ComplaintsforA & E Kitchen Service, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  10/04/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I hired A&E to repair my freezer as the only True Brand repair company around. They would not send a technician to me. With much effort, I transported the large commercial freezer to their facility. After running the freezer, they did not exactly say the issue with the freezer, but told me that a new compressor was needed to make it go below zero. Later, it would be determined that the outlet that I had been powering the freezer perfectly for a year, had lost its power due to rewiring in the whole house when installing a solar system. I have no way to determine/prove whether the freezer actually needed a new compressor, but at the time, I trusted their diagnosis and paid the $2,500 quote to have the compressor replaced. Only after I brought it home and it didn't work, did I question this. (I also took them a small residential freezer that only needed a freon charge and I asked the dispatcher/scheduler if I could bring that small unit to have it charged while I was making the trip to their shop. She gave explicit permission to do this. I was told that if there was anything wrong with it they would not work on it. I understood this, but was already assured by my local freezer service man that the freezer only needed a freon charge.) Upon returning to pick up, the residential freezer was never returned to me. I was told that they "don't work on residential freezers" and they didn't have it anymore. My son picked up the freezer, with no recourse to dispute this, was focused on safely getting the large unit home. The freezer with new compressor was plugged in - still did not come to temperature. Once again, they would not send a repair man to assist with trouble shooting. They merely said that I would have to bring the freezer back in again. There was no mention of charge, and all they did (after another transport in) was plug it in and say "it works, there's something wrong with your plug. Then sent me a $100 invoice to charge me for it.

  Business response

  10/05/2023

  We received a call from the customer on 1/9/23 that she had a True freezer not cooling and she said that the factory had told her the compressor was bad.  She asked that we change the compressor.   There are many companies in the immediate area that can work on True equipment, at least 5.  We informed her that our policy was that we do not work on commercial equipment at residential properties nor do we work on residential equipment, only commercial but if she wished to bring it to our shop we would be happy to help her.  She gave a credit card for payment and brought in the freezer on a trailer. We unloaded it from the trailer and plugged it in at our shop to diagnosis.  The freezer ran for a couple of hours and we confirmed the factories diagnosis that the compressor was bad and locked up.  The freezer would not cool below 50 degrees.  We called the customer and quoted her the price for the replacement of the compressor with materials and labor.  She approved the quote a few weeks later and we replaced the components on 2/17/23.  The freezer ran for a few days after that in our shop and cooled to 0 degrees immediately and stayed at that temp.  The customer picked her freezer up and took it away.  Approximately 2 weeks after she took the freezer home with her she called with a question about the freezer running but not cooling, I informed her again that we could not come to her home but she was welcome to bring it in.  She informed us at that time that she was running the freezer on solar and not a constant power source, we asked that she have her electrician call us so we could confirm with him that the power supply was wired appropriately on her end and told her that if it was not it could ruin the compressor again.  The electrician never called,  a week or so later she called and said her son was bringing it back to our shop, I informed her at that time that there was a charge for time if we found that there was nothing wrong with the freezer.  We unloaded it and again moved it into our shop and plugged it in.  I asked her son to stay for a bit while the freezer was starting up incase we had questions.  He agreed, the freezer pulled down to 0 degrees with in 15 mins.  We let it run to verify it would maintain that temperature, I asked the son to verify that the freezer was indeed at 0 degrees he agreed.  The customer called upset and wanted her son to leave, we informed her that it was working fine.  We loaded it back on the trailer for the son and I gave him the invoice for the time it took to unload it, confirm operation, and reloading it. I told him she could mail a check or call with a credit card.   He took the invoice and the freezer away.  That was the last we heard about it.  We never heard from the electrician or the customer again.  We keep all parts for a minmum of 90 days, we could have shown her at any time during that time period that the compressor was bad had she asked.   She did not.

  She did also bring a residential chest freezer that didn't work at all, we informed her that there was nothing we could do with that as we do not work on residential equipment and she instructed us to dispose of it then.  We did dispose of it for her for no charge and it was never mentioned again.  

  To this day we can only assume there is a problem with her power supply as her electrician never called us and after we confirmed there were no further problems with the freezer we did not hear anything more from her.  

  The customer was informed of all charges ahead of time and it was her choice to bring the eqiupment to us.  The website for the manufacture will show that there are several other companies she could have called to see if any other them would come to her home.  I assume that is where she found our infomation.   If the customer had a local freezer ********************** man that had already looked at the equipment I question why she reached out to us.  Any refrigeration technician with an EPA certification can work on any used equipment.  This freezer was an old Dollar General freezer, it was indeed very used.  The customer never mentioned any other repair person to us and only mentioned that she had initally called True when the freezer was not cooling properly in the first phone call.  

   

   

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