ComplaintsforUniversal Appliance Repairs, LLP

• Initial Complaint

  05/16/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Date of transaction :- We use ****** **** ******** and this company has been used as technician to solve our issue. Our claim with ****** **** ******** - Claim: #********* Our claim with Choice Home warraty - To fix the dryer Nature of the dispute - To fix the dryer, technician swapped the position of washer and dryer. After swapping the washer and dryer, he didn't fix them properly. So on a next day when we kept the cloths for wash, a leak caused our wall and floor from adjacent room damaged by leadking water. Technician claim that he did check if washer is working but he had checked and immediately shut it down. He didnt run complete cycle either. 1) We told him about this incident and he asked us to get a plumber to show him the issue. 2) He said let the plumber check it and if plumber tellls that it's not issue with pipes, then he will take the responsibility 3) I asked him if he can provide me details on his company. He said that he doesn't know which direction I'm heading and said that 'now he doesn't take any responsibilty' and 'do whatever you want to do' 4) Our Complaint :- Water never leaked from washer area since we are staying in this home. Why it started leaking after the Technician swapped the washer and dryer ? Since it damanged our wall and adjacent room, we need it to be fixed from technician reponsible for it.

  Business response

  05/16/2022

  I was at the customer's place at 9.22 am today. Spent nearly 1hr 30 mins. Ran three cycles on washer and not a drop of water leaked. Removed the rear plate on the washer and found  the baseplate dry. Looked for water leak elsewhere . Noticed  the water valves (both hot and cold)in the wall (for washer) were leaking.

  Pulled out several pieces of clothes from inside the washer and gave them to the lady of the house. All were absolutely dry.

  All above information was shared and the lady witnessed the washer being run for three cycles. 

  Coming now to the Dryer. I pulled out then vent from the wall and asked the lady to feel the flow of hot air. Then took her outside where the vent delivers the hot air. Told her to feel the flow of air. She immediately knew that the flow had decreased. My point is, if the vent is blocked, hot air does not go out as freely as needed to dry clothes in one cycle. Asked her to contact vent cleaning agencies and get them to clean the vent. 

  I do not want to go into what the lady was trying to tell me implicitly about our company as I would still like to maintain the relation.

  My advice to the customer is:

  Get a Plumber to check where the leak occurred and fix it. 

  Get the vent cleaned by a reputed agency and not to let them get away with the service call fee by simply telling her "the vent is clean as per my professional opinion"

  Since the husband called me much later, I suggest he should keep talking to his wife. I find a disconnect here as the guy does not seem to know I visited his home today. This was when an appointment was set with HIM between 9.00-11.00 am today. He was conveniently missing from home at that time

  Customer response

  05/19/2022

  Sequence of events :- 

  i) Technician came to our place - 05/11 and swapped the washer and dryer

  ii) Water leakage happened after we ran our first washer -05/14. Damage happened from this run.  It even came in basement and adjacent room too.

  iii) We cleaned/wiped whatever we can on 05/14 and 05/15 

  iii) Informed to technical about it on 05/15 and he asked us to switch off all water valves.

  iv) Technician came on 05/16 and all description about the checks that he did like running 3 cycles is on 05/16.

  ==================================Details description =====================================

  The technician ran the washer cycle 3 time in his second visit.
  
  First thing, when I reported the water leak issue on Sunday 05/15, he told us to shut off the valves. When I did that I also pushed the drain pipe in. 
  
  So when he came on Monday morning 05/16 he came up with many theories for possible water leak. Following are his comments he gave it to my wife  :- 
  
  1.Probably you had so much soap in the water that caused foam to rise in drain and drain water to flow upward.
  
  2. Then he showed there was no water outside the washer or around it. This is because water around the washer and in the mudroom was wiped on Saturday night 05/14 when we witnessed it after running washer the first time. Technician had swapped the washer and dryer on Wednesday 05/11. The leak is after effect of his faulty work or negligence shown on 05/11.
  
  3. Then the technician ook the attention to the wall under the valves which was swollen and showed us evidence of where the water was coming from.
  
  4. Then he said the valves are leaking or the plumbing inside the wall needs inspected.

   Fact is that water was never leaked in a mud room before the technician has moved the washer and dryer in his first visit on 05/11. 

  The water did flow down in the basement and in the den under the carpet which is adjacent to the mudroom. We need to get a professional to look at it thoroughly to access the damage. The technician should accept the financial responsibility for the blunder he caused.
  

