A tale about A&E Factory Service - more accurately know as A&E Factory NON-Service - for a Whirlpool Dryer in Raleigh, NC.
On Sept 6, an A&E technician is dispatched to our home by Whirlpool Warranty Service to diagnose a problem with our $900 Whirlpool dryer that is less than 1 year old. The technician says the electronic control needs to be replaced, but does not have the part, and will have it ordered immediately. A&E calls back later that day to inform us that the part is not available, has been ordered and should arrive in 10 days! I'm under a lot of pressure here, because a major reason for my investing in this dryer is it's high-capacity, which is crucially important to my family of ten. 10 days! But, aren't they "Factory" service? How hard is it to get this part?
On day 6 (Sep 12), A&E calls back and says it will be at least 5 more days for the part to arrive! Thus commences the lies and misinformation. I had serious doubts A&E had actually ordered this part as they could not provide me any tracking information. You see, this is chump warranty work, and I was a LOW, LOW priority.
So, on Wed, Sep 13, I called A&E trying to find out why it is so hard to get this part, only to be hurried off the phone with the obligatory response of, "It is out of our control. When the part comes in we will set up an appointment to replace it." So, I go on the internet - knowing nothing about obtaining Whirlpool dryer parts - and in less than 10 minutes have found the part readily available through several vendors. I call A&E and let them know, BUT of course, they have a "process" they must follow - mind you, not a desire to provide fast service. So, I call Whirlpool, whom A&E are contracted by. Alas, Whirlpool parts center has 39 in stock and they will express ship the part. So, I teleconference A&E and Whirlpool (partners, eh?) and attempt to assist A&E in getting the part to me right away. You see, if I acquired it myself, I would have to pay for it. Only A&E could order it from Whirlpool.
I call back the next day (Thu, Sep 14), but am unable to confirm through A&E operator if the part was ordered, and am given an appointment for Sept 27th, just in case the part comes in by then. The operator tells me she has no way to confirm if the part is ordered. Wow, they care - NOT! So, Friday the 15th I pursue A&E again and remind them that the part is at Whirlpool and can be expressed shipped if only they would call to order it. The first thing the A&E operator mentions is that they will not pay for express shipping. Five extra dollars to a company the size of A&E is too much, when my business means so little. After much pursuit, the A&E operator obliges me by setting up the repair appointment for Tues, Sep 19th. Well, that is what she told me, anyway. That same day (Fri, 9/15), I also call Whirlpool customer service to see if they will help ensure that A&E orders the part from them and would they please express ship it. The Whirlpool representative seems glad to help and leads me to believe I can receive the part by Monday.
I call A&E on Monday to see if the part is on its way, and to see if I have the appointment on Tuesday. Well, it really should be no surprise that without calling me, A&E cancelled the Tuesday appointment because they knew they had not ordered the part yet! Wow! Another call to Whirlpool on Tues, Sep 19, to get them to act on my behalf with A&E and get them to order the part leads me to believe that the part is finally ordered because the Whirlpool agent says it will definitely be at my home on Thu, Sep 21. I call A&E again to get an earlier appointment than Sep 27th. I am grudgingly given an appointment for Friday afternoon, Sep 22nd.
A&E calls my wife on Thursday, 9/21, around 3pm to see if the part has arrived. Sadly, my wife tells the truth and says, "no". The A&E operator instructs my wife to call by the end of the day to confirm whether or not the part arrives, but gives no deadline. My wife calls A&E at about 4:30pm when the part arrived only to find out that A&E canceled the appointment without notice and will not reschedule. A&E was dead-determined to keep the Sep 27th appointment, no matter what.
No matter how much pleading and explaining I did when I called back on Friday morning, I could not get any other appointment other than Sep 27th - 3 weeks after the problem was diagnosed as being a problem with a part that takes 2 days to get and 5 minutes to install! Furthermore, the A&E operator tries to pretend that I never had an appointment for Fri, 9/22, that it was always - and only - for Wed, 9/27. Later, in the same conversation she slips by mentioning that my wife caused the problem by failing to return their call on time the previous day. I retort, that if I never had an appointment for this day (Fri, 9/22), then why did we get a call from A&E the day before inquiring about the arrival of the part? She was tongue tied and said, of course, there was nothing she could do. She then thanked me for my business and ended the call.
