady named Liz set up the appt and walked me through the process. Their technician would come out to diagnose the problem and call me to explain the diagnosis, the proposed repair, and the cost. If I agree to the repair plan and cost, I would authorize the repair and the technician would get to work on the machine. There’s a $120 (plus tax) diagnosis fee. She asked for my credit card so that if the technician couldn’t reach me that day, or if I don’t agree to repair, they will charge the diagnosis fee to my card. I agreed and gave her my credit card number. I later received an email informing me that a Shannon would be the technician for the job.

On the day of the appt (Friday 10/15), I waited and waited for Shannon’s call. The phone didn’t ring. 20 minutes past the 2 hour appointment window, I called my tenant, who told me the technician and his apprentice had just left the house. My tenant told me they didn’t do any testing or diagnosis procedure but went straight ahead to replace the ignitor. At first the oven glowed, and they thought the work was done. But when my tenant asked them to turn on the oven for a test, the oven didn’t heat up. After some more look around, they concluded they needed to replace the circuit board. But they said it’s too late for the day and they had been working the whole week, so they would have to come back next week. My tenant told me that the replacement ignitor might be an incorrect one or improperly installed because, instead of simply connecting the coupling in the oven to the coupling in the replacement ignitor, Shannon cut off both plastic couplings and connected the wires using wire nuts.

Shortly after my conversation with my tenant, two receipts arrived at my email inbox: $380.65 for replacing the ignitor and $636.83 for replacing the circuit board. There’s even someone’s signature on the authorization line, which is certainly not mine.

The following Monday, I called Mr. Appliance’s office for clarification. A gentleman (Jim) explained what the technician’s diagnosis was and he had tried to fix the oven but later found problem with the circuit board. I told Jim the technician never called me and he worked on the oven without my authorization. It is also likely that he improperly installed an aftermarket, incompatible ignitor as he had to cut the wires to install the ignitor using wire nuts instead of simply connecting the plastic couplings. Either this, or his initial diagnosis was wrong. In any case, what he did without my authorization is unacceptable. Jim said he understood my concern and would not charge my credit card for the two bills, but I’d have to pay the diagnosis fee as their technician did come out. I stated that I would have no problem paying the diagnosis fee if the technician followed the prescribed procedures Liz described to me. However, since he didn’t call me to tell me about his diagnosis and the repair cost and worked on my oven improperly without my authorization, I could not in my good conscious pay the diagnosis fee. In fact, Shannon damaged my oven by cutting the wires and I should be compensated for that. Jim promised to relay my concern to his manager, who would decide whether to charge me for that.

Later that day, I was notified that my credit card was charged for that amount.

In summary, the technician didn’t follow the company’s service protocols, didn’t do proper diagnosis by testing and collecting information, didn’t call the customer to explain the diagnosis and for authorization. He didn’t do the correct repair. He damaged my oven. And the company is perfectly fine with that, and decided the customer must...

They do not provide fully transparent pricing. The customer service we experienced is horrible. They had no interest in helping us resolve our issues and were argumentative and rude.

To detail what happened: We booked an appointment online to diagnose problems with our washer & requested in the comments of the booking that they look at our ice maker as well. The issues we had were not with the technician Darnell who was friendly, on time, and knowledgeable, but with their 'up front pricing' and the customer service we received when trying to resolve the pricing issues. When we booked online the only information we were given was about the $130 diagnostic fee, which we were happy to pay. At no point did they mention during booking or otherwise that there would be an additional $110 fee for each additional appliance viewed until after the service was completed and card was in hand to be charged. Had we known, we never would have had them look at the ice maker as well. All in all the diagnostics for both appliances took about 15 minutes. We called to try and discuss the possibility of a refund for the $110 fee and were met with an argumentative and, frankly, disrespectful representative who raised his voice and interrupted us several times. He clearly never had any intention of trying to help us resolve the issue and repeatedly told us it was our fault for not knowing about the second charge, when it was never disclosed to us. We tried calling back the next day to speak to them again and were met with the same attitude from the same gentleman, who did not give his name. I would recommend going elsewhere because there are hidden fees and they demonstrated a severe lack of interest in trying to resolve customer issues. I can only imagine it would be far worse if they made a repair and the job wasn't performed to a...

We have a Decor model DYF42BIWS00 built in refrigerator. They gave an arrival time of 315 to 5 and arrived at 630. I run a small business had to leave early they dont respect your time. I have dealt with electronics my whole life (not refrigerators) The moment I told them the fridge may have a bad board he didn't want to look at it. Made a comment of how unprofessional the work that was done a year ago from another company. He said the valve is definitely leaking but he couldn't get the cap off to test the pressures (It's not leaking i have an A/C sniffer that was set up for an hour and it found nothing) I told him to test the pressure and also tell me if one of the board are bad if the boards bad I will repair the board. I asked him if he had a wiring diagram for the fridge and he looked at me like I had 10 heads. He told me his company isn't going to put money into this fridge because they might not get paid. Um what. I have equipment that cost me thousands of dollars why wouldn't I pay you. I simply wanted a diagnostic on the boards since I don't have access to refrigerator wiring diagrams. Thermal image is of the relay on the board. There is 4 relays one is overheating. They don't repair anything they are like all the other companies. Replace the parts till they find the right one at the customer expense. These people are a waste of time. Seems like that's the way of the...