• Initial Complaint

  10/26/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  9/24/21 Columbia gas company notified me there was a leak in my furnace. They said it was in the "controls" within the control panel. My warranty company found this contractor. He spent 5 min examining the issue and said he would need to order a piece and that the repair would cost 400-500$. He did not offer and invoice or receipt. He asked for the $150 deductible for the warranty company. I have since come to find out that they do not ask you to pay the deductible. Only the service fee or diagnostic fee. I unfortunately did not know this and paid him. I am sure he knew this because there are several other reviews where he did the same thing. After weeks of trying to contact him and figure out where we were with the process he finally scheduled a time for the repair which he missed his stated window by almost 4 hours. He then spent 5 minutes in the basement again and said it was fixed. He said he had twisted a pipe and there was no more leak. i did not have the expertise to check him on this. He DID NOT fix the piece he had initially diagnosed and apparently ordered special for the job. He simply tightened the pipe and left. I called Columbia Gas out again the day after on 10/25 and the employee said the problem is not fixed and that the piece still needs to be replaced. I found another company to do the repair because *** clearly had no idea what he was doing and was out of his depth with a furnace repair. I first told him that the gas company said the issue was not fixed and he did not reply or try to set up another time to come out to properly fix the issue. I asked him for my money back because he hadnt done anything or fixed the problem he himself supposedly diagnosed. He refused and said I was trying to manipulate him. The new furnace company diagnosed the problem immediatley and it is a nearly 500$ repair. I am convinced *** had never worked on issues like this before and was trying to "fake it til you make it". He should not be able to keep robbing people

  Business response

  10/27/2021

  Long and short of it is that I diagnosed the problem and fixed it. I did collect the deductible and that is as per the warranty company's directive. All warranty companies work on the principle that if the tech absconds with the deductible, warranty company will deduct the amount from his invoices. They would then send another tech and the customer does not have to pay the deductible to this new guy. The difference here is that I fixed the problem. So the warranty company will not do it. The customer did not allow me to go back again or wait for another tech to be deputed by warranty company. So, me or the warranty company had no way to help him out. What I did at the work site: After completing the job I carried out soap solution test and also used an electronic gas detector and checked the entire gas line ( a favor to the customer), which was witnessed by the customer. After completing the job I asked the customer to get it checked again by the gas supply company. FOUR DAYS LATER I CALLED THE CUSTOMER TO CHECK WHAT THE GAS AGENCY FOUND. HE HAD NOT CONTACTED THE GAS SUPPLY COMPANY TILL THEN. THE NEXT THING I HEAR FROM HIM IS ASKING FOR A REFUND. He was getting abusive on phone as he has shown to be in this complaint filed by him. I told him to talk to the warranty company and I blocked his phone. In my opinion, he treated it as an opportunity to get his deductible back. He became abusive because he did not want me to go back and check for a new tag put up by the gas supply agency. I am sure no gas company was called by him. As far as getting late to fix the problem, I as a technician, do not have control over the parts availability. In this case the part was on backorder and took its time. Once I got it, I asked the customer for appointment and he told me that he was not available on that date. Then I texted him again for the next appointment date ( according to the work load which is heavy these days), but this time I got stuck at another customer's place as the job took much longer than expected. I told him that I cannot come that day.I explained to him how I was stuck at some other customer's place. He had no reply when I asked him that if I got stuck in the job at his place and I had to cancel the next customer's job, what is the next customer going to do apart from wait. Now he says I blamed it on another customer. and I had to literally beg him to give me the next day's appointment. I was there in time but the customer was late by 30 mins (his way of getting back at me). This guy has not cared to go through the earlier reviews on this site. Had he done that, he would have known how some customers behave and who was to blame. When we signed up with BBB we had a rating of A(-). Now it is A(+) despite all negative reviews. Fact is, if a customer is satisfied, he has no motive to spend time giving a good review. It is only when the customer is not satisfied or wants something for nothing that he gives a bad review. In a nutshell, the guy is abusive, a manipulator, liar (as demonstrated above). I strongly advise any tech who goes through this review to call me and I will give this customer's address so that he knows who to avoid. My advice to this customer is eat some sugar when angry. Might help him in not being abusive. Also, not to mess around with techs and instead do all he can to help the tech complete his job. Most warranty companies have only one tech. So messing with the tech is not a good idea. His warranty company maybe one of those. 
  Submitted: 10/26/2021

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