Associated Appliance — Local services in Stamford

Wow. I have never had such a rude attitude from a store manager.

A few weeks ago, I called Associated service department to ask someone to come out to service my 20 year old GE Profile fridge. I acknowledged that the fridge was very old. But the serviceman Scott, who was very helpful with the repair, confirmed that it was on its last legs because the compressor had been repaired once before, and it was now losing cooling.

After Scott had left my house, I noticed that the finished ceiling below the fridge was leaking. I called immediately to get Scott back. He came a day later, and we pulled out the fridge, and noticed that the whole floor surrounding the fridge was soaking wet. The day before when we had pulled out the fridge, the floor was bone dry. Now, all the plastic tubes from the water main to the fridge had collapsed and were spurting water everywhere. We got it rigged to stop, but the damage was done. It had leaked to the ceiling below.

Later that day, I came into the store to pick out a new fridge. But before I purchased it, I asked to speak to the manager about getting a discount for all the water damage I incurred as a result of the repair. He said he would have him call me.

The next day I received a call. Immediately, without even hearing my story, he started yelling at me and blaming me. He told me that the damage had probably been there a year because I had called about the same problem a year ago. I mentioned that my ceiling would have collapsed if that was the case! Yes, I agreed that my fridge had leaked a year ago, but I repaired it, and this was a fresh issue. All I was asking for was a discount because of the damage his "repair" had caused. I wasn't asking for a new fridge. But after much going back and forth, he said it was impossible.

Needless to say I didn't proceed with my order. Had the manager been reasonable and treated me respectfully, I probably would have ordered a new fridge from Associated, even without a discount. But because of his lack of professionalism, I couldn't think of bringing my business there. I purchased my...

I had a pretty bad experience with this shop. They would not honor Thermador warranty and would not give a straight answer on this matter. They instead came up with alternate reasons (excuses) for why they wouldn't do it. I'm extremely disappointed.

9/18/2018 EDIT: Here are some more details. I purchased and moved into a new home last year. It came with a Thermador stove. The stove broke down this week, so I called Thermador and asked about repairs.

Thermador confirmed to me (through product serial #) that my unit is 100% under warranty and advised me to call a local preferred partner to get it fixed. They said any provider in their preferred partner program ('authorized service provider') would be able to repair it to the Thermador-approved standards. They specifically recommended Associated Appliance.

As an American consumer, my expectation is that when a service provider puts in the effort to get themselves blessed and listed as a 'preferred' or 'authorized' partner for a particular brand, they should be (1) willing and (2) able to fulfill the warranty commitment on that brand's behalf. This is a very fair expectation - nothing unreasonable about this.

Any 'preferred/authorized' partner that isn't willing or able to fulfill said commitment (and then also not able to succinctly articulate 'why not' at the time they turn me away) isn't going to meet my basic expectation. I'm not being harsh or unfair. I'm just objectively rating and reviewing the service provider against my basic expectation.

Essentially in this case Associated Appliance is enjoying all the additional exposure and endorsement benefits through Thermador's 'preferred/authorized partner' program, but not bearing any cost of those benefits when it comes to fulfilling Thermador's warranty obligations. It's not fair to the consumers. Consumers shouldn't have to be bamboozled into calling them or checking them out in the first place. The right thing for Associated Appliance to do is to remove themselves from that Thermador's preferred/authorized...

I placed a call to Associated Appliance Repair at 5:35 p.m. on a Friday afternoon because my freezer went kaput. The temperature kept rising and so did my anxiety. I was fortunate to speak with Jesse who was very helpful and went above and beyond to get a technician to service the freezer the next day. After all, this was very late on a Friday afternoon. A very professional, competent and knowledgable guy named Tim came to service the freezer. The problem was the fan that cools the compressor conked out. Unfortunately, because a ten year old refrigerator is considered obsolete the part was not made anymore. I was told they could get the part from a certain vendor they use for situations like this and that it would be in next Friday. Tim had the perfect temporary solution. I could put a fan next to the freezer, so that the compressor would stay cool. This was great advice, as the temperature in the freezer went down and remains at zero. A week later a different technician showed up and didn’t know why he was here. No one informed him that he was supposed to show up with the new fan. He left and said it was now being ordered. A week later I didn’t get the call I was expecting for an appointment to make the final repair. I called Jesse. He was not sure why I was calling. After I explained the whole scenario to him he said he would look into it and call me right back, which he did. After two whole weeks I’m told in actuality there is no replacement part. He apologized. My complaint is why didn’t I get a phone call about this? It was an incompetent handling of the situation. I have only Tim to thank for keeping my freezer at zero thus the two star rating...