Complaint Review: COMMUNITY APPLIANCE - MIDDLETOWN New Jersey

Hello again... Roy, you said: "JR, with regard to not being mind readers, I still take exception to your point. When I purchase a refrigerator/freezer I expect it will refrigerate and freeze food. Just the same way as I would expect a dish washer to clean dishes, an air conditioner to cool a room and a washing machine to clean clothes. I am not a mind reader either nor did I have reason to doubt your sales staff when they called it a refrigerator/freezer." You are making accusatory accusations AGAIN Roy. Hello-your ref/freezer was NOT defective. It DOES ref and freeze, doesn't it? You are currently using it, aren't you? Just like with a dishwasher (one word), an air conditioner, and a washing machine-when INSTALLED properly, they will function correctly. You are again, trying to project blame off of yourself and onto Community Appliance. Your comment regarding "doubting the sales staff" is completely imbecile and ridiculous. As both JR and myself already mentioned, it is NOT the job of a sales rep to inform a customer of every single possible LIKELY situation. It is YOUR job as a consumer to be informed when purchasing an appliance and to take responsibility when YOU make ASSUMPTIONS, make no inquiries AT ALL to either confirm or dispell those assumptions, and the assumptions turn our to be wrong in the end. You are the only person to blame here Roy and you need to grow up and take responsibility for your mistake. You then said: "If the customer does not state that the unit is going into the garage we have no reason to inform them of the possible problem. I take exception to this point as well. If at any point, an appliance will not perform its appointed function, the OBGLIATION rests with the manufacturer to inform the consumer. The simple fact remains, consumers do put these units in their garages and other areas whereas the outside temperature gets lower then the freezer temperature." Actually, that is NOT a simple fact Roy. Placing a freezer in a garage or basement is not uncommon, however there are freezer units designed for this purpose. I have two freezer units on my own back porch, which is not insulltated and not heated, and I haven't had a problem with either one of them in over 6 years. The percentage of people who place refrigerators in a garage or basement is significantly LOW. Refrigerators are NOT designed for these applications. But again, you ASSUMED that it would be fine based on who knows what information, and your assumptions were WRONG. Do not assume Roy because it is a very dangerous risk, as you discovered the hard way. Next time, do your homework and don't assume you know everything. You continued: "Does the obligation rest with the consumer to tell your sales staff where they will place the unit? Does the obligation rest with the consumer to ask under what conditions will my refrigerator/freezer not refrigerate or freeze. Do you really believe either of these statements?" YES Roy, I absolutely DO. How difficult is it really, for you to admit that you made a mistake? Are you upset because the incredibly SIMPLE act of actually asking the question you quoted above could have saved you so much inconvenience? I guess next time you WILL ask, won't you? You've learned a lesson I hope. You concluded: "ELECTROLUX should have, among the other RED labels affixed to the door of the unit, included another one indicating when the unit would FAIL TO OPERATE. Given they informed the consumer, this situation would have been avoided!" This brings me back to my main point, which you completely ignored. Listen to me Roy... Do you understand, Community Appliance is NOT Electrolux and they did NOT build your appliance? Can you grasp that fact? It is absolutely childish and completely irresponsible of you to come onto a respected site like this, which is visited by thousands each day, and make false accusations and willfully defame a reputable company like Community Appliance by creating a topic with their name in the title, and then complain about the MANUFACTURER, Electrolux. Community Appliance and Electrolux are not and never have been the same entity and your thread is misleading, insulting, and the fact that you created it is shameful. Community Appliance has NOTHING whatsoever to do with what labels do or don't appear on your appliance or what it does or doesn't say in your installation manual, which I am certain outlines precautions to avoid situations exactly like this. You should be ashamed of yourself. Your thread mentions nothing about Electrolux and projects all blame onto Community Appliance when they are NOT at fault in any way whatsoever in this situation. When people come onto this site they will see a report against Community Appliance, not Electrolux. Do you not understand why your argument is so inappropriate? You force JR to come onto this site to defend himself and his company against your ATTACKS and irresponsible accusations, and he STILL treats you with respect that in my opinion you do NOT deserve. If this were something that happened often enough than Electrolux WOULD take proper precautions, including I would imagine, a new label on refrigeration units. The simple fact is this does NOT happen often enough to warrant such action. These cases are isolated and the result of customer error, meaning YOU Roy, and people like you making assumptions, thinking they know everything, and like just about every other person who makes this mistake, you got upset, rushed to judgment and stirred up trouble because you were angry at the situation YOU caused and you refused, and even after repeated explanations CONTINUE, to refuse responsibility. That is childish behavior Roy. You need to grow up. I personally respect JR a great deal for his attitude. If you were my customer in this situation, I honestly would have told you to go to hell.

