Appliance Repairman

They told us $85 for repair quote for our dryer. A repairman called Igor came and quoted us $305 for repair. He quoted this immediately without opening the unit. I clearly told him that since it is an old washer, that is the maximum I'm willing to pay. I told him that if anything else is needed, I would be happy to pay $85 and purchase another unit. He GUARANTEED us that he had seen this issue before, no parts were needed, and this was the max we would pay.

5 mins later he told me the issue was fixed. The issue according to him was the lint stuck way below. He asked for payment in cash or debit card. I felt suspect, and told him I could only pay by credit card. He said he would call his company to unlock his terminal. He then came a few mins later and said I could pay by credit card, and I paid $344.65 (after taxes).

He told us the dryer was fixed, and we had a 30 day warranty on the repair done. The mistake we made was to take his word and not test the dryer. I tested the dryer almost immediately and when it didn't work, I called the company back. The company said the technician would call me back, and he did call back with an unlisted number. He told me I needed to run a full cycle with wet clothes to test accurately. When that didn't work, and I called the company back, I was told the technician would call me back again. He never did, My wife & I called the company 2-3 times again that day, and were told to wait for the technicians call by the end of day. When Igor the technician didn't call back, we called the company again, and were told that customer service would call us on Monday (the service was done on Saturday).

The crafty technician had written on our invoice that (a) we need to have our ducts cleaned and (b) we will need new heating enclosure with element for $391.70. When he left on Saturday, he told us we didn't need this but he wrote it because we would eventually need it. He said our unit was good for another 10 years (minimum 5 years).

On Monday, when we called the company (they never did), we were told to first get our 2 foot duct from the dryer to the wall professionally cleaned as that was what Igor the technician had written on the invoice. The duct was clean to begin with, but we cleaned it again and we called the company back. Then the company says that that as per the technician's note on the invoice, an additional $391.70 is needed in parts to repair the dryer, and we would need to pre-pay for the parts in order for them to come out.

When asked about the 30 day repair warranty, the company tells us that warranty is for parts and since there were no parts put in, there is no warranty. When asked what if the part in question didn't fix the issue, the company said that in that case, additional parts may be needed and we would need to pay for those parts too if needed.

When you get upset on the phone, they offer you $45 refund if you sign a waiver against them.

Our technician was Igor and the customer service reps we spoke to were Sonia, Angela and Stefanie. Lesson learnt: stay away from ApplianceRepairman.ca