Cheryl in Kitchener

My washing machine broke. My husband called arouns and it is $80.00 for them to come to the house - that's okay, I agree this is justified cost, everyone charges the same fee. The repair man looks at the machine (doesn't touch it, just looks at it - this should have been a warning sign) and says it will be $280.00 to service the machine and the only additional money to be spent will be parts. I confirmed on numerous occasions in the span of 20 minutes that yes it would be cheaper to repair and yes the only additional fees I would be looking at would be parts and he sees this issue all the time and he usually just has to clean the sensors and it will be fine etc etc etc. Well guess what, after spending 45 minutes in the house, we need a part - it was the main board (I googled parts before agreeing to the $280.00 and decided to go ahead since the most expensive part for my make and model was $200.00) The main board is the most expensive part but it was still cheaper than the new one I was looking at (and mentioned to the repairman that a new one was $804 and he insisted he could fix it for less) He left and I expected him to return with the part in a couple hours - wrong. They aren't open on weekends and someone from Customer Service was going to call me to set up a new time to install the part and confirm the costs (I had to call and get this information, it was not offered). Monday passed - no call, Tuesday passed I called them and was told that they were having trouble sourcing a part and would call me back. Well no call back so I called again on Wednesday and was told that there was no record of my previous THREE calls to them but he (they didn't give me a name of the man) had called and left me a message confirming parts and installation would cost $674.72 (there was no call and no message). After losing it (with my phone on mute) I asked to speak to a manager. Apparently the manager only starts at 2:30 on Wednesday's.....REALLY don't you close at 5? SO I left my name and number AGAIN and was assured the manager would call me about a "good will" credit of $50.00 before 5pm. Guess what? Their phones still don't dial out because I DIDN'T GET CALLED BACK. At this point I am pretty much fuming over a lousy $50 (which by the way didn't even cover the cost of doing the laundry at the Laundromat) and never getting a call back. So I called again....only to be told the manager wasn't in until 10:30. I was pretty sarcastic by this point and asked if they really do start at 10:30 or if I should just hold and wait until someone comes to work. I finally got a call back......I almost fell off my chair, I guess they fixed their phone systems and could call out. The "manager" needs to take a course in listening skills. I went over the entire ordeal and asked why I was paying for installation when I was ASSURED that the $280.00 covered it. She said, no - the $280.00 covers labour, not installation. Since when were those 2 mutually exclusive activities? Somehow, she took this comment as me being upset about the $80.00? Seriously? Wow....nope that is not what I was upset about. I was upset about paying $280.00 to still have a broken machine and then getting blindsided with an additional $672.74 for parts and installation! I was told all I had to pay for were parts. She said they choose their words very carefully and installation is not labour. I have to pay for them to install the new board (undo 4 tiny screws, plug in the new board and put the 4 tiny screws back in). How much do you pay your technicians? Apparently $280.00 for 47 minutes. In the end she bought my husbands silence for $65.00 ( sent in the mail by cheque but they charge your card $316.00 before they even remove the cover to your appliance) So I chose to be very literal and cautious in my communication noting that they bought his silence for the $65.00 and not mine. They should have done the decent thing and reimbursed me everything EXCEPT for the $80.00 fee to come to the house and they should have credited my credit card instantly, not send me a cheque. So BEWARE! They are dishonest!