Appliance Master - Flemington, NJ — Local services in Raritan Township

The very Worst - unfriendly, bad and rude customer service I have ever experienced. CUSTOMER BEWARE!!!

I had a 4-year-old LG washer with an LE code which clearly relates to a defective motor. LG puts a 10 year warranty on their washer motors. I called Appliance Master as they advertised as being LG "Certified". It was after the technician showed up and diagnosed the problem to be bad motor and I made a service fee of $100 that I learnt from Appliance Master that even though they are certified by LG, they do not do Warranty work. The $100 was supposed to be applicable to the cost of repair.

In my mind, being in the business of appliance repairs, the moment a client calls to make a service appointment relating to a motor problem for an appliance within the 10 year warranty period, that would be the very point in time to mention that you do not perform warranty work and not AFTER they have collected money from the client.

I subsequently called LG myself to request the part be sent to Appliance Master. I decided to stop by at Appliance Master office to discuss next steps because they are often very difficult to reach on phone. While in the process of explaining my situation to one of the office staff, a staff member (BILL) suddenly showed up from his cubicle and the first thing that came out of his mouth was "YOU DON'T JUST SHOW UP!!!". I was so taken aback by this confrontational comment that I had to remind him that this is a business and didn't think I needed to make a special arrangement to stop by at their office. I kept my cool and tried to explain the situation. Mentioned that LG had already emailed the Letter of Authorization to Appliance Master, for them to request the part from LG under warranty and I subsequently handed him a printed copy of the Letter of Authorization. Bill's responses were many excuses to avoid responsibility and accountability - excuses such as - "we don't read the emails", "I am not even sure if our technician had been at your home"(this he said without even taking the time to verify before accusing me of trying to get them to perform repairs that they had not even diagnosed), etc.

In the middle of all these bad and unprofessional conduct, I respectfully requested that Bill investigate and help request the part so my repairs could be completed. 20 minutes later, same Bill called me with a very harsh, cold and rude tone, simply said they do not perform warranty work and he was "DONE TALKING" and simply hung up the phone on me.

I felt really cheated and mistreated by this company. Even if they do not perform warranty work, I had already done the legwork for the part to be sent to them Free of charge under warranty so they could complete the repair. They had already collected the diagnostic fee from me, fee which they had promised to apply toward the cost of the repair. Once collected, they could not be bothered - onto the next victim I guess. I wish I had read some of the reviews on this company before agreeing to deal with them.

I normally don't write reviews on companies being a small business owner myself. But I feel that the word needed to get out on this company with the hope the company can make amends and most importantly, to prevent others from falling victim. UPFRONT, this company should clearly inform every customer requesting repair that they do no perform warranty work, and NOT AFTER COLLECTING...

Last Sunday, October 14, 2012, my wife noticed that the clothing in the dryer was excessively hot. In fact, they were almost too hot to touch. So I disconnected the dryer, a Bosch Nexxt 800 series that I purchased in 2008, and the next day called Appliance Master on a recommendation from someone at the local Home Depot. In addition, the dryer wouldn't start. The control panel lit up but the drum wouldn't rotate.

The technician, Justin, arrived Monday morning. He looked around in back of the machine, claimed the problem was overheating caused by the vent hose being bent too sharply, and said I needed a fuse of some kind which blew when the dryer overheated.a Total cost, including the $90 to come out on the initial service call, would be $275. That's a lot cheaper than a new dryer. Besides, Bosch no longer makes full-sized dryers, only the 24" stackable variety for apartments and townhouses. Justin said the part would be in within two to five business days, which seemed reasonable.

On Wednesday, I got a call from Appliance Master saying the part was in, and could a technician come to my house on Thursday? I said sure, and about 2:45 on Thursday the same guy, Justin, arrived. It took him a little over an hour, then he said he was done. I asked him if the machine was fixed, he replied "yes." I then asked "Does it work?," he said "no," and went on to claim that I (or somebody) pulled the machine out too roughly, and this damaged the control panel, a circuit board, and some other parts. I asked him how much would it cost to fix, and his answer was "more than a new one would cost." I asked for an estimate and he refused to give me one, and hurriedly left. The drum now spins, but no heat is supplied. I was very angry at him for his snotty attitude. He didn't leave a new estimate or any other paperwork, but said he wouldn't charge me. That tells me he did something wrong.

I called up the office to complain, and the receptionist said someone would be contacting me that next day.

Sure enough, on Friday, Justin called, and claimed that someone pulled the dryer out so harshly that the welds from the exhaust pipe broke. I should point out that before I called Appliance Master the first time I cleaned behind the dryer. The flexible pipe wasn't secured to the vent, so there's no way my pulling the dryer a foot or so away from the wall should have broken any welds. Besides, if there were broken welds, Justin should have noticed this on his first trip out, but didn't say a word. The dryer wasn't moved even a millimeter between Justin's first visit on Monday and his second on Tuesday. Maybe a ghost with the strength of Superman yanked the machine so hard to break welds; it sure wasn't me nor my wife. I said I'd be contacting an attorney and Justin said, "For $100 you're gonna sue?" I then uttered an appropriate expletive and hung up on him.

Then I called Appliance Master back, and demanded to speak to the boss. The gal said "he's unavailable," but I could send an e-mail addressed to "Bill." She refused to give his last name.

I am going to demand the difference between the $275 Justin said it would cost to fix the dryer and the $833 cost of my new dryer. If necessary, I'll haul the owner, whose name I'll find out somehow, into small claims court. Or in front of Judge Judy.

"Morris the Katz" (not...

I always look up reviews before I have any service come to my home. When I saw all of these nasty reviews I thought to myself "WOW".... misery must love company! So I decided to do something very different that many other's would never do. I decided to give them a try to see how bad they actually really were. So when I called the office to schedule an appointment for my dishwasher (a broken handle) the girl that answered the phone was very polite & scheduled the service man to come out the next business day which I really appreciated. GREGG was the service tech that came to my home. What a polite & professional young fella he was. He told me that he had to order this part and it would take a just a few short days and they would call me as soon as the part came in which they did. In the meantime my stove stopped working. When Gregg came back with the part for the dishwasher he also fixed my stove that needed an ignitor which he had on the truck at the time. Everything was fixed quickly & I payed the bill without even blinking an eye. Now after just a few months later, I called AM back just yesterday to schedule an appointment but this time it was for my dryer that was not drying my clothes completely. I told the girl at the desk to send Gregg again & she scheduled me right away for today. Gregg came and my dryer needed an ignitor which he again had available on the truck. Again a very polite and a very professional gentleman. Gregg fixed my dryer very quickly due to his great training provided. When a service guy is trained the right way don't expect him to be there all day. He will know his job! I had absolutely "NO PROBLEMS AT ALL" with this company and will continue to use them again and again. As a matter of fact I called AM both times to let them know what a great technician Gregg was & that I was extremely pleased with the service that he provided. I received a call back from the owner BILL and he wanted to thank me personally for that call which I found extremely rare from any company these days. So basically in a nutshell if you think this company is pricey & you can get the part real cheap .... then you should take a coarse, get trained and certified and learn how to fix these appliances yourself and not hire and badmouth a company as repeatable as AM. A very simple task to accomplish!! And what is cheap these days you tell me??? Absolutely NOTHING! When you call any service you must pay for the convenience that is provided to you!! I am so thrilled that "ALL" my appliances are in working order! Ladies always love having it that way!! Give them a try and request GREGG he is the BEST! I am so glad that I decided to give them a try! Thank you Appliance Master & your AWESOME staff!!!!!!!!!! KEEP UP THE GOOD...