I cannot stand the thought of giving A&E any business, so a light bulb finally goes off in my head. On Monday, Sep 25th, I call Whirlpool and ask if there is anyone else I can go through to get this part installed. The Whirlpool agent calls me back in 10 minutes to inform me that I have an appointment with another service provider in Raleigh who will be there the next morning to install the part. And, like magic, a technician from Mr. Appliance arrives to install the part.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I had A&E sent to my home from Lowes because my Maytag dishwasher was making loud noises and dumping out ( Not cycling right) My husband stood there right over him while he took it apart. when he opened it up the chopping blade was off and in the well. He picked it up and put it back on and said that was $144.00. My husband said why its only 7 months old and covered under warranty. He said No it was abuse, you had a piece of plastic in there. He said I seen what you did. The guy got all red and demanded his money. My husband said I am not paying you. He left here yelling I will take you to collections! That was 4 weeks ago, we got the bill in the mail haven't paid it.
On June 23rd the service tech from A&E arrived at our house for a broken Whirlpool dryer. This was a warranty call. It took them over 1 week to arrive. Of course, they had to order the part which arrived on June 28th directly from Sears to our house. While the service tech was at on house on the 23rd, he scheduled an appointment for July 3rd. He specifically asked whether morning or afternoon was better. My husband told him that the morning would be great. He scheduled it for between 8am and 12noon. Since the damage was caused by a water leak it was not a covered service. The entire bill of over $300 was paid on this day by us. I have the receipt verifying this and the scheduled appointment between 8am and 12noon. My husband took the morning off of work and rescheduled his meetings for the afternoon on July 3rd to be here for the service tech.
Well it is now July 3rd (9pm)and my dryer is still not fixed. At 11:30am, my husband called A&E and was told to have some patience since it is not noon and we are on the list for service. Ok, he can deal with that. At 1:00pm he called again to see what was going on, as he had a 2pm appointment (which he eventually had to cancel). He was told that it was never guaranteed that they would arrive between 8am and 12noon even though the receipt says that. He was told that they have until 5pm to arrive and that the tech would call us. Ok, he will wait.
Well now it's 5:10pm and no one is here at the house and no call has been received from the tech. My husband calls A&E again and speaks with the supervisor Roger. Now he is frustrated. Roger apologizes and says that we are the next stop. The tech is only about 10 minutes from our house on another call. He will have the tech call us. It will definitely get done today. My husband informs tell Roger that we had previous plans so our 16 year old son would be home when the tech gets here. He is told that the person at home must be at least 18 years of age or the service tech will leave. So now, we track down the 21 year old son to come home and wait. He cancels his plans to come sit at the house and wait for the repair man.
Guess what, it is now 7pm and no service tech. My husband calls A&E back AGAIN and this times speaks to yet a different person. It is really interesting that every time he called he has He was told, this time, that we were called at 2pm to reschedule by the service tech. Well that is not true, I will have phone records to dispute this if needed. My husband never received a call on his cell phone nor were there any messages on our home answering machine. It's hard to miss the call when you sat home all day waiting for the repair man. I cannot tolerate companies that lie and I am a little tired of going to the laundromat when the part is sitting on my kitchen counter for almost a week now. It gets a little expensive too for a family of 6.
We have gotten nowhere with A&E and still do not have a rescheduled appointment. I am contacting Whirlpool on July 5th when they open as well as the Better Business Bureau to let them know about this company. We never received an honest answer from A&E. We paid for a service and we expect honesty. We requested that someone contact us so we can get our money back and find another company that wants our business, but that's probably not documented either. I suggest that no one do business with A&E until they can learn how to service customers properly.
My washer was leaking water. We called A&E for service, extended warranty, next appointment was in 7 days between 8 and 5. Tech shows up, finds the leak and orders the parts. Reschedule date 14 days. A different tech shows up and claims to be the master for this machine. Proceeds to replace the leaking tub, which was ordered, and changes the transmission with one from his truck. Proceeds to put everything back together and then realizes the agitator does not fit on the new style transmission. Claims the first tech should have ordered a "kit" with all of the parts. The kit will be in in 7 - 10 days with a reschedule for 14 days. The "kit" never arrives so I call to track the it. They have the wrong tracking #, then find the right number and the "kit" will arrive the day of the scheduled call. Today is the scheduled call and A&E calls by phone to see if the "kit" has arrived. When I tell them the scenario she tells me the service will have to be rescheduled as the "kit" hasn't arrived. My wife, not knowing what I am going through, calls A&E and is told the "kit" is on back order with no delivery date. It is now 5 weeks without a washer for a family of 5. I canceled the service call and if the "kit" arrives I will install it myself. This is the worst experience I have ever had trying to fix a broken appliance. The appliance store I use will be notified as they sold me the extended warranty.
A&E factory service is a horrible rude company. On Saturday the 7 of April 2007 a service tech by the name of Tom (ID 0908566) came out to what we thought was repair our refrigerator. He stated that the relay needed to be replaced so my husband allowed him to replace it. The total charge for this service call was $226.80.
