Called phone book ad for 4 reasons: same day service, 15% seniors discount, service call waived if repair work done, 7 day service. Within 1 minute of arriving, diagnosed evaporator needed replacing. Cost would be expensive Est @810+ HST, but he told me,once replaced would work for 10 years. New evap. would be installed in 3 days. Asked for $500 deposit for ordering evaporator. I asked him if I should shut down fridge and throw food out since it wasn't working. He said that the food was still OK since it hadn't reached room temerature. He said he could add freon to the line which would keep the fridge OK until Monday. I wasn't happy about the offer, but he said the leak was small and it should last until Monday when fridge would be repaired. He removed the bottom back panel of the fridge and pierced a copper tube and added freon. He was surprised that it took the whole bottle. I gave him the deposit and asked him to call me right back and let me know when on Monday to expect him. He phoned back and told me evaporator not available for 5-10 business days, however, he was willing(at my expense) to continue adding more freon to keep fridge cold until he could replace the leaking evaporator. I told him to cancel evaporator order, I didn't want him to proceed with any more work on my fridge. I wanted a 2nd opinion and would most likely buy a new fridge instead. He ran through my deposit for $500 with Visa. I had another company's technician come in and I told him that I was told the evaporator was leaking and had to be replaced. He told me that in his 35 yers experience, he had never replaced an evaporator in a fridge. He removed the bottom back panel showed me the rotted out copper suction tube bubbling and dripping freon from a leak in it.He replaced copper tube, did a 1 hour leak check and it cost me $339. Boy did I get stung by the Major Appliance Service guy. I called him 7 times, he hung up on me. I asked for a refund of my $500 and he said that my fridge wouldn't last 1 week, but if it was still working after a month, he would refund my $500. Yeah, sure! He would not give me his name or his company's address. When he estimated the cost of replacing the evaporator, I asked for the seniors discount and he said he couldn't since he was giving me the best price now.
I believe that his game was, to replace the expensive evaporator for the $1000+, then what do you know, another leak--the 2 ft copper suction tube needed replacing as well-- for more big $.
My strong recommendation is no matter what you need repairing, don't go to the phone book, but get on the internet at HomeStars and make your choice from there for a reputable serviceman.
I certainly would not let this man in my house again and would never recommend his service.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,000.00