Toronto Appliance Service Ltd.

BOTTOM LINE: Technical repair seems fine, but customer service was the worst I have experienced.

TAS was scheduled to repair my washer on Oct 18 after I placed a call to Whirlpool customer service. During my short call with Whirlpool, it was identified that though the machine was outside of the warranty period, it was likely that my problem was one that was typical of this model and that Whirlpool would cover the cost of the parts. Whirlpool asked to have the technician call them while at my home for the diagnosis visit. Though I could clearly see this request to call Whirlpool on the work order, the technician, Bogdan M, refused to do so. It seemed he was trying to leave as quickly as possible, despite being at my home for less than 10 minutes. I managed to get Whirlpool customer service on the phone before he left so he could communicate the diagnosis to them. Had he waited 30 seconds longer before leaving (while I was on the phone with customer service), he would have discovered that Whirlpool agreed to send me the parts for free. I had tried to explain the likelihood of this to the technician when he arrived, though he simply kept repeating to me that the parts are very expensive.

On Oct 23, I received a quote from Ann at TAS that I could pay $1500 to have my washer fixed. I replied with the information above, and that I wasn't satisfied with the service thus far. I received the parts from Whirlpool later that day, then emailed Ann to let her know I wanted to book the service call. Though she already had my written agreement to pay for two hours labour, she claimed that she could not book the service until she got an authorization number from Whirlpool. I later received an email from her, addressed to Whirlpool, requesting an authorization number. I immediately contacted her to suggest she confirm that she had in fact contacted Whirlpool, since I had just received her email. She assured me she had done so. I was not convinced, so I contacted Whirlpool myself, confirmed that no such authorization was required, and subsequently booked the service appointment for Oct 30.

On Oct 29, I received an email from Ann that she could not honour the appointment booked through Whirlpool for the following day, as she still had not received the authorization number. I replied by email stressing that this was not necessary and that I wanted the appointment confirmed. I tried to reach her by phone, but gave up after being on hold for 15 minutes. I called Whirlpool to complain, reaching an agent very quickly, and asked her to straighten out the issue. She put me on hold and tried to reach Ann by phone. After 15 minutes of waiting, I hung up, but later received a voicemail from the Whirlpool agent that the issue had been resolved. Subsequently, Ann emailed to acknowledge the authorization issue had been resolved, but that no appointments were available on Oct 30, as they book days in advance. In fact, I had booked my appointment 6 days in advance.

Eventually, my washer was repaired and the technical issue seems to be resolved. Once the appointments had been confirmed, the technician was punctual, though not friendly. I was forthcoming with Ann regarding my dissatisfaction, and I do not feel that this was ever adequately addressed. " I am very sorry for the inconvenience but I have to go by what my Manager tells me." Considering my customer service experience, I will not do business with TAS in the future.