Break down of costs:
Labor $183.00
Tax labor $11.90
Parts $29.95
Tax parts $1.95
TOTAL $226.80
One hour after the tech left our refrigerator quit working once again. My husband called A&E back and the first customer service rep. told him the tech would be right back out to the house. After 45 minutes I called customer service back which then told me he had been off the clock for an hour and that there was nothing they could do until Monday at least. Upon further examination of the old relay that the tech left behind it had a large burn mark on it where it had been shorting out for quite some time. If this technician is a “Certified Maytag” repair man why was he not qualified enough to check the compressor that was causing the short in the relay. We spent the better of our day on Monday April 9 between Maytag and A&E. The only time that we spoke with some one helpful and nice is when my husband spoke with a lady by the name of Wanda in the Corporate offices of Maytag. A&E could have cared less that we had been without a refrigerator at that point since Friday evening and were out $226.80. What did they care they already had our money. Wanda was very helpful though. She refunded our money and had it set up with A&E to come out the same day to repair or at least order what needed to be repaired. Tom called me later that afternoon and stated that he was ordering the compressor for the fridge. I questioned him seeing as the first repair he made wasn’t the correct fix apparently. He stated that the reason the relay quit working was because the compressor was going out. (Which my husband and I already knew that by now!) Would’ve been nice if he checked the compressor before he left at his prior appt. When I spoke with the Tom he gave me specific instruction to call when the compressor came in and someone would be out to repair it. I called once the compressor came in the first service date they could give me was not until Saturday April 14. That was completely unacceptable. I explained the situation of having a child and needing to keep her milk and certain foods cold for her and that we had spent a large amount of money in ice and was told that I basically needed to deal with it. I was told by a second A&E rep if I contacted Maytag that maybe something could happen sooner. So I did and the customer service rep at Maytag contacted A&E and had it set up for me to call A&E again and they would set me up sooner. When I contacted A&E again they set me up for later that afternoon. The scheduler went through and called the Supervisor for scheduling or the Tech manager to make sure it was ok. She got the clear from whomever she spoke with and told me I could expect a tech to come out after 1:00. One hour after it took me 3 &1/2 hours to set up the appt, A&E called to cancel the appt. They then told me I could not have service until THE FOLLOWING WEEK That was absolutely ridiculous. The A&E rep tried to tell me again to call Maytag back and they would re-set me up for later that day. I asked why I had been cancelled in the first place and that the appt. was originally set up because of the problems we had been experiencing. She had no answers. I then called Maytag while my husband called A&E. My husband was told that the reason we were scheduled out so far was because they only had one Maytag tech that could make the repair and he was not available until then. Which by the way is absolutely ridiculous seeing as they are the main referral from Maytag. How can you possibly give good service to customers if the all have to wait for one certified tech. Maytag however set us up with another company to finish the repair- Custom Air Systems, that is after I said I was going to contact my local news channels and newspapers. Maytag originally set up the service call with them for the next day but after I got off the phone with them Debbie from Custom Air Systems called to let me know they were going to send some one out before the end of their business day. Finally someone who saw the need for us to have the repair completed!
After all the horrible service we received we will never by another Maytag appliance. A&E has by far some of the rudest and disrespectful people working for them. As far as I am concerned A&E is a direct reflection of Maytag. I can’t see how it is appropriate to leave people with out a refrigerator for a week or longer. If it would not have been for Custom Air Systems we would have been out of a fridge for almost 1 &1/2 weeks, if not 2 weeks.
You guys need to not whine like little ### when things get difficult. William is an example of the worst kind of customer; An impatient one. Oh my, 10 days! Get a life, William. Don't you have more important things to do to feed your 10 person family than to call back multiple times just to have the poor people who have to answer your call feel all warm and fuzzy about themselves?
Some people just don't realize that to stay competitive in the the market place A&E probably acquires the parts they need through an obscure provider. All of the effort that William put into conferencing calls between A&E and Whirlpool wasn't helping at all. William should have just thought critically about that first before going through a lot of work that, no doubt, played a part in making him angry enough to post his whining to this blog.
To be fair though, A&E should probably have grown themselves some testicles, told William to go with another factory service company if he didn't like the time frames he was given, and saved themselves the trouble of dealing with a *&^%$ like William. After all, look how it turned out in the end for A&E in the end. They invested a lot of time communicating with William that could have been used to help their other clients that were actually willing to do business with them. The time that they wasted on William turned out to be in vain. Forgoing customer service and telling William to *(^& OFF in the beginning would have done a lot of good by cutting A&E's losses.
I called A & E to repair my 3 week old dishwasher. A serviceman came out in 2 weeks, he said my dishwasher needed a mother board. He would order it and he did, it arrived 1 week later. Ok this is where it gets good a & e gave me an appointment 2 weeks later. He calls at 8:30 am while I m in the shower. I called back at 9:05 they said it was to late I would have to wait 2 weeks for another appointment.