Quick Fix Appliances

I called Repair Care Center based on the very high Home Star rating and reviews, but unfortunately, my experience was anything but positive.

I called on behalf of my parents who live in Ottawa. Their Kenmore washer had stopped draining water during the spin cycle, so Repair Care arranged to send someone out to look at it. In the first appointment, the technician spent over 2 hours to diagnose that it was a broken door latch that would have to be replaced. He had to order the part, but assured us that he had "overridden" the mechanism in the meantime so that the machine could still be used for laundry.

We did a load of laundry as soon as he left, and discovered the machine was leaking water from the bottom and overflowing at the top -- this had NOT been happening before. I called the company to let them know that the technician's "workaround" had created another problem. When the technician returned 2 days later to replace the door latch, he did not verify the leak problem -- we had to ask him to stay while we tested the machine, and sure enough, the leaking started right away. On further investigation, he found he had inadvertently disconnected a pump when re-assembling the machine (hence water leaking from the bottom) and further discovered that the flow control mechanism was "shot" (the machine could no longer detect water level in the tub and just kept filling it). I repeat, this problem only manifested itself after he had spent over 2 hours mucking with the machine during the first service call. He had to special order the replacement part, and came back a third time to replace it.

This whole process took 2 weeks. The company was dispatched by Repair Care Center, the invoices were on "Quick Fix Appliances" letter head, but the office personnel answered the phone with "Ottawa Pro Appliance" -- so I really didn't know who/which company I was dealing with in the end. The technician was unprofessional (I relayed this to their Customer Service department), and put my parents to considerable more inconvenience and expense than was necessary.

My impression is that Repair Care Center sub-contracts this work to other local vendors, without really answering for the quality of work or service. I would NOT use them again for that reason, and will instead look for a local operator, preferably one with referred by someone I know. Thoroughly unpleasant experience all-around.