I want to say Thank You to the folks at Community Appliance for the way they handled this situation. They did move the frig and reimburse us for the food. This is nothing less then great customer relations. JR, with regard to not being mind readers, I still take exception to your point. When I purchase a refrigerator/freezer I expect it will refrigerate and freeze food. Just the same way as I would expect a dish washer to clean dishes, an air conditioner to cool a room and a washing machine to clean clothes. I am not a mind reader either nor did I have reason to doubt your sales staff when they called it a refrigerator/freezer. If the customer does not state that the unit is going into the garage we have no reason to inform them of the possible problem. I take exception to this point as well. If at any point, an appliance will not perform its appointed function, the OBGLIATION rests with the manufacturer to inform the consumer. The simple fact remains, consumers do put these units in their garages and other areas whereas the outside temperature gets lower then the freezer temperature. Does the obligation rest with the consumer to tell your sales staff where they will place the unit? Does the obligation rest with the consumer to ask under what conditions will my refrigerator/freezer not refrigerate or freeze. Do you really believe either of these statements? ELECTROLUX should have, among the other RED labels affixed to the door of the unit, included another one indicating when the unit would FAIL TO OPERATE. Given they informed the consumer, this situation would have been avoided! JR, you thanked Steve for his support, given his soft approach, would you ever give him a job?

Please be made aware that we at Community take our customer relations seriously. The complaintant in this instance not only had their unit moved at no charge but was also reimbursed for the their food spoilage. But in our defense we are not mind readers. If the customer does not state that the unit is going into the garage we have no reason to inform them of the possible problem. Also, our delivery staff are just that delivery staff. They are not sales or office staff informed about the individual aspects of each appliance they are delivering. Steve although you are not a current or ex-employee of ours thanks for your support.

Please be made aware that we at Community take our customer relations seriously. The complaintant in this instance not only had their unit moved at no charge but was also reimbursed for the their food spoilage. But in our defense we are not mind readers. If the customer does not state that the unit is going into the garage we have no reason to inform them of the possible problem. Also, our delivery staff are just that delivery staff. They are not sales or office staff informed about the individual aspects of each appliance they are delivering. Steve although you are not a current or ex-employee of ours thanks for your support.

Please be made aware that we at Community take our customer relations seriously. The complaintant in this instance not only had their unit moved at no charge but was also reimbursed for the their food spoilage. But in our defense we are not mind readers. If the customer does not state that the unit is going into the garage we have no reason to inform them of the possible problem. Also, our delivery staff are just that delivery staff. They are not sales or office staff informed about the individual aspects of each appliance they are delivering. Steve although you are not a current or ex-employee of ours thanks for your support.

Please be made aware that we at Community take our customer relations seriously. The complaintant in this instance not only had their unit moved at no charge but was also reimbursed for the their food spoilage. But in our defense we are not mind readers. If the customer does not state that the unit is going into the garage we have no reason to inform them of the possible problem. Also, our delivery staff are just that delivery staff. They are not sales or office staff informed about the individual aspects of each appliance they are delivering. Steve although you are not a current or ex-employee of ours thanks for your support.

actually, albany does get pretty cold, and no, this has not happened once. i do not sell appliances, i deal in appliance parts and service, as i stated in my previous post. however, i have serviced appliances that customers thought were defective, when it was simply this problem. i am not a delivery man, i am a certified master technician and furthermore, for your information i have been in business for over 20 years, and currently have three locations in three cities. i know a great deal about customer service (i deal with about 15,000 customers a year), and i highly doubt that if i did not, i would be in business today. first of all, blame absolutely DOES enter into it, because your first post quite explicitly projects blame onto the seller. you are blaming them for what happened with your appliance, and slandering them for that reason. you stated it quite nicely in your response when you said the manufacterers could easily affix a label with the information in question. it seems to me, YOUR anger should be directed towards the manufacterer who produced your appliance. i am sure you are quite aware that the seller of your appliance is NOT the manufacterer, but a distributor or dealer who simply acts as a middleman. it is not his fault there is no such label on the appliance, and it is not his responsibility to inform you of the information which, as you negelected to answer my question (assuring me that in fact it is the case), you did NOT inquire about at the time of purchase. secondly, food claims have NOTHING to do with the seller of the appliance. that is a matter to be taken up with the manufacterer (which obviously you have done). i do a great deal of business with electrolux. we are a parts distributor for their products and we handle all of their warranty service in our service area (appx. 100 square miles). i deal with them on a daily basis. their procedure is to process claims as soon as possible, which means whether your claim is legitimate or not, it is your word against the seller/servicer. if there is not sufficient proof that you are at fault (which is most often the case with food claims) then they will process a payment in your favor. i assure you, their attitudes are quite different with us then with a customer with a complaint. however, they sell enough merchandise to accomodate these types of claims. if your claims are satisfied (especially when you think you are totally right), then that assures them that you will probably buy their products in the future. furthermore, i am certain you were as vague and accusatory when you contacted them as you were in your initial post, which is a further reason they would process your claim. perhaps i'm saying too much, exposing the man behind the curtain, but surely you are not so blind that you can't understand that a manufacterer wants repeat business (especially when their return on new units and parts is so high), and so they will accomodate customers REGARDLESS of whether they are right or NOT. it's called RUNNING A BUSINESS. i have read the letters before, and i assure you that what you think is a manufacterer taking your side, is WRONG. when they say it is the "obligation" of the seller to inform the consumer of the information in question, they assume that it was inquired about and that the seller neglected to inform you nevertheless. which is obviously NOT the case. if you do NOT ask, then the seller is not obligated to inform you of anything. do you realize how many things can go wrong with a freezer as a result of something YOU the consumer do incorrectly? dozens! i know because i repair them on a daily basis. so your logic is that the seller is therefore responsible for informing you of ALL of those possible situations? are you serious? that is ABSURD and it is ridiculous for you to expect that of a seller. the same is true of ALL appliances. fridges, washers, dryers, dishwashers, even blenders for crying out loud. there are dozens of things that can go wrong because of simple human error, and it is INSANE for you to expect a seller to categorically list and describe all of these "possible" situations as one of these products is purchased. that is NOT their job. you see, that is what the MANUAL is for. perhaps you could have read the manual through before the food perished? but no, most people don't even glance at the manuals, which contain very specific operation and installation instructions. again, this is YOUR fault, not the seller's. and if your manual doesn't describe this situation, then that is the MANUFACTERER'S fault, and NOT the seller. you have NO legitimate claim against this seller whatsoever. by repeatedly ASSUMING information, without taking the time to properly inquire about and gather said information, you have placed the blame for this incident soley on YOURSELF. if anything, your only legitimate claim is with the manufacterer, in the case that the manual does not provide the information in question. either way, your post is misleading, accusatory, and defamatory to the seller. they have done nothing wrong, and bear no fault in this situation. you should be ashamed of yourself.

