Complaint Review: Dave's Appliance

We called Dave's when our 8 year old Bosch washing machine stopped spinning.  Two very brusque technicians came, and after 35 minutes they presented me with a $700 bill for replacing the speed control board. I was sitting 10 feet from the technicians the entire time, and at no point did they mention the cost or extent of the repair. I had no problem with the charge, however, in all honesty there was something about the encounter that I did not trust. I told them I did not want to spend that amount on an 8 year old appliance. They very unhappily removed the new part, and I paid the $100 service charge.

After doing some research we decided to keep the washer and get another company to do the repair. The new technician (from Reed's Appliance in Abington) noted that Dave's took our old speed control board with them. Dave's also removed additional unrelated parts (a pressure switch and a pressure bracket/sensor) and cut a pressure hose in half. Reed's technician could think of no reason why these parts had been cut or removed. Interestingly, Dave's $700 invoice did not list these as parts that needed to be replaced. We called Dave's and were told our parts were in the technician's truck and would be returned to us. Later that day (surprise!) we received a call stating the parts had been thrown out. The person answering the phones was quite rude....we never actually got to speak with Dave, despite multiple calls...and said the technician needed to remove those parts to get to the control board. Apparently this is a service technique unknown to other technicians. After several calls Dave's told us they would not reimburse us for the parts but would send a new pressure switch, hose and bracket. Since we didn't need the parts...we already paid Reed's to replace them...it's off to small claims court for us.

My take on this? Dave's technicians were annoyed that I had them undo their repair, and cut the hose and removed the additional parts in retribution. Find someplace where the owner cares enough about his name to ensure his technicians are honest and customers are treated fairly.