Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  09/04/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  ***** advertised his services on *********** He came on a different day (Aug 16nd 2022) than initially agreed but he called me to change the appointment.He looked at my electric range, said it needs a new board and he would send me the link which one to buy so he can come back and install it. ***** collected his fee of roughly $90 and said he will charge me $20/hr when he comes back.After not hearing from him for a while I've reminded him several times but he just ignored me or came up with an excuse. One time he promissed to call next day but never did.

  Customer response

  09/06/2022

  ***** is the person I was dealing with. I think Martin is his last name.  He is the sole owner/operator of the business per his own statement. I beleive that other reviewers on BBB site also mention him by name

  Business response

  10/06/2022

  My apologies for the late response. I'm emailing to address the concern relating to the above-captioned ** no.

  First and foremost. I must inform you that Martin Appliance is no longer in operation. The business is officially closed.

  Regarding the ** No. This particular customer was a return customer. One who was satisfied with the work done for him in the past. In this specific case while there at the customer's home. We looked up the part needed for the stove/Oven repair. The customer asked if maybe there was a less expensive option. He was informed that a search would be done through other parts suppliers websites and that if something cheaper was found. He would be contacted and sent a link to the website so that he could weigh his options for purchasing. However, after an extensive search. No cheaper options were discovered. The customer was informed. After not hearing back from the customer for over a week. It was felt as though other measures were taken to resolve the issue with the stove.

  As it relates to the service charge fee. This was discussed before. It is the standard service call fee. which covers going out to the customer. No other payment was collected from this customer. 

  I hope this helps to resolve this concern. Thank you

  Customer response

  10/06/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  Before ***** left my house on Aug 16th I showed him the part online and offered to order it right away. ***** said - no, he will look through his sources and get back to me. As you can see through the text message exchange screenshot - ***** is distorting the truth about notifying me about anything. In fact after the initial appointment on Aug 16th I've reminded him on the Aug18th (when he promised to send the link and never did),  Aug 20th (no response) , Aug 23rd (empty promise again), Aug 30 (no response), Sept 1st (excuse and promise to get back in the morning that never materialized). As you can see at no time he ever mentioned any part availability or unavailability, only promises to send the information that were never fulfilled. 

  The fee included repair, not just empty diagnostics ("you need to replace the whole board"). ***** promised to come back and finish the job. I should've held the payment until the repair is complete but unfortunately I trusted ***** too much.

  As of *****'s statement about satisfaction with his previous job, As I recalled similar thing happened - he never got back to me to finish the job but because the part was a simple switch I just installed it myself and never thought twice about it. Honestly I forgot about it after few years and just looked up appliance repair in my phone and called the number. I should've thought more about it but I didn't. 

  Also I believe that someone else complained on BBB's website about similar behavior which shows a pattern.

  
  Regards,
  
  *****************************

  Business response

  10/06/2022

  The screen shot provided by the customer does not tell the entire story. However, in the interest of a speedy resolution. This customer will be refunded 50% of the service call fee as we think it's more than fair considering the distance to the customer's house and the time spent there doing a detailed diagnosis of the issue with the appliance (stove). We will reach out to the customer to figure out what method of payment is preferred for the refund. 

  Customer response

  10/10/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  The screenshot demonstrate the story just fine. There was no phone calls in between as I recall. ***** can prove me wrong by providing the phone records. 

  The resolution offered by the business doesn't seem fair as I am no better off after his visit than I was before. In fact, It costs me more in wasted electricity while ***** was giving me the runaround. It seems like *****'s business model is charging for service calls and not fixing anything. Also the diagnostic ***** is referring to was partially done by me as ***** was concentrating on the door switch as a cause of the problem. If I didn't point out that even after the door switch has been bypassed the oven light is still on ***** wouldn't even look at the circuit board. We don't even know if the circuit board is the culprit either, as ***** has never came back to replace it. I think the full refund is in order as I'll have to pay for the service call to someone else to come out again and do the job right including the new diagnostic.
  
  Regards,
  
  *****************************

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