Hello Stephen, Albany NY gets pretty cold, this happened to you too, didn't it? Did you rip your customer the way you did me? I suspect not, but you wanted to. Did you used to be a delivery man in the past, I suspect so. Customer service is about supporting the customer after the sale, not brow beating and degrading the paying customer. Your attitude promises that you will never see a customer a second time. Blame does not enter into it, it's about customer satisfaction. So, do you inform your customers of this situation or perhaps you have them "READ YOR MIND". Your anger should be directed towards the manufacturers that could have, among the other red labels attached to the frig, included one informing the consumer about this situation. Stephen, the way your proceeding only makes things worse, some customers will not inform the sales staff they intend to place the frig in the garage or other cold area. In this case food will perish and you will receive a complaint from the customer. Explaining to them that they are to blame will only further complicate the situation. It's about resolution not conflict, learn to deal with the public. The manufacturer Electrolux does not share your views, they have agreed to compensate us for the loss and state clearly the obligation to inform the consumer lies with the appliance dealer.

i work for an appliance parts and service center in NY. i have to say that your post was very accusatory and yet, you left out a lot of important information. first of all, at the time of the sale (when you say you were never told about the fact in question), did you actually ASK anyone?? did you tell them you intended to put the freezer in an outside garage and if that would be alright? because it certainly seems to me that if they were willing to admit the fact when you went back to complain, that they would have ABSOLUTELY stated it if you had taken the time to ASK at the time of sale. personally, i know i am not in the business of MIND READING and it is absolutely insane for you to expect the seller to be able to presume and answer questions you DON'T ASK. secondly, my company has delivery people, and so do most large retail distributors of appliance, furniture, almost anything! their job is to DELIVER the purchased item(s) and put them wherever YOU tell them. delivery men/women are not trained in the industry they deliver for, because that isn't their job. it is ridiculous for you to be upset with a delivery person because they don't understand how freezers work. THAT IS NOT THEIR JOB! delivery people are not extensively trained in their respective fields, ie. appliances in this case-if they were, they wouldn't have to be delivery men! they could be working as a custom service rep. IN the store instead of lugging heavy appliances around all day, OK? YOU are the consumer! YOU are the one who picked the item and decided where YOU wanted it placed. YOU should have done YOUR homework. instead, you ASSUMED the freezer would be fine outside, and instead of checking with ANYONE qualified, you went ahead and had it PUT there. that is YOUR fault and no one else's. and the $50 charge is totally justified. personally, i would have charged you MORE. the seller not only had to take time AWAY from other customers to listen to you no doubt chewing his ear out complaining (about something that is YOUR fault), but then he had to send his delivery men out to accomodate YOU, taking them away from delivering to other customers with more legitimate claims to their service, JUST to move a freezer AWAY from where YOU TOLD THEM TO PUT IT in the FIRST place. this is not an oversight on anyone's part but YOURS. i hope you learned a lesson. you shouldn't ASSUME about things you have no experience with, because it could be an expensive mistake. next time do your research or take the time to bother to ASK if you are unsure about something, instead of finding out the hard way and projecting the blame onto someone else. **forgive any spelling mistakes