Complaint Review: NEW Customer Service Companies Inc. - Sterling Virginia

On August 14, 2011, we began calling to try to get help with our dryer that was making a loud screeching/squeaking sound and leavng grease spots on clothing and not drying the clothing.  We called where we had called before and had been provided fast and efficient repairs under our extended warranty/service contract.  To our surprise, we discovered that our contract changed management.  It took several days of calling to find out we needed to call NEW Customer Service Companies, Inc. in Virginia.  They then had us call A&E Services in Colorado Springs, where we live, to make an appointment. 

We had never received any information that anything had changed regarding the extended warranty/service contract.  So we then called A&E (a Sears company) to schedule an appointment.  To our horror, A&E would not come out for two weeks!  We made that appointment but kept calling to try and get a better date.  We received lots of excuses (parts on back order, really busy, etc.).  However, the part was available on the internet from several sites (with the option of expedited delivery). 

After two weeks came and went, and we were told to reschedule because the parts were still not available, in complete and utter frustration, we ordered the parts ourselves with expedited delivery and paying out of pocket.  We called to tell them the parts were here, so we need a repair person out here ASAP as we were passing the three week mark and heading to a month without a dryer!  A woman whose name sounded like Linda or Yolanda or Yolinda, called us and started yelling at us on the phone saying that it had not taken as long as we were saying.  Each time we tried to speak, she would interrupt and not allow us to complete a single sentence first with myself and then with the other half after I handed the phone over to him in desperation. 

For the first time in twenty years of life together, I saw him lose his temper with a customer service person on the telephone.  The next day, he called A&E again and was told that we are already scheduled for the 14th and that would have to do (one full month after we began trying to get our service contract honored).  At this point it became crystal clear to us that these people had no intention of honoring our service contract.  Afterall, the big excuse was that parts were not here.  Now the parts were here and they were still not coming!  Yolinda or whatever her name was from NEW had the audacity to say that this was an ok service time frame -- one month without a dryer! 

I wonder if the wife of the chairman/president of NEW would consider this an acceptable time frame!  Of course, she would not and nor would any other person on the face of the earth!  We gave up and called A-OK Appliance Service, the company that was contracted to do repairs through our service contract before NEW took it over.  They were polite, reassuring and said that someone would be here tomorrow morning.  So our service contract through NEW was not worth the paper it is written on.  We will cancel it, and we will begin the process of trying to get reimbursed for the time left on the contract itself and for the repairs that we have had to pay out of pocket. 

In good faith as consumers, we entered into a contract and paid money for services that the contract holder than refused to provide in any sensible time frame and clearly showed they had no intention of providing after they sent out no repair person even after the parts had arrived!  I hope someone out there learns from our nightmare.  We would have been better off without any contract at all.  To have avoided the hours of time wasted begging for the services we had already paid for, the disruption to our lives of not having a dryer, and the humiliation of being treated like dirt by NEW, we would have gladly paid for a new dryer and donated the old one to Goodwill.  Folks, it's not the government bringing down the American economy.  It is companies like NEW and Sears.  (We also complained to Sears since A&E belongs to them.  Sears did nothing.) 

I also want to warn people in Colorado Springs that if they do NOT have a service warranty and need appliance repair, do NOT call A&E Services.  Instead, call A-OK, and you will actually get your appliance repaired and it will be repaired in a fast, accurrate and polite manner.  And for those of you who are considering the purchase of an extended warranty, service contract, no matter where you live, please check and make sure it isn't managed by NEW Customer Service Companies, Inc.  I you find out it is, don't walk away from the dea -- RUN!!!!