Appliance Repair Gone Wrong

Talk about a cluster.  A customer called 2 months ago needing a washing machine repaired.  I will be kind and not mention the brand here, but it was made by a nationally recognized company that is sold by one national retailer.  The model in question has a long history of consumer complaints when you peruse the forums that hold such information.

Our repair person went and looked at the appliance, it was readily apparent that the transmission of the washer was shot.  It wouldn’t turn in any direction.  Due to the expense associated with repairing this particular problem, the repair person recommended that the washer be replaced.  The customer did not want to replace the washer, they wanted this one repaired.

Now the epic fail portion of the story.  After replacing the washer transmission to the tune of $570, the customer called 2 weeks later complaining that the washer was not working again.  The repair person went to the house and replaced the belt, for free I might add.

What do you know, 2 weeks after this the customer calls again.  Same problem, the belt is smoking.  Let us think about why a belt would burn up.  Over loading the washer.  As this particular washer is also a very small capacity washer, you can not wash much at all in the washer.  Our repair person explained this to the customer, replaced the belt for free again, and made sure that the washer was functioning properly.

The belt burns out again, we replace the thing again and now we have to tell the customer that we can NOT keep replacing belts on this washer for free.  What do you know, the next day the customer is calling saying that the belt burned up.  This is obviously getting to be rather ridiculous.  All of the parts associated with the belt and transmission have been replaced and adjusted.  We direct the customer to a website that tells the stories of woo from other people who purchased this washer.  Nothing good to report, other than the washer fits in tiny spaces.

So the guy decides to come down to our store and tell us that we need to eat the entire cost of the repairs that he paid for, most of which was parts that can’t go back to the supplier, because they were installed.  This guy is a loon.  He was also being quite the asshole while in the store.  He even gave us a speech about how he had to do this when he worked.  The guy already received about $700 in free labor and $200 in free parts.  We are NOT going to eat the cost of the repair that he insisted on, even after the repair person told him to replace the washer.  He is one of those cases where a customer needs to be told to “eat shit”.

Damaged Movies

Our video rental business is very anal about the condition of our movies. We have a $2500 disc repair / cleaner from VenMill. We inspect every movie that comes into the store for any problems and then clean or repair them. If they are not repairable we mark it as damaged and throw it away. We really like to try and keep our customers happy. The less they complain the better it is for us. Now, a woman brings in one of our movies. She makes the 6 year old kid explain that the movie wouldn’t work. Ok, it happens from time to time. So we offer a credit, she then tells us that she thinks they may be late. Sure enough the movies are late, so we take off the late fee. We then look at the movie, Holy Shit. No wonder it won’t work, the dvd is scratched to hell. One of my employees looks at me and says there is no f-ing way that movie went out in that condition. Great! Maybe we shouldn’t be so nice. To top it all off, the scratches are so deep that it will not buff out. Into the trash it goes. It was a new movie that had been rented 2 times. Now we will be stuck owing the movie distributor money on it because it didn’t rent enough times.