We spent $16,000 on appliances at Tasco's Dundas St. and Winston Churchill showroom for our new home. Our $1300 Avantgarde wine fridge is a lemon, dead on arrival. After two months of asking for a credit or replacement, we've instead had two service calls and two part replacements and nothing has changed: the fridge heats the side set to the low temperature, chills the side set to high. Oh and if you fancy a high pitched alarm that can only be turned off by unplugging, then this is the unit for you!
How naive were we to expect this could be simply and efficiently sorted by contacting Tasco? Our Tasco salesman took a week to reply and then - and repeated since - only to say it's on the manufacturer, not Tasco and we have to deal with them.
Seriously?
Zero standing behind the products you sell?
FYI Tasco, other retailers have Customer Satisfaction guarantees under which they'll take the product back if the customer is not happy even if there's nothing technically wrong with it.
The purchaser of a broken brand new product should be made whole by the seller.
But because we were getting nowhere with them, we did contact Avantgarde directly. They said they'd arrange a service call. Five weeks later ... crickets. It took several more emails to Tasco and another direct call to Avantgarde to get someone out.
The two service calls were by a third party service company. The second service call technician seemed unfamiliar with the product and spend most of his time calling in for assistance. Both times, a part was replaced. Nothing has been fixed.
Interestingly, the only promising and prompt reply from Tasco to date was when I called them out publicly on Twitter.
I guess they just wanted me to stop talking about them because their looking into it has amounted to ... zero response or followup.
FYI if you're shopping for appliances: Goemans is also owned by them so consider whether you want to risk giving them your business as well.
UPDATE: Situation resolved. Lemon collected and replacement delivered this a.m. Right fix but wrong process - 2 months of frustration and buck-passing ended only after I took my complaint public online. It makes me uneasy to think people who know how to leverage social media to publicly call out a company get results. What about everyone else?
Review your after-purchase customer service practices, Tasco.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,300.00
- Company Response
Hello Claire. We understand that our customer service manager has been working with your husband on a return authorization for your wine fridge. We’re happy to report that we were able to get a return authorization approved from the manufacturer and will be replacing your unit. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to help. Thanks.